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Government. No Bud of Cannabis

Without getting into the details of each milestone, it is safe to say governments’ path to regulating cannabis is dismal.  Thankfully with each new law, the cannabis community is there to challenge government to do better.  I am no lawyer, but past court decisions, regarding peoples’ use of cannabis as medicine, suggests access must not be restricted.  In response, a national medical cannabis dispensary system was created allowing people, with the right medical documents, to obtain their cannabis online.  Although fantastic, it also allowed Provincial governments to pretty much ignore cannabis.  As a result, our Colleges, the regulatory bodies for the health professions within each province, are not obliged to provide services creating a knowledge gap between patient and health professional.  What has happened over decades, is people who use cannabis as medicine simply mentor others who want to learn how cannabis can be medicine.  With the government ignoring the medical side, the cannabis community is left to bridge the knowledge gap which is often seen as breaking laws.

Governments simply refuse to learn how cannabis helps people.  It is safe to say a democracy is a government created by people and within the body of government is an organization made up of people.  I want to believe government employs bright people, yet there remains an inability to apply organizational learning when regulating cannabis.  While bureaucrats display indifference, the cannabis community learns how to serve those who use cannabis as medicine.  We must remember, if not for the medical side of the cannabis industry, there would be no recreational industry.  Government wants to punish rather than learn from people who are demonstrating empathy, kindness, and compassion which is exactly what the world needs more of, especially from governments.

The 2018 Cannabis Act, designed to protect us from cannabis, created a new stream we now call recreational cannabis.  Unlike “medical” cannabis, the feds transferred distribution of “recreational” cannabis to the provinces.  Let us quickly review the unwieldly process patients follow to benefit from cannabis as medicine. The process starts with finding a practitioner willing to prescribe cannabis, which may require defending this choice when the family practitioner refuses cannabis as medicine.  If this happens, the patient must find a cannabis friendly prescriber who must now learn their medical history.  Once the medical documents are completed, the patient will now buy medicine online.  Very little involves face-to-face health professional interaction.  In comparison, the newer recreational dispensary system makes cannabis readily available.  It is easier to self-medicate than follow the medicalized route, which I think is a self-fulfilled prophesy of government and many practitioners.  Thinking this is empathetic, kind, or compassionate health care practice is contradictory, because it continues to hurt people and shows how ignorance is sometimes just plain stupid. 

As a multi-billion-dollar industry, I would think governments would be better informed with knowing the needs of the patient using cannabis as medicine. Therapists and business consultants have shouted for decades “change comes from within.”  This is true for both individuals and for organizations.  The cannabis community is an example of how organizations create change from within because with each new regulation they adjust services to better help the people they serve.  We know government is slow to act on change, for example Health Canada is now more than six-months behind in the mandatory three-year review of the Cannabis Act.  This delay suggests officials are mired in other priorities.  Yet, this delay also provides great opportunity for government policy writers to dig deeper into the latest research on cannabis.  A better educated government employee may assist with leveraging the revised regulations to better serve those who benefit from cannabis as medicine.  

The next version of Cannabis regulations must encourage health professionals to pay better attention to medical cannabis, especially with dispensing.  Often, anxiety is a result of getting a medication for the first time.  In a hospital, nurses assist patients with these matters, in community it is the pharmacist.  As our bodies find the therapeutic index, or proper dosing, the health professionals advise patients about drug tolerance, side-affects, and dose adjustments.  Often, a trusting relationship is developed between the health professional and the patient.  These services are not available on street corner dispensaries.  Budtenders are not qualified to speak to the medical benefits of cannabis, nor are recreational store fronts allowed to speak positively about cannabis.  So, as I say above, when responding to the lack of services, the cannabis community simply creates the change required while government focuses on dealing out harsh punishments for doing so.

Organizations like The Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club (VCBC), which is one of the oldest compassion clubs in the world, provides insight to how the cannabis community bridges the knowledge gap created by existing laws and regulations.  The VCBC is made up of medical cannabis users providing services to individuals using cannabis as medicine.  For decades governments have considered this an illegal practice.  I would think the people within government would have learned something from their VCBC experiences; legal battles have been lost to the VCBC.  Yet, the latest challenge for the VCBC comes as a result of a recent raid where not only was medicine and cash confiscated, a fine for more than $6 million was levied.  The VCBC has been charged with operating as an unlicensed dispensary.  Essentially, people helping others, by filling a need government is ignoring, are being punished.  

I am not ignorant to how politics affects government, but it remains astounding to watch how bureaucrats fabricate layers of regulations built upon ignorance.  When our leaders create policy, I want them applying the learning gained from past failures.  I believe government should change processes as they learn, just like any other organization.  I know this is a big ask, especially when we as citizens are so polarized by current health matters.  We are all just people trying to make our way in this world and government is made up of people whose job it is to serve its citizens, so learning should happen.  Maybe, if we as citizens start acting more like the cannabis community, we can create the change we need within government.  Just imagine all the people living with the same understanding of what we need to thrive as community. Maybe I am a dreamer. 

 

KN