General Canada's House of Commons votes to legalize marijuana
- Thread starter Freeloading Rusty
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I’m getting at the fact that you can technically grow legally, but you really can’t grow four plants legally due to the fact that you cannot legally purchase the seeds that you are required to by the government in order to grow legally. In order to cultivate “black market” genetics, you must have a nursery license. Those four plants in your closet better have a tax stamp
Nursery - %
“A notable change in the Canadian regulatory system for 2018 is that “black market” genetics (i.e., plants and plant seeds) that are illegal will now be allowed to be brought into a newly licensed facility. The plants or plant materials must be brought into the facility on the first day of licensing, as a one-time influx of genetics. As this was not permitted under the previous regulations, this is seen by many to be a huge opportunity to welcome illegal growers into the new legal market. Note that this is not an allowance for existing licensed producers; it will only be permitted as a one-time allowance for new applicants.“
Do you indulge?I’m getting at the fact that you can technically grow legally, but you really can’t grow four plants legally due to the fact that you cannot legally purchase the seeds that you are required to by the government in order to grow legally. In order to cultivate “black market” genetics, you must have a nursery license. Those four plants in your closet better have a tax stamp
Nursery - %
“A notable change in the Canadian regulatory system for 2018 is that “black market” genetics (i.e., plants and plant seeds) that are illegal will now be allowed to be brought into a newly licensed facility. The plants or plant materials must be brought into the facility on the first day of licensing, as a one-time influx of genetics. As this was not permitted under the previous regulations, this is seen by many to be a huge opportunity to welcome illegal growers into the new legal market. Note that this is not an allowance for existing licensed producers; it will only be permitted as a one-time allowance for new applicants.“
How would the govt prove, short of a genetics test, the plants one had growing at home were not a result of seeds within one of their subpar products?
I get its highly unlikely and grasping at straws, but I think legally, its a solid argument if the RCMP came knocking at a Canadian's door.
With that said, yes, it is bullshit this law wasnt fully thought out and the legal avenues to a legal product are non existent to inefficient.
Right now, they could easily prove the fact that you didn’t purchase a tax stamped pack of seeds because they aren’t to market yet. Once seeds hit the market, then the legal issues begin. As well as seeds, what is to stop people from cloning? They haven’t written any legislation regarding it.
Can you legally grow your own pot? Yes – but no. At least for now. Here’s why
I was referring to the fact someone could claim the seed came within the product. It is not uncommon to get a random seed in your grass if its not to shelf stuff.
As for cloning, I dont think it is illegal, unless you are cloning plants that originated from illegal seeds.
But yes, without an official avenue to legal seeds, the who thing seems premature.
They will probably try to prosecute people specifically for cloning or growing from untaxed seeds, hence the wording. Similar to how it is specifically illegal to use solvents now to make concentrates.
How do they possibly enforce it though? A guy could simply purchase tax stamped seeds one time and keep the packaging. Personally, I swore to never pay a penny to the Canadian Government for a product that I’ve been shit-kicked by the RCMP over. Especially when you follow the money and see who has invested in the industry.
View: https://mobile.twitter.com/JodieEmery/status/942434747946373121
It’s a scam, people. They increased many of the penalties, walked all over the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in terms of probable cause, and made sure that their cronies were lined up to reap the benefits, while attempting to shut out activists that tirelessly worked for legalization like Marc and Jodie Emery, Dana Larsen, Rick Simpson, Grant Krieger, etc.
I disagree. Cloning poses no threat to the public. Using solvents to make concentrates is highly dangerous.
I would be impossible to prove if a plant came from a clone or a seed.
Cloning poses a threat to their profits. There is a reason that their first stated goal in almost every press release is to “take money out of the hands of organized crime”. Making solvents is no more dangerous than a lot of risky behaviour that the government allow as long as you do it in a well ventilated area with no ignition sources present. There is probably a greater risk of injury from standing on the top two rings of a step ladder or driving on public roads after midnight.
What I am saying is that the onus will be on the accused to prove that they didn’t break the law. They have already stepped all over the highest document in the land to achieve their goals. The Criminal Code is child’s play compared to the Charter.
I am as aware as anyone on this forum of how impossible it would be to prove if a plant came from a clone or seed. They don’t need to worry about that though, if you are obligated to produce a tax stamp to prevent prosecution
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I get your point about wanting to control the market but I think it is unrealistic to think they will be testing plants genetics to determine if they are spawns of legal seeds or not. If you think someone is going to hold onto the tax stamps that come on the packaging for every plant grown, they are being delusional.
