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BENEFITS COVERAGE
For those of you that read my article in last month’s US edition, I put forth the hypothesis that the cannabis industry is somewhat recession proof. On the medical side, people need their medication and remedies. Typically, medical marijuana is lower cost than traditional pharmaceuticals. The medical side should continue to grow. We predicted a long time ago that the recreational market may have a limit on THC (and perhaps CBD) and that would separate the recreational market from the medical market - think of a prescription strength medica-tion compared to the over the counter version. The other issue
of course becomes one of medical benefits coverage whether they be from the employer, the government, or from private procurement. People with medical coverage will tend to gravitate to the lowest cost to themselves and that ironically would be the costly traditional pharmaceuticals.
You likely have seen, heard, or read the usual suspects sour on the Licensed Producer’s outlook because of a false belief that the recreational market will reduce if not eliminate the medical market. It was a long time ago I wrote “one can speculate that it is a matter of time before medical marijuana is covered by employer, private, and perhaps even government benefits”. And here we are as Sunlife has approved coverage of medical cannabis. I tweeted that news release to the Great West Life Assurance Company and they replied stating that they too would be covering medical marijuana sometime in 2018. There are rumours that such coverage may be very limited at the onset. In provinces such as Ontario with prescription coverage up to the age of 25, this is necessary a substantial savings to insurers so surely medical cannabis coverage is viable – particularly since in many cases it is to replace costly pharmaceutical prescriptions.