Despite a Federal Court ruling in February allowing medical marijuana patients to grow their own medicine in Canada, individuals have limited access to seeds, seedlings, and clones at affordable prices, according to a Globe and Mail report. Just one licensed producer, Whistler Medical Marijuana Corp., is authorized to sell the small plants or seeds to clients and they are charging $750 for a five-plant package, only making $20 clones available after the package purchase.
Chris Pelz, Whistler president, said the package deal represents an upfront fee to access their organic cannabis strains and that the plants sent by the company could be cloned by the client who could maintain their supply indefinitely.
“These [mother plants] are held in laboratory conditions,” Pelz said in the report. “I don’t know if the clones that are being blasted out on the street are near the same quality of plant or genetics that we offer.”
Moreover, the company has no plans to sell their seeds, he explained, due to “the red tape” around acquiring them under Health Canada’s rules.
Another potential option for patients would be to allow one of the country’s licensed producers to grow their plants for them. Jordan Sinclair, a spokesman for Tweed, said the company is interested in growing plants for patients – which might be an ideal set up for some clients because it’s unknown whether or not home growing will still be permitted under the federal government’s adult-use cannabis laws expected to be unveiled in the spring.
About 28,000 people are still allowed to cultivate cannabis for themselves or other registered patients under the old medical marijuana system.