I dont see anywhere in the legislation the onus will be on the accused to prove their innocence.
And as for the quote above, I fully disagree, one should not be able to attempt to cook concentrates with solvents if they are not in a safe space to do so. We have seen many losers think they are chemists in local apartments or low income / condensed housing who have blown up or burnt down their housing in an attempt to make some concentrates w/ solvents.
One can choose to take the risk of working on a ladder or driving after midnight... one does not choose to live next door to some skid trying to cook up his own brew of shatter who then burns down the 4 plex they are living in.
I’ve never said that they will do genetic testing. I don’t see where you would get that impression from. That would be impractical. Presently, “An excise stamp must be present on all cannabis products that have been legally produced and are available for purchase.”
Excise duty framework for cannabis - Canada.ca
It’s not a stretch to assume that they could possibly extend that requirement to home grown as well. The whole point of the tax stamp is to prove that it was legally obtained. I would recommend holding onto all of them.
There is probably just as much risk of a skid burning down your fourplex with a incorrectly wired HPS/Metal Halide ballast (I’ve seen one go up in flames before when it was wired for 110 and the guy ran 220 through it) as using solvents, yet you can still grow indoors. I also made it quite clear that I was talking about safe practices when using solvents, such as proper ventilation and no ignition sources present. Regarding ballasts, I recommend placing a fan directly covering them to prevent excess heat buildup and installing a flame defender above them.
You can’t nerf the world. Somewhere in Alberta right now there is probably a redneck burning his house down because he accidently used to much gasoline in his firepit, or shot a couple pounds of tannerite on dry grass.
View: https://youtu.be/1n6j-w8jaxo
M
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Guest
The level of stupidity for the BC website is stunning.
Why would anyone want to specifically want to buy something low CBD?
And yet you cant select high CBD?
Why would anyone want to specifically want to buy something low CBD?
And yet you cant select high CBD?
This shit is getting silly.
$18 for a fatty?
$18 for a fatty?
Those Landrace joints are garbage. Poor quality, poor craftsmanship and even worse job in packaging. Those joints arrive falling apart, dry and loose.
I didnt say they didnt carry high CBD stuff. I said their website is a joke (search options - low cbd & other ineffective search filters), no one searches for strains that are low CBD specifically. Clear indicator the person making the website was clueless.
RCMP went silent about massive pot bust over concern for marijuana producer’s stock price, documents reveal
There were also concerns the release of information could embarrass Health Canada and expose 'deficiencies' in new medical marijuana regulations
In the spring of 2014, RCMP officers in Kelowna, B.C. prepared a press release about a big drug bust at the local airport. It described how investigators had intercepted two shipments of marijuana of “unfathomable quantity” that were bound for a couple of licensed cannabis producers in Ontario. The press release, however, was never sent.
Days went by with a virtual information blackout over what the Mounties had seized and why, even after one of the companies — Tweed Marijuana Inc., now Canopy Growth Corp. — decided to release its own public statement, containing what some RCMP members perceived to be “brutally misleading” information about the seizure.
“I don’t see how we can’t comment as we are now being put in a negative light,” one frustrated sergeant wrote to a colleague in an email. “Basic media principles state that we should confirm the obvious — Tweed has chosen to put this out there so we would be remiss if we did not comment on factual points that have been inaccurately represented.”
More than 900 pages of internal records obtained by the National Post reveal for the first time the lengthy deliberations that took place among RCMP members in B.C. and at RCMP headquarters in Ottawa over what, if anything, to tell the public about the March 31, 2014, seizures at Kelowna International Airport.
Among the “strategic considerations” outlined in emails was a concern that the release of information might affect the stock price of Tweed, which had gone public on the Toronto Stock Exchange that week — the first pot producer in the country to do so. There were also concerns that the release of information could embarrass Health Canada and expose “deficiencies” in new regulations over medical marijuana production that were rolling out that same week.
The National Post first sought access to the records five years ago through an access-to-information request. The RCMP initially refused to release any records, citing an ongoing investigation. The Post complained to the federal information commissioner, resulting in a process that dragged on until last fall when the RCMP finally agreed to process some of the records.
