Ted Smith on Cannabis in Canada – Cannabis | weed | marijuana

Last week, CLN chatted with long-time cannabis activist and Cannabis Digest contributor Ted Smith about the state of cannabis in Canada.

Ted is the founder and owner of the Victoria Cannabis Buyer’s Club (VCBC), Canada’s oldest (and last remaining) compassionate club. Despite helping thousands of patients, the governments of Canada and British Columbia consider Ted a criminal.

“It’s frustrating,” Ted says on the phone. Especially as other jurisdictions – such as legal US states – legalize consumption spaces.

In Canada, civil disobedience against cannabis has always been the way to go. But as Ted mentions, financially supporting an illegal consumption space is easier said than done.

From pressuring landlords to raids by the Community Safety Unit, the VCBC has been a prime target. At the same time, hard drugs flow freely on the streets.

“I don’t think lobbying politicians does much good,” says Ted. “Because they have so little control over these matters. It’s the health department bureaucrats we’re dealing with here.”

Ted Smith on the Health Canada lawsuit

Recently, Health Canada denied special exemption status to the VCBC. While it took the federal bureaucracy two years to reach this decision, Canada’s oldest compassionate association collected $6.5 million in fines from the Community Safety Unit.

As we have argued, Health Canada’s rationale is half-baked. However, since they have the ultimate authority in the matter, the matter had to be handed over to the lawyers. Ted Smith and the VCBC had no choice but to file a lawsuit.

Fortunately, Canadian courts have historically been supportive of cannabis. Whether Parker, Mernagh, Smith or Allard, political slogans, biased statistics and false appeals to “public health” or “the children” are not enough in a constitutional challenge.

The problem is that there is no court date yet. “We’re just waiting like little ducks,” says Ted.

It’s all just in limbo. We have the lawsuits. We filed a judicial review against Health Canada and were denied our exemption. Hearings challenging our fines are currently ongoing. We have another ongoing hearing about them stealing the money in the last raid. It’s kind of crazy.

Luckily, her restraining order should get a date sooner rather than later. “They can’t put it off forever,” says Ted. But so far there has been one delay after another.

Ted Smith on his meeting with Morris Rosenberg

Meanwhile, the government really doesn’t understand why medical cannabis patients hate the cannabis regime.

Built into the legalization legislation is a review process led by Trudeau Foundation pal Morris Rosenberg.

Many fear that his official review of cannabis law will be as truthful as his report on election interference in 2021. Despite the wealth of evidence he failed to uncover, he claimed it was not foreign interference.

Morris, for example, did not bother to speak to a single member of the Conservative Party, even though they were the main target of the Chinese government’s interference.

So you could imagine that with a track record like this, Morris would ignore medical cannabis patients. Luckily, he at least pays lip service to their needs.

“That’s the purpose of this meeting,” Ted says.

Discuss Health Canada’s programs and whether they could be improved. And we’re doing something completely different than what Health Canada is doing. And so we actually did not respond to Health Canada’s request that patients come to their meeting. They reached out to us and asked why, so we told them we were just disturbed by the process. We didn’t feel like we were being heard. They said they really wanted to listen to our patients and would give us a one-hour Zoom meeting.

Therefore, several patients began the meeting by discussing some topics. Why this works better than the legal system with dosage levels and accessibility. Then they had about 40 minutes of questions, most of which were directed at me. I think you’ve heard enough about the program’s problems. They were more interested in some aspects of logistics, such as training staff to educate others who come in and ask questions about medical applications. I was able to make it clear that patient engagement makes a huge difference in our society because they speak from experience and not from what they could learn in a textbook.

In fact, one of the key benefits of a program like VCBC is that “patients helping patients.” Instead, says Ted, “pharmacists, nurses and all these medical professionals are the ones making the decisions. It doesn’t have to be so bureaucratic.”

Ted Smith on cannabis in Canada

Will the Cannabis Act Review Board act on the VCBC’s recommendations? Ted hopes so.

It just seems like a given. The only argument we have heard in court or otherwise from Health Canada is that they don’t have physical stores and that is with the “diversion” into recreation. That’s what they always said. But now that it’s available to everyone recreationally, I don’t know if that argument holds water. But that’s all they have.

In fact, “distraction” is the rallying cry of health experts opposing medical cannabis. But strangely, when hydromorphone is diverted from “safe supply locations” to the street market, many look the other way.

As long as it’s not cannabis. Health officials call opioid diversion “compassionate sharing.”

Ted mentions that there is pressure from all sides to increase the 10 mg limit. “Even Farnworth said this has to go,” says Ted, referring to BC Attorney General Mike Farnworth, who was certainly no friend of BC Bud or medical cannabis patients.

But Ted is confident things will change.

One of our patients was there [the Zoom call] I’m talking about him consuming 1500 to 2500 milligrams per day while he’s coming off opioids, methadone and other drugs. And the side effect of sleeping was something he had to deal with anyway during the withdrawal symptoms. So he could just knock himself out with rubbers and get off the hard drugs.

Ted adds: “I think it was really good for them to hear that someone can consume hundreds and thousands of milligrams and that it’s safe.” It wasn’t like they were crazy lunatics; They actually improved their health.”

Ted Smith on cannabis in Canada

While the governments of Canada and British Columbia continue to harass Ted and the VCBC as if they were a biker gang selling meth to children, the reality is that the VCBC provides an invaluable public service.

And now even the legal cannabis industry is recognizing this. This year Ted Smith will be honored with a lifetime achievement award at the Grow-Up Conference. Tommy Chong will present it to him on October 1st.

It’s really great that the legal industry here recognizes my contributions. I haven’t been particularly welcomed into the legal industry because I don’t compile and they want everyone to follow the rules. They are, so I should be like that too. Apparently they are starting to realize how bad the regulations are and how patients are just being left in the mud. It’s quite humbling to receive such recognition at this stage of the game.

In fact, ten years ago, medical cannabis patients were fighting in court over our rights to extracts and home gardens. Have the legal business producers contributed to the legal fund?

No, many have parroted the government’s propaganda on compliance and public health and safety.

But after five years of bureaucratic incompetence at every level, they are starting to get it. Canada’s cannabis regulations benefit the few at the expense of the many.

So will the major commercial producers contribute this time? The constitutional challenge to the VCBC will not pay off.

The VCBC is hosting a fundraiser at the club on October 3rd following the conclusion of the Grow-Op Conference. What a perfect opportunity to show Canada’s medical cannabis patients where your heart and priorities lie.

The Victoria Cannabis Buyers’ Club is located at 1625 Quadra St, Victoria, BC