Earlier this year, the liberal government announced marijuana will be legal by July 1st of 2018.
Two women smoking marijuana on Parliament hill.
The legal age to purchase marijuana at 19 has caused lots of speculation. Some people believe this is too young, but a question that most people aren’t asking is why shouldn’t you still require a medical license in order to purchase it?
Until cannabis is legalized, the only legal way to buy medical marijuana is through a licensed producer that ships the product to patients with valid prescriptions.
What relevance will a license hold once anyone over 19 can purchase pot without one? What does this mean for licensed marijuana users? How will they benefit from having a license once the product is available to people that don’t?
Erika Calhoun from Bodystream Medical Marijuana Services, says people will still benefit from holding a license.
“I think that when it is legalized, it will affect the recreational market more. We’ll still need the medical side of things. We have senior patients who use marijuana medicinally. These are users who like the guidance of physicians and doctors. They like to know that the strain doctors recommend helps their condition, and would prefer that rather than getting it from a dispensary.”
Erika adds that she hopes people’s benefits might start to cover it if they use pot medicinally.
“I think that some pot producers could cater more to medical users, while others to recreational when it is legalized. I think the product itself is going to stay the same, its how the person uses it that defines whether they use it recreational or medicinally.”
Though Erika does represent a company that does help users obtain licenses, no one is entirely sure of what legalization is going to look like until it happens.
