B.C. medical marijuana users concerned as stock diminishes

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A Metro Vancouver mother is worried that the only form of treatment that works for her epileptic daughter will run dry from unresolved negotiations between the B.C. General Employees Union and the province.

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Upon her visit to a B.C. cannabis retailer last week, Cheryl Rose said she purchased the last oil vaporizer the store had in stock.

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“I was told by an employee if there’s anything I need … to grab it now,” Rose said. “I just kept thinking: ‘This is a huge problem. How many people are not going to have access?’”

Rose’s worries come as B.C. cannabis stores have already begun shutting down as their only supply source has been cut off by a 10-day-old BCGEU strike at government distribution warehouses.

Burb, which has five retail outlets, shut down one of its two Port Coquitlam stores and another in Port Moody Wednesday, forcing around 20-to-25 employees out of work.

While private liquor stores, pubs and restaurants can source beer and wine directly from local producers, cannabis retailers can only purchase their product directly from government wholesale and distribution centres in Delta, Richmond, Kamloops and Victoria.

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No purchasing limits have gone into effect at B.C. cannabis stores, as with liquor, which is being rationed to safeguard consumer supply.

“We’re in a situation where the need is immediate,” said Rielle Capler, a cannabis post-doctoral research fellow at B.C.’s Centre on Substance Use.

During her fieldwork with the B.C. Compassion Club Society, Capler witnessed a range of patients who were using cannabis to cope with chronic conditions.

“Everyone from people battling cancer, opiate withdrawal, multiple sclerosis, mental health disorders — even experiencing side-effects caused by their prescribed medications.”

Although she says research puts around 20 per cent of Canadians accessing cannabis having medical authorization to do so, only six per cent are using the mail-order system.

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“Patients are able to order cannabis directly from licensed producers, however, the majority are choosing not to and prefer choosing and seeing products at storefronts.”

For those without stockpiles, Capler said the legal supply crunch could see them suffer needlessly.

“I’m worried that patients may end up turning to a poisoned drug supply in order to keep their symptoms at bay.”

Some of Vancouver’s unregulated cannabis retailers have already reported a trickle of new interest in their shops this week as a result of the strike-imposed retail shortages.

“We are having some of them come to us,” said Neil Magnuson, founder of the Cannabis Substitution Program, which provides opiate users with the drug to curb their symptoms of withdrawal.

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Dana Larsen of Vancouver’s Medicinal Cannabis Dispensary says medicinal users, who were initially at the forefront of the push for legalization in Canada, have been some of the last to reap the benefit.

When recreational users rushed to stores in 2018 to get their hands on the earliest supply of legal cannabis, shortages were reported at retail outlets across the province.

“It’s a shame that this is happening. The government monopoly on retail cannabis makes it harder and more expensive for anyone to get their hands on the drug.”

The provincially regulated cannabis retail sector, which started after Canada legalized marijuana, has more than 400 private retail stores in B.C. and more than 30 government-owned stores. It employs about 5,000 people.

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While Larsen’s unlicensed shop, the Medicinal Cannabis Dispensary, stands to benefit financially from the shortage, he said his priority is for medical users to get the treatment they need.

“It’s not the occasional pot user that I’m worried about, it’s those who depend on cannabis every day to manage their pain.”

For Rose, whose daughter Hayley was Canada’s first child to be approved as a medical marijuana patient, her concerns about sourcing legal cannabis are growing each day the job action goes unresolved.

Before the 29-year-old began taking cannabis, Rose says her daughter, who was then 15, would suffer as many as 15 seizures in a day.

“For patients like her, you can’t just have it. It’s the only medicine that has ever worked.”

sgrochowski@postmedia.com