OTTAWA TO TIGHTEN RULES ON GROWING MEDICAL MARIJUANA

The federal government is expected to announce new rules for growing
medical marijuana that would make it so only licensed growers would be
permitted to cultivate and distribute it.

The move would eliminate individual and private growers from the
current system, whereby eligible people apply to Health Canada which
then issues the licence. People in the dispensing community who have
been hearing about the impending change say it's unwelcome, and will
do more harm than good.

"By privatizing the industry, they'll effectively be removing the
rights of medical cannabis patients to produce their own cannabis,"
said Adam Greenblatt, a spokesman for the Canadian Association of
Medical Cannabis Dispensaries. "That's problematic because you have
patients who spend many years trying to find the variety that works
for them, and also because some patients have invested a lot of money
in growing supplies."

A spokesman for the health minister said they will begin consulting on
new rules in the "near future." Steve Outhouse wouldn't give
specifics, but said the rules "will balance patient access to medical
marijuana while strengthening public safety."

Recently, mayors and councillors across the country have been saying
the current system poses dangers when growers don't follow bylaws.

In March, the mayors of two towns in southern B.C. wrote to Health
Minister Leona Aglukkaq, saying too many licences are floating around,
making it impossible for municipalities to know who is licensed and
whether those growers are operating safely. The mayors of Langley,
B.C., and the Township of Langley also wrote that they knew "that
there is significant misuse of many licences and the volume of product
produced often exceeds an individual's personal requirement."