Asked this week about the national police force’s apparent concern over the impact of publicity about the bust on the company’s stock price and the potential political embarrassment to the federal government, B.C. RCMP spokeswoman Sgt. Janelle Shoihet said she needed more time to review the file. “Generally we can say that decisions with regards to communications will always consider impact on prosecution, timing and whether (or) not a company is publicly traded. These factors have been considered in the past and were not unique to this investigation,” she wrote.
“Impacts on partners, disclosure, potential or active prosecutions and privacy legislation must all be considered when determining what, if any, information can be made public.”
But Garry Clement, a retired RCMP superintendent, said whether a company is publicly traded or not should not have been a consideration.
“When you see something like that, how can you say the RCMP is being objective? They’re playing in the hands of the company. Investors may have made a decision differently had they known the facts, he said. “It doesn’t give the impression of being upfront.”
In September 2015, Tweed was renamed Canopy Growth Corp. Jordan Sinclair, Canopy Growth’s vice-president of communications, said in an email this week the seizures happened more than five years ago when the Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations were in their infancy.
“The company believed then and now that it acted in compliance with regulations. Today, we are focused on the next five years and continuing to build a global cannabis leader creating thousands of jobs in Canada, investing hundreds of millions of dollars into the Canadian economy, and providing the highest quality cannabis products to medical and adult-use customers around the world.”
Mettrum Health Corp, the other Ontario producer whose shipment was seized that day, was acquired by Canopy Growth in early 2017. A former spokesman for Mettrum did not respond to an email requesting comment.
The seizures happened against a backdrop of dramatic change in Canada’s regulatory landscape. New rules took effect on April 1, 2014 that restricted production of medical marijuana to licensed commercial producers. Tweed and Mettrum were among the first to be licensed.
Prior to the transition date, individuals who had possessed personal-production licenses under the old regime were able to sell their starting materials — namely seeds and plants — to one of the new commercial producers, as long as they had Health Canada approval. Tweed and Mettrum received those approvals, Health Canada confirmed to reporters at the time.
But according to internal RCMP briefing notes, the items Tweed and Mettrum told Health Canada they would be importing from B.C. did not match what was seized at the Kelowna airport on March 31.
On paper, Tweed and Mettrum said they planned to transport 2,071 plants and 730 plants, respectively. But when RCMP examined the shipments, they instead found harvested marijuana buds that were packaged for resale, the records say.
“It was packaged bud that was seized, which is materially different from ‘plants and seeds,’” one RCMP investigator wrote.
“At best what has been seized are clippings,” a summary report stated. “The (regulations) do not allow for the sale of marijuana in this form.”
And there was a lot of it — more than 700 kilograms of B.C. bud stored in 55 hockey bags and 40 boxes.
A draft press release prepared by the Kelowna RCMP’s media relations officer on April 1 noted that the seizure was of a quantity “rarely seen in the central Okanagan.”
“Several local growers had pooled their products for transfer … but the shipment fell outside the parameters of the legislation and was subsequently seized by police,” it said, adding that the size of the shipments was enough to create 2.1 million single doses based on 0.3 gram cigarettes.
But senior officers, including the Kelowna detachment’s commanding officer, decided to hold off on the release, citing the lack of any charges.
A couple days later, on April 3 — the day before Tweed was listed on the TSX Venture Exchange — the company put out its own statement. Tweed said it had completed the acquisition of “seeds and plants” from a number of licensed growers, ensuring a “wide variety of choices” and sufficient inventory to meet demand.
The company acknowledged that one shipment had been held by the RCMP “while it confirms the details of the shipment.”
“In an effort to be transparent,” the statement continued, the RCMP was informed of the shipment and “invited to examine the material.”
Tweed chairman Bruce Linton told Postmedia at the time the seizures may have been the result of “confusion” over the old and new regulatory regimes.
“When you call police to say, ‘Come look at this,’ you believe you have everything in order,” he said.
In internal emails, RCMP officers wrote that it was “painful” to not be able to respond and that the company’s version of events was “a long way from what transpired.”
“I find their language very interesting/misleading considering there were no ‘plants,’ ‘seeds,’ or ‘in-production material,’” Const. Kris Clark, Kelowna’s media officer, wrote to colleagues.
Officers also balked at the company’s assertion that it had invited the RCMP to inspect the shipment. Briefing notes indicate that in the week prior to the seizures, RCMP received “several calls” from airline charter companies enquiring about the “legitimacy of transporting 1500 lbs of marijuana.”
