To the Editor:
The federal government recently announced they are taking away a medicinal cannabis user's right to grow their own medicine, and forcing them to buy their medicine through the mail from a limited number of commercial growers.
According to Health Canada a medicinal cannabis user can grow their own cannabis for as low as $1.80 a gram, yet under the new regulations they estimate the cost to be between $7.65 and $9 a gram. According to Health Canada the average medicinal cannabis user consumes between three and seven grams a day, at $1.80 a gram that comes to $162 - $378 a month. Under the new regulations that cost would be anywhere between $688 - $1890 a month for the average medicinal cannabis user. Those with serious and/or life threatening diseases like cancer, AIDS, Crohns disease, cluster headaches, etc often need to consume significantly more than the average to reduce their day by day suffering. There is no way these people will be able to afford their medicine and are going to be forced to either comply with the law, which will cause them great suffering (and for some even death), or to break the law and continue to grow the medicine they need.
Not only are the prices not comparable, different strains of cannabis help in different ways and many medicinal cannabis users spent years finding the strain that works best for them. Some medicinal users even breed their own strains of cannabis, to better treat their specific ailments. Under the new regulatory system cannabis users would no longer have access to the strains that help them the most. In fact the new regulations force medicinal cannabis users to buy all their medicine from only one source, meaning they can not even pick and choose different strains for different times of the day, different symptoms, different settings etc. This is going to make it hard for medicinal cannabis users to continue to work and live meaningful, productive lives.
I am calling on both the federal and provincial governments to step in and stop Health Canada from making these changes. This is federal law, but just like how many provinces refused to enforce the gun registry (a federal law), they also have the same right to refuse to enforce these changes. I am also calling on all Canadians to contact your MP, MLA, Health Canada, the media, even Stephen Harper himself and urge them to stop these changes. Explain that these changes are going to cause immense suffering and even death, and that they have the power to stop this. If they don't stand up against these changes, at least we can hold them accountable when people start dying because they can no longer afford their medicine, or when sick people are raided and thrown in jail for growing because it is the only way they can afford the medicine they need to live a life worth living.
Kaleb Dunlop, Yorkton, Sk.
