Considering it is hours or days from the time a doctor writes a medical document and sends it to an LP to the time a patient can order, waiting months to start growing their own is a travesty. People often go this route as they cannot afford their prescription from an LP, or they can’t get the strain or delivery method they desire. Growing your own cannabis can cost less than 20 cents a gram, while the average price from an LP is $8.37, with no quantity discount. For a serious ailment requiring intensive cannabinoid therapy this can run upwards of $30,000 a year. For an individual with a modest green thumb they could produce their own medicine for $730 a year.
Growing at home has many benefits for those willing to undertake such an endeavour. While certain parts of the process, such as harvesting, can be labour intensive, many find it therapeutic to nurture and care for plants that will be used to heal themselves. It allows patients to select a strain, or several strains, that will work for their body chemistry and condition. It allows them to use novel delivery methods such as fresh juicing or extraction methods like water hash or rosin. They can manage their own inventory to ensure what they need is always in stock. They are constantly learning and evolving their processes to produce better products, such as growing organically and without the use of pesticides.
Personal oversight of quality assurance gives patients piece of mind. They know exactly how the plant was grown, treated, trimmed, dried and packaged, which is the only way to guarantee top notch quality. While Canada has the most stringent quality assurance and quality control regulations in the world there are still circumstances that can allow subpar product to be sold to patients. As we have seen, employees can take matters into their own hands if a pathogen outbreak occurs, opting to spray dangerous unauthorized chemicals on plants to save a potentially multi-million dollar crop. Health Canada has since changed the regulations to mandate pesticide testing, but it is not every single gram that is tested but a sample of each batch. There are also 20 currently registered pesticides permitted for use on cannabis, many of which have a 0 day pre-harvest interval. This means a producer can spray the crop the day it is to be harvested with an approved pesticide. These approved pesticides are not screened for during lab analysis, and it is not clearly understood what effect burning and inhaling these residues will have on human health.
My personal journey into this industry started after a serious motorcycle accident in 2004 left me with chronic pain that a myriad of pharmaceuticals could not alleviate. It got to the point where I was taking 7 different prescriptions to try to deal with the pain and the side effects that came with the pills. They made me feel dull and listless. They pain was still there, I just didn’t care about anything, including the joys of life. Cannabis was the one thing I had accidentally found that had the power to change my relationship with pain. It didn’t remove it either, but made it manageable and improved my mood significantly to the point I wanted to be active and pursue other natural remedies. I made the conscious choice to stop all pharmaceuticals and switch to cannabis exclusively. This lead me on a decade long journey of research, trial and error, and connecting with individuals who had similar experiences.
Making the decision to pursue medical cannabis as a professional career was not easy at the time. This was prior to the inception of the MMPR and there was practically no legal industry to speak of. When I met an acquaintance at a holiday party in 2013 and first heard of Tweed I knew that was my next step. They were conveniently setting up shop 25 minutes from my house and I decided I would do whatever it took to get hired. After 4 resumé submissions and 2 impassioned in-person interviews I was offered a job. I spent nearly 2 years with them in production, R&D, Control System & Special Projects. This was invaluable experience and solidified my determination to start my own patient centric LP.
Today I work for Rambridge Wholesale, a cannabis hydroponics and lighting distributor in Canada and the US. We work with and sell wholesale products to LP’s and hydroponic shops, allowing me to deal with both sides of the industry on a daily basis and meet many wonderful people. I recently launched Burnstown Farms Cannabis Company, which will produce world class cannabis products primarily for medical patients, at prices they can afford. We seek to be global leaders in outdoor, sustainable cannabis production and eco-wellness. We’re currently raising seed money, you can connect with us on Twitter @burnstownfarms.
For anyone seeking to grow their own I can attest it is well worth the effort and red tape. You may even make a new career out of it. Feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @spearster55 for grow advice, help with the ACMPR or just to say hi.
246