Ottawa, Ontario: Health Canada has officially begun distributing government grown marijuana to qualified patients who have their doctor’s permission to use it. More than 580 Canadians are currently qualified to use and possess medical marijuana under federal law.
The agency is charging approximately $100 per ounce for the government-grown pot, which averages about 10 percent THC.
Health Canada signed a contract three years ago with a private firm in Manitoba to grow cannabis for medicinal and research purposes, but this week marked the first time the agency had ever made any of its supply publicly available. The agency’s decision came only after an Ontario judge in January ordered Health Canada to make pot medically available to authorized patients. The court determined that the agency’s existing medical marijuana regulations were unconstitutional because they failed to offer qualified patients access to a legal source of medicinal cannabis. Health Canada is appealing that decision and may stop selling medical marijuana if the ruling is overturned.
Under the existing plan, patients must pick up their marijuana at the office of their physician rather than at a pharmacy. Many doctors have objected to this aspect of the program, arguing that Health Canada is using doctors as “intermediaries” to deliver the drug. As a result, only a handful of the nearly 600 patients with federal approval to use medical marijuana have filed the necessary paperwork to buy Health Canada’s medical-grade pot.
For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre or Paul Armentano of the NORML Foundation at (202) 483-8751.