Shortly after Health Canada unveiled new regulations to allow medical patients to grow their own cannabis at home, one medical clinic said it wanted nothing to do with the system.
Cannabinoid Medical Clinic, which lists nine locations across the country, posted a notice on its blog that, regardless of the government’s decision, it wouldn’t treat medical patients who chose to grow their own cannabis.
“Patients who wish to choose other sources for their medical marijuana, such as illegal dispensaries or by producing a limited amount of cannabis for their own medical purposes, where quality cannot be controlled or monitored, can not be a patient of Cannabinoid Medical Clinic,” the clinic stated. “Our physicians must be able to ensure patients are receiving the prescribed dose of medical marijuana through a certified licensed producer in order to guarantee our standard of care.”
The message was then edited to give a softer approach that said the clinic was aware that the law now allowed patients to grow their own cannabis and would be updating their policies.
“At this point in time CMC is developing clinic policies to ensure safety, standardization and quality of care,” the updated text read. “We are seeking opinions from medical authorities such as the Canadian Medical Protection Agency and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario.”
Requests for comment from Cannabinoid Medical Clinic was not returned as to why the post was re-written or what their new policies would include.
Clinics, like CMC, began to grow across the country after the introduction of the now defunct MMPR, which required medical patients to obtain cannabis only from licensed producers.
Clinics serve as the middleman, with in-house physicians giving a recommendation and staff filling out Health Canada required paperwork to apply for specific licensed producers.
Because licensed producers needed to be applied to for cannabis individually, and that application was non-transferable to other providers, LPs have arranged financial agreements with clinics to ensure that they give exclusive preference to their product.
In a previous report on internal documents from the licensed producer Hydropothecary, the LP stated that they shared 15 per cent of revenue generated by 46 clinics under contract.