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UVSS HEMPOLOGY 101 CLUB LESSON #21 : MEDICAL CANNABIS IN CANADA - Part 1 |
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Many people in Canada used cannabis for medical problems before compassion clubs formed in Victoria, Vancouver and Toronto in 1996. In Dec 1997, Terry Parker, with his lawyer and Osgoode Hall Law Professor, Alan Young, was the first Canadian to convince a judge that the prohibition of cannabis in the CDSA violated his constitutional rights. When the federal government appealed the decision, the Court of Appeal of Ontario decided to give Health Canada 1 year to devise a plan for the mass distribution of cannabis for medical purposes. In July 2001, Health Canada introduced the Medical Marijuana Access Regulations with the stated intention of supplying people who had received their doctor’s support for using cannabis with high quality medicine after the proper research had been completed. After reviewing proposals, Health Canada contracted Prairie Plant Systems to a five year $5.6 million contract to produce cannabis for research in Dec 2000. The single strain grown in a mineshaft near Flin Flon, Manitoba contains about 12% THC. It is ground up and irradiated before being sent out in one ounce packages worth $150 each. A package of 30 seeds costs 30 dollars. The MMAR allows individuals to possess and grow cannabis, or find a designated caregiver to grow for them, if they had permission from one or more doctors, depending upon their medical problem. The MMAR originally divided applicants into three categories depending upon their medical issues, making the process so restrictive that several sections were struck down in Hitzig et al., 2003. Soon after the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club started operating with a pager and pamphlet in Jan 1996, the Vancouver Medical Marijuana Buyers Club opened, which was incorporated as the B.C. Compassion Club Society in May 1997. A group formed in the summer of 1996 in Toronto, but by 1997 they had split into two organizations, the Toronto Compassion Center and Cannabis As Living Medicine. The BCCCS was the first club to get national press, winning the hearts of many Canadians when David Suzuki featured them in a “Reefer Madness 2” in a segment of THE NATURE OF THINGS in 1998. After medical cannabis distribution networks sprung up across the country, police raided the Montreal Compassion Club in Feb 2000, the Vancouver Island Compassion Society in Nov 2000, the Sunshine Coast Compassion Society and the TCC in Aug 2002 and the Cannabis Buyers Clubs of Canada in Jan, March and June, 2002 and Feb 2003. This does not include several police actions taken on individuals like Grant Krieger or many people caught growing for medical purposes. All of the charges related to raids in the stores either received discharges, had the charges thrown out, or the courts forced Health Canada to change the MMAR because the rules are unconstitutional.
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No club has been busted since Health Canada began
selling their cannabis in Aug 2004. Some growers have been able to
receive lenient sentences after proving they only sold their herb to a
compassion club, i.e. R. vs Small, 2000. Several trials involving
large operations providing compassion clubs or networks of sick people are
currently before the courts. Their challenge will be to prove that
Health Canada’s cannabis is of such poor medical quality that no one
should be forced to consume it when there is much better medicine
available in compassion clubs. There are about 1 million Canadians
who qualify to use cannabis for medical purposes, though only 1492 have a
license to possess it. |
| International Hempology 101
Society www.hempology.ca |
Cannabis Buyers' Clubs of Canada www.cbc-canada.ca |
