How Do You Get Medical Cannabis?
The Canadian Government currently offers three ways for patients to obtain cannabis for medical use under the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (ACMPR). The first is to buy cannabis from one of several licensed producers. The second is to grow your own cannabis plants. The third is to designate another individual to grow your cannabis for you. All three methods are discussed in detail below.
Keep in mind that all other methods of obtaining cannabis, including storefront dispensaries advertising medical marijuana, are currently illegal in Canada. It is also illegal for a company or an individual to advertise the sale of cannabis.
To purchase medical cannabis from a licensed producer, you will first need a document from your health care practitioner. This can be a medical practitioner or nurse practitioner that has you under their professional treatment. Your practitioner will decide if cannabis is a good treatment option for you.
Then, you must register with a licensed cannabis producer. There are currently 40 licensed producers in Canada. Visit our LP directory a full list of licensed producers. To register, you will need to contact the producer of your choice or look on their website to obtain their registration form. You will also need your medical document. The original document can be sent to the cannabis supplier, or the document can be faxed directly from the health care practitioner’s office to the supplier.
Contact your producer directly if you have any questions about registration. Once registered, you can obtain fresh marijuana, dried marijuana, or cannabis oil from a licensed supplier.
In order to register to grow your own cannabis for medical purposes, you will need the same medical document from a licenced medical practitioner. You will then have to register with Health Canada. The registration process includes disclosing where the cannabis will be grown and stored.
If your application is successful, you will receive a registration certificate that will show your authority to produce cannabis as well as your production limit and possession limit. Cannabis must be grown in limited quantities. No matter whether medical cannabis is purchased or grown, you cannot have more than a 30-day supply, 150 grams of dried marijuana or equivalent, of cannabis product in your possession at any one time.
Designating another individual to grow cannabis for you is similar to applying to grow it yourself. You will need to submit a medical document and a registration form with your designated grower’s information. The designated person will also need to submit a document from the Canadian police force proving that they have not been convicted of a drug-related offence in the past ten years. A person cannot grow cannabis for more than two people, including him or herself.
If you have registered with Health Canada to grow medical cannabis, or to have someone else grow it on your behalf, you can receive starting materials or an interim supply of cannabis from a licensed supplier.
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