Posts Tagged ‘Medical Cannabis’

The ‘right’ to cannabis in housing

October 25th, 2018 by Claudia Pedrero

This article was first published on rabble.ca

With the arrival of legal cannabis last week, Canadians are now free to consume and — in some provinces — cultivate cannabis at home. This new freedom has come with many questions around the extent to which governments and property owners can restrict consumption. Does cannabis legalization mean that people have a protected right to smoke and grow cannabis? What about rules that seek to limit this freedom?

These questions cropped up in human rights cases across the country once medical cannabis became legal. With the legalization of cannabis, it is worth looking at how restrictions on recreational cannabis interact with the obligations of service providers such as landlords to accommodate medical cannabis users.

Continue reading “The ‘right’ to cannabis in housing”

Legalization of Cannabis: Important Considerations for Housing Providers & Employers

September 14th, 2018 by Safia Lakhani

With the impending legalization of cannabis, we have received requests from a number of housing providers to assist in developing policies that deal with the use and growth of cannabis in units. We have also received requests from employers around policies that prohibit the use of alcohol and drugs in the workplace. While policies should be crafted to suit a particular workplace or residence, below are a few considerations that employers and housing providers should bear in mind when creating rules around cannabis: Continue reading “Legalization of Cannabis: Important Considerations for Housing Providers & Employers”

Medical cannabis benefits denied: How statutory insurance plans can avoid paying workers’ compensation benefits

April 26th, 2018 by Michael Hackl

As we move toward the legalization of recreational cannabis, I thought it would be interesting to look at a recent case dealing with medical cannabis and the efforts of one person to get assistance from his province’s workers’ compensation board to contribute to the cost of the medical cannabis prescribed to him.

The case of Skinner v. Nova Scotia (Workers’ Compensation Appeals Tribunal) provides insight into how the use of medical cannabis is sometimes still perceived as an unconventional treatment despite having been legal in Canada for almost two decades, and also how administrative law gives statutory insurance schemes ways to avoid providing benefits to individuals seeking coverage for medically prescribed treatment. Continue reading “Medical cannabis benefits denied: How statutory insurance plans can avoid paying workers’ compensation benefits”

ONPHA Members: Read our InfoON report on Smoke-free apartment buildings & medical marijuana

November 18th, 2016 by Iler Campbell

In a report just published to the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association’s members only website, Lauren Blumas outlines the issues and related decisions that must be made while considering implementing a non-smoking policy.

If you’re a member you can log on here to read the report.

Landlords and tenants to fight out right to grow medical marijuana under new regulations

October 27th, 2016 by Lauren Blumas and Claudia Pedrero

This article was first published on rabble.ca

The new Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulation (ACMPR), which came into force on August 24, 2016, has changed how patients with prescriptions for medical marijuana can get their medicine. The ACMPR came to be, in part, as a response to a Federal Court ruling that the former Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR) violated the Charter because it prohibited personal production of medical cannabis. For many medicinal cannabis users, the cost of accessing through the channels allowed under the MMPR were simply unaffordable.

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Outgrowing the government: Medical cannabis access in Canada in light of the Allard decision

March 3rd, 2016 by Lauren Blumas

This article was first published on rabble.ca. It is co-written by Jenna Valleriani.

Each week, new retail storefronts are opening in the city of Toronto. But these aren’t your average retailers.

Medical cannabis dispensaries, storefronts which dispense cannabis on-site to those with medical conditions, have historically operated on the margins of the law, providing access to patients since a time in Canada when there was no legal means of doing so.

But this is not the slow uptake of a grassroots movement by the mainstream. What cities like Vancouver, Victoria and Toronto are experiencing can accurately be described as a dispensary boom — neon lights and all. What is going on? Why now? And are they legal?

Continue reading “Outgrowing the government: Medical cannabis access in Canada in light of the Allard decision”