“Tweed never came to us, the airline did,” Const. Shane Holmquist wrote to colleagues.
Insp. John Ibbotson told a colleague in an email that although the company’s statement may appear to be a standard press release, “it is in fact a news release intended to inform investors of a publicly traded company of a significant event surrounding a company’s activity.”
Noting that some of the information in Tweed’s release was “factually incorrect,” Ibbotson suggested there had been a violation of section 400 of the Criminal Code — related to making a false prospectus — and wondered if the Ontario Securities commission should be notified.
Yet for several more days, RCMP communications officers declined to set the record straight, trotting out the standard line that they could not confirm nor deny an investigation.
“With some luck the media may dig up the facts and print them without the RCMP having to go public with any details and face the complications that would create,” Sgt. Duncan Pound, then a federal policing spokesman in B.C., wrote to a colleague.
Other emails reveal some of the reasons for the hesitation.
“The heart of the problem is that Health Canada has gone on record as saying they authorized the shipment, which has and will continue to cause us grief trying to set the record straight,” Pound wrote.
“Ideally,” he continued, Health Canada should issue a statement saying the shipments contravened regulations and were not what they had authorized. “If Health Canada says nothing it looks like two Ministries working against each other, which is a lose/lose for both of us.”
Jolene Bradley, the RCMP’s director of strategic communications in Ottawa, presented a briefing document to the deputy commissioner for federal policing on April 10 advising that the force should continue to decline comment. Among the reasons she cited: going public “would likely bring criticism on Health Canada’s part as it would highlight the deficiencies in the transition to the new regulations.”
The same document also stated that “any comments by the RCMP could impact stock prices” for the producers.
Dawn Roberts, an RCMP communications strategist in B.C., similarly wrote in an email to colleagues that Tweed “is a publicly traded company and any comments could impact on stock prices.”
Pressure, however, was starting to build “from higher up to proactively correct the story,” RCMP emails say.
The force eventually issued its first public statement about the March 31 seizures on April 11. But the press release was whittled down considerably from a draft version. The draft included the size of the seizure (705 kilograms) and the reason: regulations allowed for a pre-determined number of plants to be sold, but the shipments consisted of “harvested marijuana in lieu of plants.”
The final version of the statement did not mention the size of the seizure nor the specific reason, simply stating: “The marijuana did not match what was authorized to be transferred.”
No charges were ultimately filed against either company due to the challenge of proving criminal intent, RCMP briefing notes say. The seized marijuana, which caused a rotting smell in RCMP storage, was later destroyed.
There were also concerns the release of information could embarrass Health Canada and expose 'deficiencies' in new medical marijuana regulations
In the spring of 2014, RCMP officers in Kelowna, B.C. prepared a press release about a big drug bust at the local airport. It described how investigators had intercepted two shipments of marijuana of “unfathomable quantity” that were bound for a couple of licensed cannabis producers in Ontario. The press release, however, was never sent.
Days went by with a virtual information blackout over what the Mounties had seized and why, even after one of the companies — Tweed Marijuana Inc., now Canopy Growth Corp. — decided to release its own public statement, containing what some RCMP members perceived to be “brutally misleading” information about the seizure.
“I don’t see how we can’t comment as we are now being put in a negative light,” one frustrated sergeant wrote to a colleague in an email. “Basic media principles state that we should confirm the obvious — Tweed has chosen to put this out there so we would be remiss if we did not comment on factual points that have been inaccurately represented.”
More than 900 pages of internal records obtained by the National Post reveal for the first time the lengthy deliberations that took place among RCMP members in B.C. and at RCMP headquarters in Ottawa over what, if anything, to tell the public about the March 31, 2014, seizures at Kelowna International Airport.
Among the “strategic considerations” outlined in emails was a concern that the release of information might affect the stock price of Tweed, which had gone public on the Toronto Stock Exchange that week — the first pot producer in the country to do so. There were also concerns that the release of information could embarrass Health Canada and expose “deficiencies” in new regulations over medical marijuana production that were rolling out that same week.
The National Post first sought access to the records five years ago through an access-to-information request. The RCMP initially refused to release any records, citing an ongoing investigation. The Post complained to the federal information commissioner, resulting in a process that dragged on until last fall when the RCMP finally agreed to process some of the records.
