GROWING RULES TO CHANGE FOR MEDICAL POT

The federal government is expected to announce new rules for growing
medical marijuana which 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 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."

Spokesman Steve Outhouse for the health minister said they will begin
consulting on new rules in the "near future."