Medical Marijuana Patients Can Now Grow Their Own Pot

Who needs the dispensary when you can grow medical marijuana in your own backyard?

Under new regulations, Canadian medical marijuana patients can grow their own cannabis or get someone to grow it for them, Health Canada announced Thursday.

Come August 24, patients approved for medical marijuana (and let’s be honest; these days, pretty much anyone can be approved) will be able to register with Health Canada to grow a “limited” amount of weed for their own medical purposes.

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The said limited amount will be linked to the daily amount of cannabis a patient is prescribed.

Prospective growers must provide an original medical document from a health care provider and the application must include information as to the location of where cannabis will be produced and stored.

If they are not able or healthy enough to grow their own, medical marijuana users can even designate someone else to grow it for them. That is, providing the other person passes a background check that demonstrates that they haven’t been convicted of a drug offence in the last 10 years and aren’t growing for more than the other person and themselves.

The seeds and plants would come from licensed producers, who could also sell a supply of marijuana to hold people over as they wait for their weed plants to flourish.

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On February 24, a Federal Court judge struck down the existing Conservative government’s 2013 law that required medical marijuana patients to get their cannabis from licensed producers instead of growing their own, giving the federal government six months to come up with new rules.

Judge Michael Phelan said the former rules restricted patient liberties under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The judge also ruled that around 28,000 patients who had been permitted to keep growing their own medical marijuana under a 2014 injunction could continue until the new rules are in place.

Of course, if that’s too much work in the green thumb department, another option is obtaining it from one of the many dispensaries across the country.

Whatever you decide to do, remember to be considerate of your non-blazing friends: new research has revealed that second-hand marijuana smoke could be way more harmful than we thought.

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