Tucked away in its Proposed Approach was a hint that Health Canada understood a need for new varieties of cannabis genetics in the legal market. Initially, it was suggested that there may be an opportunity for the commercialization of research and development of new plant genetics.
Then, in its summary document in March, Health Canada highlighted “starting material and access to plant genetics” as one of the four topics that garnered the most feedback from respondents to its consultation. There, Health Canada indicated that the feedback from respondents was that “access to a broad diversity of cannabis plant genetics used to propagate cannabis (such as seeds, seedlings or cuttings) was necessary to enable the legal market to successfully compete with the current illegal market.”1 After being advised of the “hundreds, if not thousands, of different strains of cannabis sold on the illegal market” Health Canada recognized the need for more diversity of legal strains. In the event that Health Canada were to implement regulations that allowed for this, those regulations “would need to aim to ensure that organized crime would not benefit from past or ongoing criminal activity with cannabis, and that all cannabis grown by the legal industry, regardless of source, would be subject to the same strict regulatory controls, including pesticide testing and other controls.”2
As a result, many expected some type of regulation to be introduced with respect to genetics, but it was unclear how it would be done to ensure that criminal activity would not be encouraged. This was a very exciting prospect as many licensed producers in Canada recognize the lack of variety of legal sources available. The status quo today, of course, is that licensed producers have had to acquire starting materials either from an existing licensed producer or from importing starting material.
Both of these methods
can be difficult in their
own unique ways.
173
1 Health Canada, “Proposed Approach to the Regulation of Cannabis: Summary of Comments Received During the Public Consultation”, s. 2.2 Health Canada https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/publications/drugs-health-products/summary-comments-public-consultation-regulation-cannabis.html
2 Ibid.