Explosion seen in Canadians signing up for medical pot

OTTAWA • The number of Canadians legally signed up to buy medical marijuana has more than tripled in the last year.

The Health Canada statistics reflect an explosion in the number of Canadians who are turning to marijuana to get relief from everything from chronic pain to nausea from chemotherapy.

By the end of September, nearly 100,000 Canadians had obtained prescriptions and registered to buy cannabis with one of the growers licensed by Health Canada. That’s a dramatic leap from the 30,537 people registered in September 2015.

The increase coincides with the switch in 2014 from a system dominated by patients growing their own marijuana to the introduction of large commercial grow-ops that sell cannabis by mail.

A number of factors appear to be in play, according to cannabis industry officials and doctors who are pioneering the use of marijuana.

There is a growing awareness among both patients and doctors of the possible benefits of medical marijuana. Clinics and information centres have sprung up to advise patients on how to obtain cannabis legally, direct them to cannabis-friendly doctors, and give advice on how to use it.

The licensed marijuana producers have also devoted resources to educating doctors and the public.

Canopy Growth Corporation, for instance, the parent company for Tweed company in Smiths Falls, Ont., has sent experts to doctors’ offices across Canada to talk about the benefits of cannabis, and has sponsored continuing education courses for physicians.

The shift in attitudes has been marked, says Bruce Linton, Canopy’s CEO. When Tweed opened its plant in the old Hershey chocolate factory in the spring of 2014, says Linton, the general attitude was, “We all knew everything about cannabis — it was prohibited and bad, and therefore we weren’t supporting it.”

As the use of cannabis becomes more mainstream, more doctors are prescribing it, says Linton.

Dr. Sana-Ara Ahmed of Ottawa, who began using cannabis in her practice a year ago, believes patients are driving the trend.

“There may be a few more doctors open to it. But I also believe it’s the same doctors, seeing more people. The direction is coming from the public. The direction is not coming from the physicians.”

People are sharing stories about cannabis, says Ahmed, an anesthesiologist and chronic pain specialist who advocates for cannabis use. “Patients are coming out and saying, ‘Hey, mom, I smoked a joint, maybe you should, too.’ And mom (at first) says, ‘No!’ Then she’ll go back to her doctor, who says, ‘I have no idea, but I hear there is a specialist in town; go talk to them.’

“It’s the conversation that is happening around the Canadian population that hadn’t happened before.”

Cannabis industry consultant Eric Nash says he is not surprised by the increase in patients because demand is high. Before Health Canada introduced the system of licensed producers, it estimated that 450,000 Canadians would be signed up for medical cannabis by 2024.

There are also as many as 29,000 Canadians who are allowed to grow their own medical pot, either because they are covered by court injunctions or because they have registered since August, when Health Canada changed the rules again to allow home growing.

And many thousands more people are bypassing the legal system and buying marijuana at illegal dispensaries across the country. One dispensary umbrella group estimates that more than 300,000 Canadians shop at them — a credible estimate, given that a federal survey in 2011 found that 420,000 Canadians said they used marijuana for medical reasons.