Is medical cannabis still green among a liberal minority?

Childcare, vaccines, gun policies and a host of other issues have pulled cannabis out of the Liberals’ $ 612 million election campaign in 2021. So we cannot measure medical cannabis and its green future against a persistent liberal minority. However, the direction of the legal cannabis industry among liberal ideologies over the past three years gives some idea.

Cannabis was a carrot in Justin Trudeau’s first two terms. Initially, the Liberals promised legalization of cannabis during their first term in 2015, but only partially delivered it in October 2018. And then they legalized edibles and concentrates a year later, on October 18, 2019 – three days before Trudeau’s second term.

Strengthened business under liberal Canada

In 2013, while building his party, Justin Trudeau persuaded current Treasury Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland into office. She ended a long career in journalism in 2013 and left Thompson Reuters as Managing Director. The then CEO of Reuters, James C. Smith, joined Pfizer’s Board of Directors in 2014. Freeland apparently caught Trudeau’s attention with her book Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else. Critics of the book were unsure of Freeland’s true attitude towards the super-rich. However, Trudeau is known for supporting the World Economic Forum (WEF), which attends the plutocrat’s annual conference in Davos, Switzerland.

Under the Liberal government, the legalization of cannabis proved harmful to medical patients cared for by small pharmacies. The stakeholder capitalism, which led the industry’s first forecast, appeared to be causing inconvenience. So when you think about cannabis regulation, are plutocratic liberal motivations involved in the industry today?

“Build back better”, a popular slogan of the Liberals, comes straight from the Playbook of the World Economic Forum, which Freeland and Smith houses in its Board of Trustees and International Business Council.

Priced out

Canada’s legal cannabis industry is still plagued with certain products. High prices kept product sales down across the market, and this is still the case for concentrates, especially tabular extracts. Retailers struggle to sell certain products because of “outrageous” prices, a problem that is far too slow to resolve.

An ACMPR license enables medical patients to purchase direct from specific manufacturers with a reserve supply and an adjusted price. Patients can simply grow cannabis at home, but this right is threatened, at least in Manitoba, and restricted in Quebec, for example. Overall, the legalization of non-medicinal cannabis under the Liberal Party respects recreational use but neglects the patient.

The rights and freedoms of medical patients

Problems that have been going on since October 2018 include the lack of segregated access and unfair laws for medical cannabis patients. This can be said for the loss of independent inpatient access postulated by raids on pharmacies, as well as the regulatory THC limits. Aside from these issues, Bill C46 was enacted to enforce cannabis use on the road. But the tests used to detect cannabis use result in medical cannabis patients with an illegal amount of THC in their blood driving cars without poisoning.

This previously authored document emailed the Attorney General of Canada with this issue.

I note your particular concern about how this legislation affects medical cannabis users. The law makes no distinction between being affected by medical cannabis or by a legal source of cannabis.

The Honorable David Lametti, PC, QC, MP
Justice Minister and Attorney General of Canada – 2019

That interaction was over two years ago. And while investments have been made in specific solutions, no solution has yet been established that really indicates poisoning in chronic cannabis users and ultimately medical cannabis patients. Defense lawyers argue that these regulations are against legitimate grounds.

And in the past three years, a limited number of releases have been offered for those convicted of serious cannabis convictions.

David Lametti was brought to power after former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould was overthrown amid the SNC-Lavalin scandal. In addition to the political tensions, Raybould recently published a new book at the height of this year’s election season. Overall, an onslaught of global and national affairs has led to a storm of calamity, but also to opportunity in the political spectrum of Canada. This has led to a liberal silence on cannabis policy lately.

Is medical cannabis somewhere on the political radar?

SPD

The socialist New Democratic Party (NDP) would include cannabis in their Pharmacare plan. But is it beneficial for patients to have cannabis tightly under one pharmaceutical roof?

Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the CDC, took to Twitter scolding Moderna and Pfizer for their poor community engagement during the pandemic. And on the offer, the NDP agrees with the Liberals on their stance against the illegal industry. Unfortunately, their policies would inevitably include eliminating the remaining legacy market in Canada, much like the liberal strategy.

Chuck Rifici left his position as Liberal CFO before co-founding Canopy Growth Corporation, then known as Tweed, with Bruce Linton.

“Not your father’s conservative party”

Canada’s first licensed medical cannabis manufacturer was founded under conservative leadership. However, one of those early medical cannabis companies, Canopy Growth Corporation (formerly Tweed), was founded by former Liberals CFO Chuck Rifici.

And during a debate in the House of Commons in 2017, Erin O’Toole quoted an editorial from the Canadian Medical Association that, contrary to current knowledge, portrayed cannabis use as toxic to cortical networks in young people. Unsurprisingly, the current Conservative leader does not support further legalization, but stated that cannabis cannot be criminalized again.

The block

Under the previous leadership of Martine Ouellet, The Bloc Québécois set out its position on cannabis legalization in 2017. Ouellet highlighted the $ 10 billion cannabis market. At that time, the bloc demanded independent regulations from the provinces on issues such as home-grown cannabis. In fact, the province has curtailed home growth and has recently opposed it in the face of litigation up to the Supreme Court.

Former party’s leader joked about Ontario-focused cannabis production Justin Trudeau and Chuck Rifici’s involvement. However, due to its vague ideologies, the bloc doesn’t seem to support medical cannabis today. In 2017, their previous stance warned of undue advantages the Liberal Party is getting compared to placing a heavy financial burden on the province of Quebec.

This implies the intention of Quebec and The Bloc to get maximum revenue from cannabis production at the expense of medical patients’ right to grow cannabis at home in their own province.

Green party

During the Liberals’ second term, the Greens called for a full reform of cannabis regulations. This included price cuts to suit and compete with Canada’s illegal market. However, this happened under the old leadership of Elizabeth May, who was replaced by Annamie Paul on October 3, 2020.

However, Paul’s position as leader of the Green Party has been the focus of fierce criticism since then, which led to her resignation on September 27, 2021. Right now, a green future for more than medical cannabis is uncertain.

PPC

The chairman of the People’s Party of Canada, Maxime Bernier, was still voting in the Conservative Party against the legalization of cannabis. Despite the apparent free market support, the PPC doesn’t seem to have a strong opinion on medical cannabis.

Let us know your thoughts on the cannabis policies of the other political parties in the comments. And stay tuned to see if mandates in the cannabis sector are warranted – or a fallacy.

Footnote (s)

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/waste-money-canadians-lament-c612-million-election-that-changed-little-2021-09-21/
https://www.weforum.org/people/chrystia-freeland
https://www.pfizer.com/people/leadership/board-of-directors
https://www.weforum.org/great-reset/
https://financialpost.com/opinion/peter-foster-justin-trudeau-embraces-the-davos-plutocrats
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/01/pm-keynote-remarks-for-world-economic-forum-2018/
https://stratcann.com/2021/09/03/court-of-appeal-sides-with-quebec-on-home-grow-ban-next-step-is-supreme-court/
https://openparliament.ca/debates/2017/6/6/erin-otoole-5/
https://www.cbc.ca/books/indian-in-the-cabinet-1.6121127
https://www.instagram.com/p/B0g620kFxPB/?utm_medium=copy_link