A friend of mine was facing a long bus trip and made a Facebook post about how hard that can be with a lack of cannabis and severe chronic pain. Immediately, I suggested she try using edible cannabis because the problem was not being able to smoke on the bus. Her response was absolutely horrifying to me: living in Vancouver, she couldn’t access any because of the edibles ban.
Edibles have become really hard to find because dispensaries are being bullied into not supplying them, even though they have been declared to be a necessary component of cannabis medicine by the Supreme Court of Canada. The attack on edibles is a huge violation of our rights as Canadians… here’s what you need to know.
Who is trying to ban edibles and why? Health Canada! It’s a Food Safe Foul!
There are no Food Safe regulations set out for cannabis. According to the Health Inspector, you can have a cookie made with Food Safe ingredients, in a spotless, state of the art facility, have it packaged and stored at the perfect temperature, but, the fact that cannabis is in the cookie is what makes it “unsafe”. There are Food Safe regulations for other herbs like lavender that Health Canada could easily use to model but for some reason, they are choosing to attack the constitutional rights of every Canadian and force their reasonless will upon people who are already suffering…Why? No one has ever died from using cannabis edibles or otherwise so why the heavy-handed approach? Especially when there is no legal basis for it and there are several other precedents for them to follow?
The information you need to be able to defend your brownies…
Health Canada has NO RIGHT to do this. In 2012, The Supreme Court of Canada ruled the definition of medical marijuana be expanded to include cannabis IN ANY FORM. Meaning, if you make medicinal cannabis edible or want to sell them in your medicinal dispensary, you have the constitutional right to do so.
As it was ruled into law by the Supreme Court of Canada,” the restriction to dried marijuana violates the right to liberty and security in a manner that is arbitrary and hence is not in accord with the principles of fundamental justice.”
Sections 4 and 5 of the Controlled Drug and Substances Act, which prohibits possession and trafficking of non-dried forms of cannabis were declared “null and void”; this battle was fought and won at the highest level of The Canadian Court system. So, heat up your ovens and start baking!
Seriously, please make edibles.
The most disturbing thing about this method of attacking our rights to medicinal cannabis is the damage it is doing. The people who use edibles are the people who need them the most to treat their conditions and bother the least amount of people when they ingest it. Eating cannabis as opposed to smoking it doesn’t subject anyone to any smell or smoke, plus, because our pain receptors are concentrated in the GI Tract, edible cannabis is extremely effective when treating severe pain. For this same reason, it is also miraculously efficient in calming and treating the effects of opiate withdrawal.
Dispensaries have been operating in the grey area for some time but it is because there is a desperate need for safe cannabis access, provided with education and correct dosing information. To tell someone with cerebral palsy or rheumatoid arthritis that they have to make and dose their own cookies at home when it can be done for them, is completely unacceptable and frankly irresponsible. It is no secret that dispensaries have stepped up where our Government has failed us and this must continue with a firm, unwavering approach to supplying medicinal edibles. After all, it is a constitutional right for every Canadian Citizen to get baked with baked goods…
Please, save some lives and make some cookies…
Sources
CBC: Medical marijuana legal in all forms, Supreme Court rules.