Nicholas Donaldson
The owner of Rainy River Cannabis Collective here has a message for the Government of Ontario concerning its plans for marijuana legislation: leave medicinal marijuana alone.
Angela Olson feels the plan announced earlier this month to control and distribute marijuana through LCBO-style stores will hurt those using cannabis as medicine since they are punished by the price-fixing and taxation of a government trying to make money off a new market.
Although Olson said she’ll be able to continue to operate the Scott Street clinic with all the services it currently provides, her marijuana prices would become controlled by the government.
And she fears the province will artificially inflate this price for recreational users without considering the medicinal users.
“If the province were to carry out its plan, which is to privatize and create a monopoly for marijuana without identifying the difference in recreational and medicinal, then the outcome would not just be bad for me but it would be really bad for the medicinal users,” she stressed.
Olson explained medicinal users have a lot more things they need that the province won’t be able to provide.
“They have a lot more services, education, and products that they need to achieve their goal, which is either to avoid death, manage pain, or overcome addiction,” she noted.
Olson added recreational users don’t need to see doctor, don’t need to check medications, and don’t require the ongoing care that Rainy River Cannabis Collective provides.
“You have the same product that serves two different functions but is being lumped into the same category,” she argued.
“I would like to see the industry divided with recreational on one side and medicinal on the other.”
Olson said she’s fine with the plan for LCBO-style stores because she believes the LCBO does a good job at safety measures like checking ID, as well as making money for the province.
But she’s concerned that if the medicinal marijuana is not separated, the government’s money-making focus will hurt patients.
“When you have the government say things like, ‘We want to price-fix and we want to increase the cost to deter people from using cannabis,’ then it is also a moral issue,” she remarked.
For Olson, a line should be drawn between recreational and medicinal marijuana, and that medicinal users still should have to see a doctor and prove their condition, just as the case is now.
But what she wants to see is medicinal marijuana exempt from the price-fixing and taxation of the government so patients can have affordable access to their medicine.
Another glaring issue in Olson’s mind is the noticeable lack of supply for the government–and no mention of a plan to gain inventory.
She noted that in many cases where a country or state legalizes marijuana, the supply is completely spent in a few days and it takes three-four months to grow a new crop and re-supply.
“Three-five days after legalization [slated for July 1, 2018], the entire country of Canada will run out of weed, mark my words,” Olson warned.
“So where does that leave the medical marijuana patients?”
Rainy River Cannabis Collective does have a bit of a master plan, according to Olson, and is trying to be proactive about these problems.
“We are expanding,” Olson revealed.
She explained there currently are two official way to produce and access marijuana for Health Canada: licensed producers (LPs) and what is called a “dealer’s licence.”
Olson said they are in the process of getting a dealer’s licence, a sort of research and development licence that will allow them to grow as much marijuana as they want, innovate to bring new products to market, provide for their patients, and sell wholesale to licensed producers or the LCBO-style stores.
The process should take about six months, she noted.
“Right now, the [Ontario] government has announced 150 stores but don’t have a gram of weed and LPs have no financial motivation to sell to anyone other than who they get full retail from-which is medicinal patients,” Olson explained.
She said that as they move forward with this dealer’s licence, Rainy River Cannabis Collective is planning a 20,000-30,000 square foot expansion for growing.
“We’re going to put it here in the community and it’s going to be 50-70 full-time jobs,” Olson assured.
Olson said her message to the community of Fort Frances is that they are bringing jobs, and that her business operates in an ethical, compliant way that also is moral.
“That is the mentality that the medicinal industry needs; not making shareholders happy or just trying to make money,” she stressed.
Rainy River Cannabis Collective will continue to operate the clinic with their full suite of services because they believe that is the most important thing they can do for their patients.
They also are writing a letter to Premier Kathleen Wynne explaining their concerns, and asking that medicinal marijuana be separate from recreational pot for the sake of patients and the industry.
“Take recreational [marijuana] but leave medicinal to the people who care,” Olson said.
“We’ll always be here for patients, that is what we care about,” she pledged.
