SUBMISSION OF THE BEYOND PROHIBITION FOUNDATION IN RESPONSE TO PROPOSED IMPROVEMENTS TO HEALTH CANADA’S MARIHUANA MEDICAL ACCESS PROGRAM
INTRODUCTION
The Beyond Prohibition Foundation was established in 2010 to advocate for the repeal of cannabis prohibition and its replacement with a system of regulated production and distribution. It operates the website www.whyprohibition.ca, Canada's largest dedicated drug policy reform website and host to more than 30,000 members. The Foundation's mission includes advocacy on behalf of safe access to medicinal cannabis and cannabis byproducts for those obtaining therapeutic and medicinal benefit.
This submission responds to Health Canada's consultation document titled "Proposed Improvements to Health Canada's Marihuana Medical Access Program" (the "Consultation Document"). In the Consultation Document, Health Canada foreshadows significant changes to Canada's medical cannabis policies. The Foundation welcomes Health Canada's tacit acknowledgement that the current Marihuana Medical Access Regulation (MMAR) system is deeply flawed and in need of significant reform. That reform is necessary in two primary areas: (1) the need to improve access to the legal protections afforded by the legislative and regulatory scheme; and (2) the need to provide consumers with safe access to an effective supply of medicinal cannabis and cannabis byproducts. This submission lays out the Foundation's view of the proposed changes and offers suggestions for making necessary improvements to the federal program.
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I am deeply concerned about the response by Health Canada to the various court decisions declaring its existing medical marijuana program unconstitutional. The proposals that have been brought forward fail to deal with the myriad of problems in the program. Specifically, I take issue with the following proposals:
Physician as “Gatekeeper”:
R v Mernagh found that physicians in Canada have effectively boycotted the existing medical marijuana program, and therefore the program itself was unconstitutional. Health Canada's response does nothing to address this boycott beyond the promise of making information accessible to physicians. Any changes to the Health Canada medical marijuana program must abide by the findings in R v Mernagh and meaningfully expand the “Gatekeeper” role beyond physicians, preferably to include Naturopaths, Nurse Practitioners, Doctors of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Pharmacists.
Personal and Designated Production:
Individuals have spent thousands of dollars and often years of time setting up production facilities and finding appropriate marijuana cultivars (strains) for their condition. Court cases including Sfetkopolous, Beren and Hitzig have found that denying production licenses on arbitrary grounds violates a patient's constitutional rights to access medical marijuana. Read more »
May 5, 2012 is the Global Marijuana March, and of course there is always 4/20 (April 20) and Cannabis Day, July 1. We need organizers working across Canada on these and other events.
Send that link out over Facebook and Twitter, encourage your friends to sign up! WhyProhibition.ca will is the basis for a number of important campaigns, including a new BC referendum to legalize Marijuana. We need people to register so they can find out about upcoming protests, rallies, and laws.
We need bloggers, researchers, newshawks, and activists to get posting! You can use the userblogs section to post blogs, news, upload files (especially pamphlets, we're looking to host as many drug policy pamphlets as we can find!)
One of the most important things you can do is get involved in your local community. Join other activist groups, volunteer at soup kitchens, march in local parades. When we get involved, not only do we reach out to potential allies, but we also represent the best of our community to people who may be unfamiliar with it. If you're unsure about a group, attend some meetings and see if they're amenable to drug policy reform.
By now you've heard about the amazing victories in Washington and Colorado, two states which voted to legalize cannabis at the state level on November 6.
In Washington, possession of up to an ounce of cannabis will become legal on December 6 when the law comes into force. Prosecutors have already begun dropping hundreds of possession charges across the state.
Washington state officials now have one year to figure out how to set up a state-run network of cannabis shops that will sell the herb to adults.
The future appears hazy for British Columbia's thriving underground pot industry, even as two U.S. states have voted to allow citizens to legally use the drug recreationally.
Business consequences could range from mild to sending marijuana producers' livelihoods up in smoke, depending on how much of the estimated $6-billion-to-$8-billion annual economy is currently being exported south of the border, analysts say.
Opinion on the impact varies considerably, but those advocating for Canada to adopt a more evidence-based policy on marijuana say this week's votes mean Canada is falling behind the U.S. in developing evidence-based policy.
