jafro daweedhound
Well-Known Member
Home grows in Canada: The Devil is in the details
Allowing personal production of medical cannabis is a huge step forward, but many questions remain about how feasible to plan will be any time soon
Full story
https://news.lift.co/home-grows-devils-details/
ByDavid Brown
August 15, 2016
While we still have to wait and see the more minute details of the regulations on August 24th, Health Canada’s announcement last week about the allowance for personal and designated grower production for medical cannabis patients made waves in Canada and around the world.
While the agencyemphasizedthat this was largely a stop-gap response to the Allard ruling, and future regulatory changes would be coming (including likely pharmacy distribution), this is still being seen as a huge step forward by many advocates and activists who have fought to secure the right to home grows. The details of how that reaffirmed right, and the associated rules, will be managed still remains to be seen.
One such detail that has stood out to many is that patients or designated growers who seek to grow cannabis for medical purposes are required to get their genetic starting materials (clones, seeds) from establishedLicensed Producers. While on paper, this could seem a common sense approach to a legal source, some of the realities of how this can be managed or enforced seem not all that clear cut.
For one, there’s the issue of how this can even be practically enforced. As in the past with the MMAR, Health Canada’srulewas to tell patients and their designated growers they had to buy seeds from the government or the sole government contractor for medical cannabis at the time, Prairie Plant Systems. This was a rule often ignored by home grows who found easier access and far more variety from a plethora of black market sources operating very openly.
Since home inspections of MMAR grows were practically non existent, this rule became nothing more than a formal way for the government to pretend they were providing a legal source.
Adding to the irony, Licensed Producers were also allowed to secure genetics from MMAR growers previous to April 2014, and many current LP strains are ones actually developed by MMAR growers, as well as illicit and licit growers around the world.
But another side of this is the current LP’s ability to provide clones or seeds to patients in any significant number any time soon. Like anything under the MMPR, Licensed Producers operate in a sea of red tape, with even root balls having to be carefullydocumented. So the idea of the majority of LP’s being able to rapidly provide even clones, much less seeds, in the coming weeks or even months, seems unlikely. Add to that, a general feeling that Health Canada did not openlyconsultwith LP’s about their ability to provide these genetic starting materials.
Once they are able to produce clones and (eventually) seeds, variety will remain an issue for some. Producers have already invested time and effort into developing specific strains, and like many growers, they are protective of their genetics. While producers will want to satisfy their patient’s demands for starting material, they also may not want to release all of their genetics, especially ones considered proprietary.
Some producers like Bedrocan, who carry a handful of strains the company has been perfecting for well over a decade, may not want to sell seeds or clones at all.
The Mother room at Tweed Inc’s Smith Falls facility
On top of the paperwork, the logistics of planning out the large scale of production of clones or seeds requires serious forethought. For example, you need to be prepared to grow out your mother plants more for cuttings for clones and if you’re growing seeds on a large scale, your production methods will in most cases require new rooms and infrastructure. While this might seem relatively easy in a less regulated market, for a company operating under the byzantine MMPR/ACMPR, it requires immense forethought. Not to mention the likely addition of new rules and inspections.
Vic Neufeld, CEO of Aphria Inc, a greenhouse cannabis producer in Leamington, Ont., says that Aphria looks forward to being able to supply strains, but is still waiting on approval of the extra growing space needed to do so. Even then, he points out, of the approximately 16 strains the company currently grows, Aphria would likely release about 10 or 12 of them, with the rest being proprietary.
“Once our part 2 expansion is done and we’ve allocated more space for mothers, it’s fairly easy for us to take three or four or five strains or more that are not unique to Aphria and something that we haven’t spent 18 months producing, just general strains,” says Neufeuld.
“We are ready to go. We’ve already tested the packaging, we’ve already tested the shipping, we’ve already replanted them. We are ready to go today. It’s great. They’re giving the plant back to the people.” -John Miller, President and CEO of THC Biomed
Aphria’s Part 2 expansion will include the addition of nearly 50,000 sq ft of approved growing space. Neufeld can see offering patients a mix of high THC, high CBD, and options in between. This would likely only be clones, though, not seeds.
