Medical marijuana advocates in Nova Scotia say the legalization of recreational marijuana has left patients with a lack of access to the medication they need.
“Not only has the recreational market put a substantial strain on access and availability of strains to medical patients, but it’s making those same strains more expensive than they were traditionally available,” said medical marijuana advocate Chris Enns said.
“For example, a particular strain that an individual is buying from a licensed producer in Canada may have been available at $8 a gram. Now patients when they go to purchase that same product from the NSLC, may be paying $10 a gram or more.”
READ MORE: Medical marijuana users left stranded as legalization pinches supply
Access to recreational cannabis has just been legalized in Canada, but access to cannabis for medical purposes was first made legally accessible in 2001.
Enns owns and operates a medical cannabis dispensary in Halifax and has fought legal battles to continue to serve patients well before recreational cannabis was on the radar.
“Before the introduction of the Cannabis Act on Oct. 17, there was certainly a constitutional territory in Canada through which medical cannabis dispensaries were finding a place to operate and fill the gaps for patients who couldn’t access many strains, many derivatives, edibles and concentrates from the current regime,” he said.
Now that recreational cannabis has been made legal, Enns says the government has a responsibility to address access barriers that medical patients are struggling with.
“I think there needs to be an intensive dialogue between the provincial governments, the federal government, and licensed producers to make sure that the availability of products is there for patients who need them before it’s made available to the recreational market.”
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