Lawyer Trina Fraser accused the federal government of passing the buck on sorting out pharmacy access to MED.”
Twitter
- Sandoz Canada wants to sell its non-smokable MED products in pharmacies, but can’t find anyone to tell them who needs to make the changes that will allow them to do that. Executive director of innovation and strategic projects Vincenzo Ciampi said, “We had conversations with both the federal and provincial government and what we’re being told is that it’s the responsibility of the other party.”
- Patients can still only legally buy MED by mail online. Pharmacists are prohibited from dispensing cannabis, which angers those who’d like medical professionals to oversee MED treatments.
CityNews - Deepak Anand told a Vancouver compliance and licensing panel discussion. “There is zero political will to do anything beyond legalization.”
Twitter—Mike Zmuda - Part of the problem is that the Canadian Pharmacists Association originally lobbied against handling MED under the MMPR (2013).
Quick Hits
- The vice-chair of Maritimers Unite for Medical Marijuana, Chris Backer, said legalization failed MED users because LPs and politicians know little about cannabis and aren’t sick—and have never had the experience of being forced to break the law in order to use effective medicine.
Chronicle Herald - McKesson Canada—parent company of major drug store brands Rexall and Uniprix, among others—entered the sector with a patient-education portal on its Well.ca website that offers guidance on treatments, including cannabis.
NewsWire - Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan said despite their partnership with Tilray, the company does not consider cannabis to be “a focus.”
CNBC - Insiders say there are many testing labs in Canada, but too few testing only cannabis. Startup labs, meanwhile, have to wait months for Health Canada to work through their applications backlog to get licensed.
Ici Radio-Canada—In French