Asked this week about the national police force’s apparent concern over the impact of publicity about the bust on the company’s stock price and the potential political embarrassment to the federal government, B.C. RCMP spokeswoman Sgt. Janelle Shoihet said she needed more time to review the file. “Generally we can say that decisions with regards to communications will always consider impact on prosecution, timing and whether (or) not a company is publicly traded. These factors have been considered in the past and were not unique to this investigation,” she wrote.
“Impacts on partners, disclosure, potential or active prosecutions and privacy legislation must all be considered when determining what, if any, information can be made public.”
But Garry Clement, a retired RCMP superintendent, said whether a company is publicly traded or not should not have been a consideration.
“When you see something like that, how can you say the RCMP is being objective? They’re playing in the hands of the company. Investors may have made a decision differently had they known the facts, he said. “It doesn’t give the impression of being upfront.”
In September 2015, Tweed was renamed Canopy Growth Corp. Jordan Sinclair, Canopy Growth’s vice-president of communications, said in an email this week the seizures happened more than five years ago when the Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations were in their infancy.
“The company believed then and now that it acted in compliance with regulations. Today, we are focused on the next five years and continuing to build a global cannabis leader creating thousands of jobs in Canada, investing hundreds of millions of dollars into the Canadian economy, and providing the highest quality cannabis products to medical and adult-use customers around the world.”
Mettrum Health Corp, the other Ontario producer whose shipment was seized that day, was acquired by Canopy Growth in early 2017. A former spokesman for Mettrum did not respond to an email requesting comment.
The seizures happened against a backdrop of dramatic change in Canada’s regulatory landscape. New rules took effect on April 1, 2014 that restricted production of medical marijuana to licensed commercial producers. Tweed and Mettrum were among the first to be licensed.
Prior to the transition date, individuals who had possessed personal-production licenses under the old regime were able to sell their starting materials — namely seeds and plants — to one of the new commercial producers, as long as they had Health Canada approval. Tweed and Mettrum received those approvals, Health Canada confirmed to reporters at the time.
But according to internal RCMP briefing notes, the items Tweed and Mettrum told Health Canada they would be importing from B.C. did not match what was seized at the Kelowna airport on March 31.
On paper, Tweed and Mettrum said they planned to transport 2,071 plants and 730 plants, respectively. But when RCMP examined the shipments, they instead found harvested marijuana buds that were packaged for resale, the records say.
“It was packaged bud that was seized, which is materially different from ‘plants and seeds,’” one RCMP investigator wrote.
“At best what has been seized are clippings,” a summary report stated. “The (regulations) do not allow for the sale of marijuana in this form.”
And there was a lot of it — more than 700 kilograms of B.C. bud stored in 55 hockey bags and 40 boxes.
A draft press release prepared by the Kelowna RCMP’s media relations officer on April 1 noted that the seizure was of a quantity “rarely seen in the central Okanagan.”
“Several local growers had pooled their products for transfer … but the shipment fell outside the parameters of the legislation and was subsequently seized by police,” it said, adding that the size of the shipments was enough to create 2.1 million single doses based on 0.3 gram cigarettes.
But senior officers, including the Kelowna detachment’s commanding officer, decided to hold off on the release, citing the lack of any charges.
A couple days later, on April 3 — the day before Tweed was listed on the TSX Venture Exchange — the company put out its own statement. Tweed said it had completed the acquisition of “seeds and plants” from a number of licensed growers, ensuring a “wide variety of choices” and sufficient inventory to meet demand.
The company acknowledged that one shipment had been held by the RCMP “while it confirms the details of the shipment.”
“In an effort to be transparent,” the statement continued, the RCMP was informed of the shipment and “invited to examine the material.”
Tweed chairman Bruce Linton told Postmedia at the time the seizures may have been the result of “confusion” over the old and new regulatory regimes.
“When you call police to say, ‘Come look at this,’ you believe you have everything in order,” he said.
In internal emails, RCMP officers wrote that it was “painful” to not be able to respond and that the company’s version of events was “a long way from what transpired.”
“I find their language very interesting/misleading considering there were no ‘plants,’ ‘seeds,’ or ‘in-production material,’” Const. Kris Clark, Kelowna’s media officer, wrote to colleagues.
Officers also balked at the company’s assertion that it had invited the RCMP to inspect the shipment. Briefing notes indicate that in the week prior to the seizures, RCMP received “several calls” from airline charter companies enquiring about the “legitimacy of transporting 1500 lbs of marijuana.”
