VCBC meets with Health Canada

On April 20, 2022 at 4:28 p.m., the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club (VCBC) received an ominous email; Health Canada sought a meeting. Not only that, they said it would take at least forty-five minutes and wanted to speak within a week. On Wednesday, April 27, 2021, the VCBC sat down with Health Canada. It was history in the manufacture of cannabis in Canada. Here’s what happened.

Why does VCBC meet Health Canada?

In late 2020, the VCBC formally requested an exemption from the cannabis law. As of last week, the club had received nothing in return.

For the VCBC, a meeting with Health Canada provided an opportunity to make their case. Legal integration has never been more important given the club’s current position within the provincial municipality’s security unit. Earlier this year, the club received over $6 million in provincial fines. Health Canada and the provincial CSU are entirely separate government agencies, but support from one side can affect the other.

Read more about the raids here.

Photo of Matt Love – Ted Smith on VCBC during one of his recent raids

Why should the VCBC be granted an exemption?

The needs of medical patients cannot be met under the current licensing system. Medical patients are expected to register with a single licensed manufacturer or go to a retail store, leaving them without affordable access to:

• High doses of food and variety – something crucial when dealing with nutritional circumstances
• Cannabis Suppositories
• Higher dose cannabis products

Despite the risk, there are some organizations in Canada that still supply these products. The VCBC is one of the last.

The meeting with Health Canada

Last Wednesday, the VCBC met with Health Canada. Although they did not receive the official stamp of approval for an exemption, the meeting was positive. VCBC executive Jacq Kittel wrote about the meeting on the VCBC blog: The purpose of the meeting was to ask some clarifying questions about our application and how we would like the exemption to look like in the end.

Click here to read VCBC’s blog post.

What now?

What does the future hold for the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club? The only thing that is certain so far is that there will be further meetings with Health Canada. Meanwhile, despite the risk, the club will go ahead and continue its operations.

Jacq Kittel explained the club’s position:

At the end of the meeting, Ted made it clear that we were keen to comply with medical cannabis legislation. We continue to operate outside the legal regime because we will not sacrifice the well-being of our patients. It is our greatest desire to work with the government to develop a distribution model that meets the needs of all stakeholders. Ted explained that if we cannot find a way to work with Health Canada and they reject our exemption request, we will be forced to go through the court route to bring the government back to court.

Jacq Kittel – Photo by Matt Love