Why test Licensed Producer weed and put your lungs at risk?
Since the inception of the MMPR, patients have long complained about the poor quality of their so-called medicine, but you’d never know it from mainstream media coverage. LPs are given a soapbox while dispensaries are regarded as criminals. LP weed is exalted to medical grade perfection while dispensary cannabis is shrugged off as no better than street schwag.
The truth is the complete opposite, as anyone who has consumed both sources knows all too well.
And so, Rejean Houle from Budzilla Dispensary, Freddie Pritchard from the One Man Smoke Show, and long-time activist Harry Warburton, decided they had to expose the lies perpetuated by the LPs that gamma-irradiated cannabis grown in sterile conditions is superior to quality BC Bud grown by experienced farmers.
Poor quality and concerns over chemicals were just some of the complaints coming from patients, but, to everyone’s surprise, the deception didn’t end there. Counts were short, in some cases by .3 grams, which is reminiscent of an inexperienced high-school dealer, not a corporate business selling medicine to patients. False advertising over THC counts was another discovery made when getting LP cannabis tested in an accredited lab.
To top it all off, the LPs were providing lacklustre customer service, with many patients contacting Reg about their horrible experiences. The LPs were indifferent and rude with the whole process being extremely bureaucratic and time-consuming. In contrast, dispensaries are accountable to their customers, as they run store-fronts, where the medicine can be inspected and a patient can have a one-to-one conversation in person rather than over the phone.
In addition, patients can patronize different dispensaries which keep dispensary owners accountable to each other. Free competition regulates what a dispensary owner can get away with, a poor reputation results in financial losses and potential bankruptcy.
Under the current rules, a patient can really only patronize one LP at a time. A patient could have access to several LPs, but that involves getting the approval of their doctor. Doctors are the gatekeepers under the MMPR, and many doctors are bound by strict rules dictating who they can prescribe medical cannabis to and what for.
In contrast, dispensary prescriptions may come from a natural health practitioner, not a doctor working for the health care monopoly (the same system that prefers pharmaceutical toxins over natural plants). As well, getting a doctor’s approval so a patient can patronize different LPs means convincing the doctor that one needs different strains, whereas a doctor may take a one-size-fits-all approach. Under the LP system, patients are at the whims of the doctor’s discretion.
Finally, the response from the LPs has been entirely unprofessional. Instead of accepting Rej, Harry and Freddie’s criticism and asking how the medicine could be improved, the LPs have taken to social media, attacking Reg and Freddie’s credibility, continuing with the blatant lies that LP cannabis is superior to the tried-and-trued BC Bud that is world renowned.