Big pharma marijuana Part 2 – Med-Mar: The art of legally prescribing an illegal drug

Medical marijuana, the new cash crop on the block, was created by a change in regulations which allows for cannabis to be grown, distributed and prescribed legally.

Its futures look bright. In fact, opportunities of this breadth don't knock every day. Which is why Water Today is looking into it further. Will this bankable new crop be cultivated with the utmost care for our environment? Will Health Canada's strict water and wastewater regulations be respected? Or will cutting corners and profiteering win the day as they are wont to do?

In part one of our series we looked into the regulatory framework on which medical marijuana is built. Part 2 -an interview with Dr. Peter Gooch, a British Columbia physician who has been prescribing medical marijuana for 23 years - explores the ins and outs of getting a prescription to use it; after all no licensed users, no cash crop. no industry.

What we learned so far is that compassionate doctors are not easy to find, that like in any new scheme, opportunists are lurking, and that the deal's inherent dichotomy boggles the mind.

In fact, the irony is hard to miss. Essentially, with the MMPR, Health Canada is setting up the basis of a billion dollar industry on a substance it considers illegal, and the use of which it does not endorse.

With the enactment of the MMPR on April 1, 2013, Health Canada rid itself of the administrative headache of issuing permits to individuals licensed to possess cannabis for medicinal purposes — currently 37,000 Canadians - and  passed the burden on to Canadian doctors. Now it is the physicians who are the gatekeepers of the substance, asked to provide patients with the legal use of an illegal substance.

Trouble is this is no run of the mill oxycontin prescription we're dealing with here. Cannabis being an illegal substance, there is very little scientific information to guide physicians as to the strain or dosage to prescribe. Not to mention all the paperwork involved. So, many physicians just throw their hands up and refuse to write medical marijuana prescriptions altogether.

Enter the middleman. Eager to fill this void, MMPR clinics are indeed popping up across the land like mushrooms. For fees ranging from $250 to over $500, these outfits offer a range of services culminating in a doctor's referral either by Skype or in person. Meanwhile, patients in need are left searching for a compassionate doctor, as a whole industry of licensed producers gets rich off the spoils of an illegal drug..

Our report is divided in four parts, the regulatory framework, the prescription process, the growing facilities, and water. Go to Water Today for Part 2 of our report.

WATER TODAY is an independent media about water in Canada. It is built on an 8-year tradition of fair reporting, investigative journalism, and punctual water advisory monitoring.

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Josee Dechene
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Water Today, Ottawa, ON