Now that voters in Colorado and Washington have approved legalized sales of marijuana in those two states, the federal government is expected to aggressively confront the new laws through lawsuits saying they are invalidated under US law.
A potential showdown between state and federal authorities will probably not target individual users of the drug, instead focusing on new regulations that will make marijuana sales permissible, a violation of federal law.
With Washington state set to decriminalize the possession of up to an ounce of marijuana on Dec. 6, Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire is eager to know how the federal government will respond.
On Tuesday, she received no guidance, only a promise from the Obama administration that it intends to study the issue.
After state voters approved Initiative 502 with 55 percent of the vote last week, Gregoire went to Washington, D.C., to meet with U.S. Deputy Attorney General James Cole to discuss the issue. Gregoire said she asked Cole whether the federal government planned to sue the state in an attempt to block the measure.
Gov. John Hickenlooper has made no secret about his opposition to marijuana legalization in Colorado. Before the election, Hickenlooper said many things about why the drug war on marijuana should continue as is, but the gist was this line: “Colorado is known for many great things –- marijuana should not be one of them."
Then, last Tuesday, the voters in Colorado spoke and passed Amendment 64, making marijuana legal for recreational use. To which many opponents spoke out including a half-serious Hickenlooper:
Voters in Washington and Colorado didn't just pass historic measures legalizing recreational marijuana use last week, they blew smoke in the face of Atty. Gen. Eric Holder and, by extension, President Obama. The bud stops at your desks, gentlemen.
Since the vote, legal experts and media analysts have focused speculation on how the feds will crack down on these two rogue states and show them who's boss. Will the Department of Justice file a lawsuit, seeking a ruling that federal law prevails and nullifying the results of the election? Or will the Drug Enforcement Agency start breaking down doors of pot shops in Denver and Seattle?
The politics of marijuana legalization have gone from the fringes to the mainstream, catching opponents off guard and even startling some proponents with their own success.
Voters in Colorado and Washington easily passed ballot initiatives — 55% to 45% in each state — to legalize the possession and sale of marijuana.
So how did this happen? A third legalization measure stumbled badly in Oregon despite the state's progressive leanings, with some supporters pointing to a disorganized and underfunded campaign.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper may be dismissive about the fact that the states of Washington and Colorado voted in favour of legalizing marijuana last week, but they have set the stage for a game changer, however complicated.
Ironically, last Tuesday’s vote on the day of the U.S. election fell on the same day that the Harper government’s Safe Streets and Communities Act with tougher drug possession laws came into effect.
Whether Harper likes it or not, individual states in the U.S. are inching forward while Canada’s drug laws are going backwards.
The market for cannabis in Britain should be regulated and taxed, and responsibility for drug policy moved from the Home Office to the health department, Sir Richard Branson has told MPs.
The Virgin Group head said the 20% of police time and £200m spent on giving criminal sentences to 70,000 young people for possession of illegal drugs in Britain each year would be better spent going after the criminal gangs at the centre of the drugs trade. "It's win-win all round,'' he told the Commons home affairs select committee.
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By now you've heard about the amazing victories in Washington and Colorado, two states which voted to legalize cannabis at the state level on November 6.
Now that voters in Colorado and Washington have approved legalized sales of marijuana in those two states, the federal government is expected to aggressively confront the new laws through lawsuits saying they are invalidated under US law.
With Washington state set to decriminalize the possession of up to an ounce of marijuana on Dec. 6, Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire is eager to know how the federal government will respond.
Gov. John Hickenlooper has made no secret about his opposition to marijuana legalization in Colorado. Before the election, Hickenlooper said many things about why the drug war on marijuana should continue as is, but the gist was this line: “Colorado is known for many great things –- marijuana should not be one of them."
Voters in Washington and Colorado didn't just pass historic measures legalizing recreational marijuana use last week, they blew smoke in the face of Atty. Gen. Eric Holder and, by extension, President Obama. The bud stops at your desks, gentlemen.
Weed is now a winner.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper may be dismissive about the fact that the states of Washington and Colorado voted in favour of legalizing marijuana last week, but they have set the stage for a game changer, however complicated.
The market for cannabis in Britain should be regulated and taxed, and responsibility for drug policy moved from the Home Office to the health department, Sir Richard Branson has told MPs.