“Right out of the box, I can say we are not going to participate in the shipment of seeds. That’s not a part of our core competency. We have seeds for our own growth, but seeds is not a part of what we would like to see happen. If we’re forced to, and there’s a commercial trending, obviously we’ll participate, but our preference…would be sending two to three week old cuttings. We will absolutely be a part of that, because home grown for medical purposes is something that we support.”
Neufeld also wonders if Health Canada could, at some point, alter the regulations to open up seed options for patients.
“I have to believe that as this space grows up, and the running rules get more and more manicured, I have to believe that Health Canada will find designated seed outlets — retailers that are sanctioned and regulated by Health Canada, where Mrs. Smith can go and acquire her eight or ten seeds. But in the meantime, no, we have seeds in the vault, but they’re for our own use.”
“I have to believe that as this space grows up, and the running rules get more and more manicured, I have to believe that Health Canada will find designated seed outlets — retailers that are sanctioned and regulated by Health Canada, where Mrs. Smith can go and acquire her eight or ten seeds. But in the meantime, no, we have seeds in the vault, but they’re for our own use.” -Vic Neufeld, CEO of Aphria Inc
Mark Zekulin, the President of Tweed Inc, says Tweed could possibly be supplying both seeds and clones in the future, but also emphasized the need for more formal planning to be able to meet a commercial demand.
“To be honest, I don’t think seeds are out of the question,” says Zekulin. “We’ve talked a lot over the years about the importance of breeding to us, and we’ve partnered with some of the best breeders in the world, so this topic — not in this context — but this topic has been on our minds for a while. So it’s not out of the question that we would look at seed production in the near future.
“The bigger issue is what genetics would we be willing to put out into the market. Take Bedrocan as an extreme case, they’ve spent decades standardizing their strains, it’s unlikely you would put those genetics out into the market. It’s the same thing with Tweed. We’ve gone to a lot of trouble, put in a lot of energy, to comb through hundreds of different phenotypes to narrow down to the one that we think is the best one. So we value that. But if you put that aside, sure, we can look at what we have available.”
Mothers (foreground) and clones (background) at Tilray, in Nanaimo, BC.
Still, this won’t happen overnight, says Zekulin. Nothing moves fast in the MMPR, and the question of demand still needs to be answered. Will patients even buy from LP’s at all when it’s so easy to buy seeds online?
Allowing personal production of medical cannabis is a huge step forward, but many questions remain about how feasible to plan will be any time soon
Full story
https://news.lift.co/home-grows-devils-details/
ByDavid Brown
August 15, 2016
While we still have to wait and see the more minute details of the regulations on August 24th, Health Canada’s announcement last week about the allowance for personal and designated grower production for medical cannabis patients made waves in Canada and around the world.
While the agencyemphasizedthat this was largely a stop-gap response to the Allard ruling, and future regulatory changes would be coming (including likely pharmacy distribution), this is still being seen as a huge step forward by many advocates and activists who have fought to secure the right to home grows. The details of how that reaffirmed right, and the associated rules, will be managed still remains to be seen.
One such detail that has stood out to many is that patients or designated growers who seek to grow cannabis for medical purposes are required to get their genetic starting materials (clones, seeds) from establishedLicensed Producers. While on paper, this could seem a common sense approach to a legal source, some of the realities of how this can be managed or enforced seem not all that clear cut.
For one, there’s the issue of how this can even be practically enforced. As in the past with the MMAR, Health Canada’srulewas to tell patients and their designated growers they had to buy seeds from the government or the sole government contractor for medical cannabis at the time, Prairie Plant Systems. This was a rule often ignored by home grows who found easier access and far more variety from a plethora of black market sources operating very openly.
Since home inspections of MMAR grows were practically non existent, this rule became nothing more than a formal way for the government to pretend they were providing a legal source.
Adding to the irony, Licensed Producers were also allowed to secure genetics from MMAR growers previous to April 2014, and many current LP strains are ones actually developed by MMAR growers, as well as illicit and licit growers around the world.
But another side of this is the current LP’s ability to provide clones or seeds to patients in any significant number any time soon. Like anything under the MMPR, Licensed Producers operate in a sea of red tape, with even root balls having to be carefullydocumented. So the idea of the majority of LP’s being able to rapidly provide even clones, much less seeds, in the coming weeks or even months, seems unlikely. Add to that, a general feeling that Health Canada did not openlyconsultwith LP’s about their ability to provide these genetic starting materials.