“Tweed never came to us, the airline did,” Const. Shane Holmquist wrote to colleagues.
Insp. John Ibbotson told a colleague in an email that although the company’s statement may appear to be a standard press release, “it is in fact a news release intended to inform investors of a publicly traded company of a significant event surrounding a company’s activity.”
Noting that some of the information in Tweed’s release was “factually incorrect,” Ibbotson suggested there had been a violation of section 400 of the Criminal Code — related to making a false prospectus — and wondered if the Ontario Securities commission should be notified.
Yet for several more days, RCMP communications officers declined to set the record straight, trotting out the standard line that they could not confirm nor deny an investigation.
“With some luck the media may dig up the facts and print them without the RCMP having to go public with any details and face the complications that would create,” Sgt. Duncan Pound, then a federal policing spokesman in B.C., wrote to a colleague.
Other emails reveal some of the reasons for the hesitation.
“The heart of the problem is that Health Canada has gone on record as saying they authorized the shipment, which has and will continue to cause us grief trying to set the record straight,” Pound wrote.
“Ideally,” he continued, Health Canada should issue a statement saying the shipments contravened regulations and were not what they had authorized. “If Health Canada says nothing it looks like two Ministries working against each other, which is a lose/lose for both of us.”
Jolene Bradley, the RCMP’s director of strategic communications in Ottawa, presented a briefing document to the deputy commissioner for federal policing on April 10 advising that the force should continue to decline comment. Among the reasons she cited: going public “would likely bring criticism on Health Canada’s part as it would highlight the deficiencies in the transition to the new regulations.”
The same document also stated that “any comments by the RCMP could impact stock prices” for the producers.
Dawn Roberts, an RCMP communications strategist in B.C., similarly wrote in an email to colleagues that Tweed “is a publicly traded company and any comments could impact on stock prices.”
Pressure, however, was starting to build “from higher up to proactively correct the story,” RCMP emails say.
The force eventually issued its first public statement about the March 31 seizures on April 11. But the press release was whittled down considerably from a draft version. The draft included the size of the seizure (705 kilograms) and the reason: regulations allowed for a pre-determined number of plants to be sold, but the shipments consisted of “harvested marijuana in lieu of plants.”
The final version of the statement did not mention the size of the seizure nor the specific reason, simply stating: “The marijuana did not match what was authorized to be transferred.”
No charges were ultimately filed against either company due to the challenge of proving criminal intent, RCMP briefing notes say. The seized marijuana, which caused a rotting smell in RCMP storage, was later destroyed.
Co-CEO of Canadian Weed Giant Canopy Growth Says He Was Fired
Haha share prices plummet while the public gets sick smoking the chemical laden legal Canadian supply.
Great job Bruce. Justin. Bill.
Haha share prices plummet while the public gets sick smoking the chemical laden legal Canadian supply.
Great job Bruce. Justin. Bill.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-...lawsuit-medical-cannabis-organigram-1.4986632
Court decision comes after two-day hearing in Halifax last year
A Nova Scotia judge has given the go-ahead to a class-action lawsuit against Moncton-based cannabis producer OrganiGram.
OrganiGram Inc., New Brunswick's largest licensed supplier of medical marijuana, is accused of making customers sick by supplying them with cannabis that was tainted with unapproved pesticides in 2016.
A two-day hearing was held in Halifax in June 2018.
Justice Ann E. Smith of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court released a 111-page decision on Jan. 18 certifying the suit and appointing Halifax patient Dawn Rae Downton as the representative plaintiff.
Lawyer Ray Wagner, who represents the plantiffs, said there are two parts to the claim.
The first part relates to the refund, people bought something that was not what it was made out to be and so we want to return the funds that they had paid as anybody who purchased something, a good or a service, that is not up to snuff and, in this case, where it breached the regulations under the Health Canada regime on cannabis," Wagner said.
He said the second part refers to client experiences.
"A large number of our class members have also reported that they were ill during this period of time, suffered a lot of signs and symptoms of illness that they correlate to the timing that they consumed this particular product," he said.
Product Recalled
The class-action lawsuit came about after two large-scale recalls, in late 2016 and early 2017, of OrganiGram's medical cannabis produced between Feb. 1 and Dec. 16, 2016 after myclobutanil and/or bifenazate was detected.
They are both unauthorized pesticides for use on cannabis plants under the Pest Control Products Act.
OrganiGram's organic certification was also suspended.
