system at this time. In this instance the CMA supports regulations for each system being as similar as possible. Furthermore, the CMA strongly supports the need for appropriate and relevant data collection (e.g., interaction of individuals between the medicinal and retail systems) to provide the necessary evidence for the future legislative review, anticipated in three years’ time. The CMA would expect to be involved and looks forward to participating in the criteria development, evaluation and performance review of the systems.
CMA maintains its position that there should be one system with one set of regulations for medical and recreational cannabis. The CMA believes that once the Act and regulations are in force, there will be no need for two systems.
The first good news is that progressive companies such as Apotex Inc and Licensed Producer CannTrust Holdings Inc (TSX:TRST) announced on August 8th that they are accelerating their partnership and as part of that arrangement Apotex will be filing applications for a DIN. The other related news of course is that the FDA in the USA recently approved a prescription drug with CBD derived from cannabis (Click Here) and is expected that the DEA may reschedule CBD within a 90 day window. Click here for the CannTrust news with respect to Apotex that also includes the FDA/DEA reference.
The second bit of good news can be found in the middle paragraph as it articulates that the government intends on maintaining the medical use stream; however, the CMA’s position remains that a medical use system is no longer needed. If anything when reading that medical cannabis is used to treat an array of conditions and under medical supervision one may have thought that the CMA position would be to strengthen the existing medical use system and to recommend to Health Canada that a DIN is necessary to facilitate medical benefits coverage. If the medical framework was phased out as the CMA recommends and if dispensaries do not adequately stock high CBD content strains or for that matter any
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