Once they are able to produce clones and (eventually) seeds, variety will remain an issue for some. Producers have already invested time and effort into developing specific strains, and like many growers, they are protective of their genetics. While producers will want to satisfy their patient’s demands for starting material, they also may not want to release all of their genetics, especially ones considered proprietary.
Some producers like Bedrocan, who carry a handful of strains the company has been perfecting for well over a decade, may not want to sell seeds or clones at all.
The Mother room at Tweed Inc’s Smith Falls facility
On top of the paperwork, the logistics of planning out the large scale of production of clones or seeds requires serious forethought. For example, you need to be prepared to grow out your mother plants more for cuttings for clones and if you’re growing seeds on a large scale, your production methods will in most cases require new rooms and infrastructure. While this might seem relatively easy in a less regulated market, for a company operating under the byzantine MMPR/ACMPR, it requires immense forethought. Not to mention the likely addition of new rules and inspections.
Vic Neufeld, CEO of Aphria Inc, a greenhouse cannabis producer in Leamington, Ont., says that Aphria looks forward to being able to supply strains, but is still waiting on approval of the extra growing space needed to do so. Even then, he points out, of the approximately 16 strains the company currently grows, Aphria would likely release about 10 or 12 of them, with the rest being proprietary.
“Once our part 2 expansion is done and we’ve allocated more space for mothers, it’s fairly easy for us to take three or four or five strains or more that are not unique to Aphria and something that we haven’t spent 18 months producing, just general strains,” says Neufeuld.
“We are ready to go. We’ve already tested the packaging, we’ve already tested the shipping, we’ve already replanted them. We are ready to go today. It’s great. They’re giving the plant back to the people.” -John Miller, President and CEO of THC Biomed
Aphria’s Part 2 expansion will include the addition of nearly 50,000 sq ft of approved growing space. Neufeld can see offering patients a mix of high THC, high CBD, and options in between. This would likely only be clones, though, not seeds.
“Right out of the box, I can say we are not going to participate in the shipment of seeds. That’s not a part of our core competency. We have seeds for our own growth, but seeds is not a part of what we would like to see happen. If we’re forced to, and there’s a commercial trending, obviously we’ll participate, but our preference…would be sending two to three week old cuttings. We will absolutely be a part of that, because home grown for medical purposes is something that we support.”
Neufeld also wonders if Health Canada could, at some point, alter the regulations to open up seed options for patients.
“I have to believe that as this space grows up, and the running rules get more and more manicured, I have to believe that Health Canada will find designated seed outlets — retailers that are sanctioned and regulated by Health Canada, where Mrs. Smith can go and acquire her eight or ten seeds. But in the meantime, no, we have seeds in the vault, but they’re for our own use.”
“I have to believe that as this space grows up, and the running rules get more and more manicured, I have to believe that Health Canada will find designated seed outlets — retailers that are sanctioned and regulated by Health Canada, where Mrs. Smith can go and acquire her eight or ten seeds. But in the meantime, no, we have seeds in the vault, but they’re for our own use.” -Vic Neufeld, CEO of Aphria Inc
Mark Zekulin, the President of Tweed Inc, says Tweed could possibly be supplying both seeds and clones in the future, but also emphasized the need for more formal planning to be able to meet a commercial demand.
“To be honest, I don’t think seeds are out of the question,” says Zekulin. “We’ve talked a lot over the years about the importance of breeding to us, and we’ve partnered with some of the best breeders in the world, so this topic — not in this context — but this topic has been on our minds for a while. So it’s not out of the question that we would look at seed production in the near future.
“The bigger issue is what genetics would we be willing to put out into the market. Take Bedrocan as an extreme case, they’ve spent decades standardizing their strains, it’s unlikely you would put those genetics out into the market. It’s the same thing with Tweed. We’ve gone to a lot of trouble, put in a lot of energy, to comb through hundreds of different phenotypes to narrow down to the one that we think is the best one. So we value that. But if you put that aside, sure, we can look at what we have available.”
Mothers (foreground) and clones (background) at Tilray, in Nanaimo, BC.
Still, this won’t happen overnight, says Zekulin. Nothing moves fast in the MMPR, and the question of demand still needs to be answered. Will patients even buy from LP’s at all when it’s so easy to buy seeds online?
.the new shops are gonna love watching you fold with HC plans ... 
