Confusion Over Canada’s Weed Laws Led to the RCMP Seizing a Legal Pot Shipment

Photo via Tweed.
Canada’s medical marijuana laws have changed quite drastically since April Fool’s day, when the old MMAR (Medical Marihuana Access Regulations) program that allowed the roughly 40,000 medical weed patients in Canada to grow their own weed was replaced by the MMPR (Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulation) program, which technically means that patients can only purchase their stanky nugs from legalized and regulated grow-ops that have been given the green light by the federal government, of which there are currently 12 that are in operation.

The somewhat dramatic shift from MMAR to MMPR had a wrench thrown in it by a lawyer out in B.C. named John Conroy, who successfully argued that the MMPR program would be limiting patients’ access to medicine in an unconstitutional way. He won a temporary injunction against the government, so for now, if you’re a registered patient under the old MMAR program, you can keep growing weed at home. But, if you’re prescribed weed today under the MMPR program (and doctors are allowed to do that now), you’ll be directed to one of the new, licensed companies that can sell you some dank kush.

Confused? So is the RCMP, it seems.

On March 31st, the last day of the MMAR program, a shipment of pot was moving through Kelowna International Airport, on its way to a massive grow-op in Smith Falls, Ontario, which a corporation called Tweed has built inside of an old Hershey’s chocolate factory. It seems that Tweed had underestimated the quantity of orders they would be getting for the launch of the MMPR program, so it needed to purchase extra plants and seeds from growers across B.C., who had been previously licensed under the MMAR program.

Despite Tweed giving the RCMP a heads-up about their giant crate of weed that would be crossing the country, and even though Health Canada gave the OK to Tweed to order their happy plants from B.C. growers, the RCMP seized Tweed’s shipment and didn’t provide any public comment as to why. The National Post was at least able to stir up this non-answer from the mounties: “We typically do not confirm or deny investigations unless there is an investigational or public safety need. Specific details about any investigation only become known when that investigation results in charges being laid by Crown Counsel.” Given that the RCMP doesn’t have anything to press charges for, it’s likely that will be the only comment we hear on the matter.

Earlier today, I had a chat with Bruce Linton, Tweed’s chairman, who rightly pointed out that this shift from the MMAR program to the MMPR program is a “tough environment for police officers to function” because “the police need certainty.” As he told me, “it’s a very complicated environment that they’re learning to unravel now.”

The media splash this seizure had made should provide the RCMP with the wake-up call they need to realize that the new laws for medical marijuana have gone into effect, and according to The Huffington Post, Tweed is not the only grow-op to have been affected by an RCMP seizure of legal, medical marijuana. Plus, to be fair, Tweed’s shipment was passing through a B.C. airport while the old laws were still in place, so the confusion is totally understandable.

Despite this minor legal kerfuffle, however, Tweed was the fourth-most traded stock on the TSX last Friday, which resulted in a meteoric rise of 183% to $2.52, from an initial price of 89 cents. Tweed’s stock currently sits at $3.62 a share, and it holds the precious title of being Canada’s first publicly medical marijuana corporation.

Clearly there’s a lot of economic growth potential in Canada, thanks to what is basically a brand new industry (despite gettin’ high off weed being a well-known pastime that’s older than your grandma). This so-called green rush has been making headlines in Colorado, where the pot laws are much more progressive than Canada, as recreational use has been legalized outright. In a documentary made by our sister site Motherboard last year, The Future of Weed: High Country, Denver is referred to as the Silicon Valley of weed. Out there, new businesses are scrambling for business, attention, and investors, as the race is on to become the first company to “break through the wall” and become a trusted name in American weed; a process that will become easier as more U.S. states (and their export partners) jump on the legal weed bandwagon.

For now, Canada is doing things somewhat backwards, at least compared to our friends in Colorado. Instead of legalizing marijuana for recreational use, which would provide an amazing economic opportunity for budding weed entrepreneurs, our government is talking about fining weed smokers who currently get high in a legal grey-zone that cops tend not to trifle with. And, instead of making marijuana easily accessible to the sick Canadians who need to ease their illnesses, patients are stuck navigating a confusing system that’s marred by unexpected litigation, and mixed messages from Health Canada.

With a federal election on the horizon, and corporate grow-ops already up and running in Canada, it probably won’t be too long before this country embraces full-on legalization. We have the resources to compete in the global weed market where it sounds like there’s some good money to be made, so what are we really waiting for?

@patrickmcguire