Representative Client
Downton, the representative client, is a Halifax patient who was prescribed medical marijuana for back pain in 2016.
In 2017, she told CBC News that adverse effects such as nausea and vomiting caused her to "lose eight months of her life."
Wagner said Downton is one of thousands of purchasers who all have the same claim.
In addition to Downton, 176 people have registered with Wagner for the class-action suit, he said.
Wagner said receiving certification is important, but there is still much more to be done in the case.
He says the next step is a "common issues trial," where the merits of the allegations are adjudicated.
Response from OrganiGram
OrganiGram said in a statement to CBC News it "intends to vigorously defend itself."
"Certification is not a decision on the merits of the lawsuit, but simply deals with the proper procedure for a lawsuit, which allows it to continue to the next stage," it said.
The company is reviewing the decision to determine whether it will appeal.
"OrganiGram has already voluntarily reimbursed many of its customers for this recall via a comprehensive credit and refund program," the company said.
"Organigram has insurance to cover the cost of legal fees associated with the defense of the class action. Insurance coverage may also cover some or all of any monetary damages associated with any resolution of this matter. While the ultimate outcome of any Court process is difficult to ascertain, Organigram management does not anticipate that the class action (including the resolution thereof) will impact its business or operations in any material manner," the statment said.
Court decision comes after two-day hearing in Halifax last year
A Nova Scotia judge has given the go-ahead to a class-action lawsuit against Moncton-based cannabis producer OrganiGram.
OrganiGram Inc., New Brunswick's largest licensed supplier of medical marijuana, is accused of making customers sick by supplying them with cannabis that was tainted with unapproved pesticides in 2016.
A two-day hearing was held in Halifax in June 2018.
Justice Ann E. Smith of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court released a 111-page decision on Jan. 18 certifying the suit and appointing Halifax patient Dawn Rae Downton as the representative plaintiff.
Lawyer Ray Wagner, who represents the plantiffs, said there are two parts to the claim.
The first part relates to the refund, people bought something that was not what it was made out to be and so we want to return the funds that they had paid as anybody who purchased something, a good or a service, that is not up to snuff and, in this case, where it breached the regulations under the Health Canada regime on cannabis," Wagner said.
He said the second part refers to client experiences.
"A large number of our class members have also reported that they were ill during this period of time, suffered a lot of signs and symptoms of illness that they correlate to the timing that they consumed this particular product," he said.
Product Recalled
The class-action lawsuit came about after two large-scale recalls, in late 2016 and early 2017, of OrganiGram's medical cannabis produced between Feb. 1 and Dec. 16, 2016 after myclobutanil and/or bifenazate was detected.
They are both unauthorized pesticides for use on cannabis plants under the Pest Control Products Act.
OrganiGram's organic certification was also suspended.
Representative Client
Downton, the representative client, is a Halifax patient who was prescribed medical marijuana for back pain in 2016.
In 2017, she told CBC News that adverse effects such as nausea and vomiting caused her to "lose eight months of her life."
Wagner said Downton is one of thousands of purchasers who all have the same claim.
In addition to Downton, 176 people have registered with Wagner for the class-action suit, he said.
Wagner said receiving certification is important, but there is still much more to be done in the case.
He says the next step is a "common issues trial," where the merits of the allegations are adjudicated.
Response from OrganiGram
OrganiGram said in a statement to CBC News it "intends to vigorously defend itself."
"Certification is not a decision on the merits of the lawsuit, but simply deals with the proper procedure for a lawsuit, which allows it to continue to the next stage," it said.
The company is reviewing the decision to determine whether it will appeal.
"OrganiGram has already voluntarily reimbursed many of its customers for this recall via a comprehensive credit and refund program," the company said.
"Organigram has insurance to cover the cost of legal fees associated with the defense of the class action. Insurance coverage may also cover some or all of any monetary damages associated with any resolution of this matter. While the ultimate outcome of any Court process is difficult to ascertain, Organigram management does not anticipate that the class action (including the resolution thereof) will impact its business or operations in any material manner," the statment said.
The island@MC Gusto what part of BC do you reside in?
If you ever get a chance you should drop in to the Victoria Buyer's Club and talk to Ted Smith.
He'll fill you in on the BC Bud perspective of legalization. Or maybe listen to Freddie Pritcherd's Sunday Night Smoke Show on youtube. You'll get everything you need to know there. Then you'll have both sides, ours and big business'/governments.