Cheaper cannabis at the pharmacy - are Canadians simulating symptoms at the doctor?
- Are there hordes of hypochondriacs among Canadian patients seeking access to medical cannabis?
- Is it really necessary to increase taxation on prescription medical marijuana to thin out the ranks of pretending, recreational users craving quality herbal medicine?
The Canadian government thinks so – this is exactly the reason they're using to support the new tax law.
Taxes and Prescription Drugs (Cannabis)
All cannabis sold through the current legal health program allowing patients with certain medical conditions to obtain cannabis prescriptions is subject to both federal and provincial sales tax in Canada. This is nothing new for patients treating themselves with cannabis, as this law has been in effect since 2013 when medical cannabis was newly permitted in Canada.
Now, however, the Canadian government has spoken up, stating that taxes need to be changed for all legal cannabis producers to 10% - regardless of whether the cannabis is intended for patients or recreational users.
"Ottawa has now announced that the percentage of medical cannabis sales tax will be changed to 10% for both cannabis directed at recreational users and patients using cannabis for treatment."
"Our government remains focused on the original goal, which is to create and maintain a functional medical cannabis system," explains Member of Parliament Bill Blair in a November interview with The Globe and Mail. "At the same time, we don't want tax laws to be an incentive for people who intend to use the system inappropriately, and we propose to unify tax regulations."
The government began pushing this proposal in December 2017, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appeared on Toronto's Breakfast morning show: "The fact remains that we have far too many people trying to get into the medical cannabis system solely to obtain drugs for recreation," Trudeau explains on television.
Public reactions to the Prime Minister's statement were at least outraged. For example, Mandy McKnight, mother of a boy who was allowed to use oil with a very high content of CBD cannabinoid against epilepsy, sarcastically tweeted: "Sure, let's heavily tax 99% of legitimate patients who really need medical marijuana because of a few individuals trying to cheat the system to save a miserable dollar. Is this how we make laws in Canada now?"
With McKnight's indignant jab, however, an important question emerges – how many people are actually trying to circumvent the system just to be able to smoke cannabis at home in front of the TV and a bit more cheaply?
The Leafly editorial team went straight to the source to ask this interesting question to Brian Kierans, a medical cannabis consultant who has worked in several leading cannabis clinics across Toronto.
"I don't think there are as many people abusing the system as someone might think," Kierans begins. Leafly wanted to know approximately what percentage he would estimate, and his answer was quite similar to McKnight's tweet: "Of course, I don't exactly know, but intuitively and from my own observation, I would dare say it's a maximum of 1%. I've spent more than years in clinics, and from my experience, people who come for recreational cannabis and realize they're in a patient clinic quickly turn on their heel, usually with some comic excuse."
"Some clinics have a system that allows cannabis to be obtained quite quickly. But that doesn't mean the clinic's policy targets recreational users – there are also patients who need to get cannabis really quickly, for example, due to severely treatable epileptic seizures."
Kierans adds that another concern of the legal cannabis system's consequences is that someone might pick up cannabis only once and then use the official cannabis packaging as a trick to hide their own marijuana, obtained who knows where.
Taxes for Pharmacy Medical Cannabis
However, as Kierans further explained to the editorial team, all medical cannabis prescriptions are under strict supervision of local provincial universities, and doctors are extremely careful about who they allow to use cannabis: "There are standard evaluations for narcotics that all clinics here are subject to. Cannabis is medically classified as a narcotic and must be approached as such by doctors."
If someone wants to be classified to receive medical marijuana prescription, they must first pass a comprehensive test designed to disqualify individuals prone to addictions.
People like Kieran, who are close to the medical cannabis system, disagree with the new tax increase proposal. They express their protests through internet campaigns such as #DontTaxMedicine.
What is your opinion on the situation? Is pharmacy cannabis overpriced or cheaper than on the black market? Could a similar situation as in Canada, where protests are being made against unified tax regulations, occur in our country?
Source:
Jordan, Harrison. "Are Too Many Canadian Medical Marijuana Patients 'Faking It'?" Leafly, 19 Jan. 2018, www.leafly.com/news/canada/are-too-many-canadian-medical-marijuana-patients-faking-it.
Author:
Harrison Jordan