Health Canada announces new Medical Marijuana growing regulations August 23, 2016 – Posted in: Law, Marijuana News – Tags: , , , , , , , ,

On August 11th, Health Canada announced in a teleconference that they would be easing the countries prohibitions against safety testing of medical marijuana. This will allow registered growers and patients to have the product examined in federally certified laboratories to ensure its safety. The federal government has plans to legalize the recreational use of cannabis next year, and this new change will help provide protection in an unregulated market to consumers. In the long run this will help ease the minds of some consumers that may worry that some medicinal marijuana could contain some harmful contaminants.

With the number of dispensaries that have popped up in Canada over the past year, these new regulations mean more than just better business opportunities, but that they also can ensure that their products are safe. Up until now these storefronts have not been considered legal in the eyes of the government, mainly because of the lack of product oversight. Now that the government is opening their labs to legal growers, everyone can rest assured that their cannabis is as safe as possible.

Who can grow Marijuana now?

If an individual wants to produce a limited amount of cannabis for his/her own medical purposes, he/she must submit an application to register with Health Canada

The regulation change mainly affects patients or people that already have their license or people that may be eligible for a license. Patients will be able to register with Health Canada to grow limited amounts of cannabis for their own consumption.

“If an individual wants to produce a limited amount of cannabis for his/her own medical purposes, he/she must submit an application to register with Health Canada,” said a department background document. Original medical documents from a health-care practitioner are required, and the application must include information such as where the cannabis will be produced and stored.

Another interesting part of this new set of regulations is that if the person with the medicinal license is not healthy enough to grow the cannabis themselves they can officially assign someone to grow it for them, just as long as the person passes the required background checks and has not has a single convicted drug offence in the last 10 years. The designated grower also can’t be growing for more than two people already.

How much Marijuana can a patient now grow in Canada?

In the technical briefing Thursday afternoon, Health Canada officials explained that the “limited amount” people can grow for themselves will be calculated by the daily amount of cannabis a patient is prescribed. So someone that is prescribed a gram a day could grow two plants outdoors or five plants indoors to be able to supply themselves. It’s all relative to each individual patient. The seeds and plants will come from these licensed producers, who will be able to keep track of a patient’s supply so that they can provide more seeds or plants when someone is getting low, so that they are never without.

These new rules and regulations will be coming into effect on August 24, 2016.