Medical Marijuana: the Future

Matthew Got
McMaster University

On December 16, 2012, the Canadian government rolled out yet another policy that was aimed at “improving public safety and maintaining patient access.” Similar catch phrases have been used time and time again, and if anything is to be learned, it is that the government is not telling the whole story. A quick read through Health Canada’s press release reveals that the Medical Marijuana Access Program (MMAP) will be no more— their justification is that the “current medical marijuana regulations have left the system open to abuse.”

Currently, the MMAP operates by either granting patients a license to grow marijuana in their homes, or by allowing them to purchase marijuana grown and distributed by the government for medical use. Patients who chose to purchase from Health Canada are charged $5 per gram, a price heavily subsidized by taxpayers. The size of the MMAP has grown from under 500 authorized patients at its inception in 2002, to over 26,000 patients today. With the proposed changes, the government will no longer grant permission to grow marijuana nor produce marijuana themselves. Instead, the market will be open to companies that meet strict security requirements.

Health Canada intends to treat marijuana like they treat other narcotics used for medical purposes. Under the new system, healthcare practitioners would sign a medical document allowing the patient to purchase an appropriate amount of marijuana from the new vendors. With this new system, Health Canada believes there will be greater quality control of the marijuana and that it will be harder to acquire excessive amounts. The changes have garnered applause from both the Association of Fire Chiefs and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police for addressing the unintended impact of the MMAP on public safety, specifically fire hazards and criminal activity. 

The inconvenient truth is that this policy is neither primarily about public safety nor maintaining patient access. Most strikingly, this policy screams of health cuts, as the government will no longer be subsidizing patients when they purchase their marijuana. As private entities will be given the rights to marijuana production and distribution, this industry will become increasingly dominated by big pharmaceuticals, driving up the marijuana prices and jeopardizing access for low-income patients.

Following the changes, MMAP patients who are now no longer permitted to grow their own marijuana or purchase at a discounted price are left with few options. Those who cannot afford to purchase at the prices set by industry will be left without treatment, forced to continue growing but now illegally or forced to purchase illicitly. If they choose to fix this problem, they will be forced to increase social payments to these patients, undermining their original motive for ending the MMAP.

If improving public safety were really a main focus of this latest policy, reforming the MMAP would have been an appropriate move. The current program has a major loophole that has been widely acknowledge but has not been corrected—the production licenses issued do not regulate the amount of electricity used by the patients to grow their marijuana. Since marijuana production is proportional to the total wattage used, simply regulating the wattage per license would limit the amount of marijuana produced by each patient. This would prevent abuse of the production licenses while addressing many safety issues.

The government has been presented with a great opportunity to improve the MMAP for patients. Instead, as the program has gotten bigger and with more patients relying on it, they intend to back out and surrender the program to the private sector. Understandably, there are people currently enrolled in the system that abuse it. However, the appropriate action would be to reform the system so that it is harder to manipulate as in addition to making it safer and more accessible for patients. 

References

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ahc-asc/media/nr-cp/_2012/2012-193-eng.php 

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/dhp-mps/marihuana/future-avenir/access-eng.php 

http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/health-canada-proposes-changes-to-medical-marijuana-system-1.1081641