Manitoba’s only medical cannabis Licensed Producer, Delta 9, took a shot at Glenn Price’s cannabis dispensary, Your Medical Cannabis Headquarters. John Arbuthnot, vice president of Delta 9, told the CBC that patients must be careful buying from unregulated dispensaries.
“A lot of the challenges that arise from that are things that are not covered in a regulated market like packaging, labeling. Where’s the product coming from? Has it been grown under sanitary conditions?”
LP cannabis must go through strict regulations (including irradiation). Health Canada required Arbuthnot to sterilize the 80,000-square-foot building before he could open it last year.
Arbuthnot said all 15 full-time employees at Delta 9 are experienced growers and chemists who had to undergo extensive criminal background checks. While he’s never consulted with BC growers, Arbuthnot kept the names of their strains. “We elected to keep the strain names as they originated from the black market,” he told the CBC.
Arbuthnot said he’s not against medical cannabis dispensaries, but he believes they all need to be regulated by the federal government.
“We think ultimately that’s where the industry is going. If it’s not dispensaries, it’s having pharmacies integrated into the supply chains,” Arbuthnot said.
Arbuthnot said his warehouse is inspected every 30 days and his cannabis is lab tested by Health Canada before it is shipped to medical patients.