I’ve Made Major Changes in This Blog’s Direction
I began this
blog at Year end with the big idea I was going to start a revolution. The
Harper Governments’ proposed changes to the Marihuana Medical Access
Regulations will abolish the right to grow a personal supply of Medical
Marijuana. They intend to force Licensees to purchase from a contracted
production system yet to be designed. Now 4 months later I realize any
revolution is out of the question. Personal and Designated Growth is too
piss-ant a problem to survive in the Harper directed sea of stupidity. The
whole point of the Marihuana Medical Access Program seems to have been missed
not only by the incumbent Cons as well as the Liberals who created it.
The Marihuana
Medical Access Program was a brilliant and compassionate idea that
never ever had a chance of succeeding from the start. The Government as usual,
failed to consider the financial position of the clientele they were trying to
help. As I have pointed out previously in The Information Blackholeno one knows
what the demographics of the Licensees are, but I think we can safely conclude
that given the fact they have been sick enough for long enough to warrant a
License, they are probably at the poverty level and mostly dependant on Pension
or Welfare income. The bureaucracy in its infinite wisdom decided to set the
price of Legal pot at 50% of the $10/gram street price
Statistics Canada defines the
"poverty line" (or low-income cut off) for a single person living in
a major city in 2007 as $21,666 (before tax). Or $1805/month. The
majority of all Licensees are single individuals’ dependant on fixed pension
income from the Government. Licensees are all sick and either retired or
disabled, or one of the very few still able to earn an income. These single
individuals have only OAS and CPP as income and in the best possible income is available only to a retired
recipient who is collecting maximum
OAS of $537.97, and is so physically destroyed by illness to qualify
for the maximum CPP Disability of $1,153.37.
These fortunate individuals qualify for $1691.34/month before tax and almost make it to the poverty
line: Almost but not quite.
The government
issues Licences to Possess for daily use of amounts from anywhere from a
minimum of 1 gram/day to way more than 50 grams. Regardless of the number
authorized a one gram minimum plus
HST and shipping costs $186 for a one month 30 gram supply. This is more
than 10% of the maximum income available to Licensees from pension as well as
those still able to work. A full time minimum wage job yields the same before
tax income as the best case retiree. Very few Licensees can afford to purchase
the amount they are authorized to use for symptom relief and wind up short
changed on a sufficient amount to relieve their suffering.
The only way a
Licensee can now obtain a
supply of legal marijuana at anywhere near an affordable level is via the
Personal and Designated Growth options of the Marihuana Medical Access
Program. The Government is eliminating these options and that destroys
any possibility of obtaining affordable pot through legal channels.
They were
selling at $5/gram and losing money. Somehow it doesn’t seem realistic to
conclude that by turning this non-profit monopoly into a contracted competitive
profit oriented production system burdened with all the overhead of complying
with ridiculous Government Regulations over every miniscule operation that call
for masses of certification and administrative requiring professional
accountancy skills and massive additions to overhead.
That
unfortunately is only half the problem with growing your own. What Ottawa decides to do with the Marihuana
Medical Access Program has nothing to do with the ability to legally
grow your own personal supply. Even if pot was legalized there would no place
to grow it except in non-residential, commercial, or industrial zones and comply
with Municipal regulations. Therein lays the blockade to growing an affordable
supply of a much needed medication. It’s simply a matter of short sighted by-laws
creating a structure of costs that is virtually impossible to meet.
More to follow shortly
The.Smee.Goan.Guy
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