Medical Marijuana Users Caught Up In Renewal Delay

[Ganjarden]

Arbi Kevorkian has always made sure his weed is legal.

Every summer for the past four years, Kevorkian has sent off the renewal form to Health Canada two months before his medical marijuana licence expires in July.

The licence always arrived back in time for his next prescription refill, allowing Kevorkian to use the otherwise illegal substance without fear of being arrested or charged. But this year, nearly four months after he sent in his renewal form in March, he still hasn't received a response from Health Canada and has no clue when it might come.

"When I called them two weeks ago, they just say, 'We're severely backlogged,' " said Kevorkian, whose licence expired last week. His doctor prescribed him five grams of cannabis a day for Tourette syndrome nearly four years ago.

"They are forcing us to go the black market," said Kevorkian.

He took his concerns to a local compassion club, which provides support and information to patients, and found dozens of other legal marijuana users in the same bind.

Blaine Dowdle, founder of Hemp Users Medical Access Network in Toronto, said he has been getting calls from panicked patients who have been awaiting their renewed licences for months. Some have been arrested and charged for possession of marijuana in the interim.

Health Canada says licence renewal delays only comes if there are inconsistencies in the renewal or application form. Otherwise it should only take eight to 10 weeks to process. The current delay is due to an "increase in the volume of applications received by the division."

The increase could be due to an increasing number of physicians willing to prescribe cannabis for certain conditions, said Dowdle.

In June 2009, the last time Health Canada published data by province, 1,631 people had authorization to possess marijuana in Ontario. The Toronto Compassion Club says they have seen their membership rise by 100 people in the last three months.

Even though Health Canada may simply be short-staffed, Dowdle believes the problem is the Conservative government's half-hearted support of the program.

"The medical marijuana division has been chronically underfunded for years . . . and just because of the ideological stance of the Conservatives, there is a lot of speculation that they are limiting the job of the medical marijuana division to do their jobs effectively."


NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: Healthzone.ca
Author: Noor Javed
Contact: Healthzone.ca
Copyright: 2010 Toronto Star
Website: Medical marijuana users caught up in renewal delay

 

[Purple Goose]

I wouldnt doubt this at all My first licence forms were also sent in on march of this year and I h ave not yet recieved my licence what concerns me is If I am licenced and I fall into this bind at renewal time I am not going to be to happy if I am not able to keep my mother plants because they are slow on the renewal. But I have spoken with my Dr who advised me that HC has also been doing some revamps on the mmar Program to speed up future renewals as well as new applications.

 

[michaelkaer]

If nothing has changed in your status(where you live, your supply...) there should be a short form for automatic renewal. Maybe have it set up so the Doctor just has to input their code on an online form or a faxed form to fast track it.

 

[Purple Goose]

If nothing has changed in your status(where you live, your supply...) there should be a short form for automatic renewal. Maybe have it set up so the Doctor just has to input their code on an online form or a faxed form to fast track it.

I think the Dr;s should be given the option by HC to make the licences for at least 2 years at a time and as long as 5 years considering for instance a patient who is suffering form severe spinal disease , degenerative disc as well as multiple types of arthritis this patient isnt going to ever get better to where they wont need some type of pharmeceutical regiment wether its pills or cannabis so a Dr who is reccomending cannabis for there patient who is suffering from long term chronic pain from a permentant condition should be entitled to a longer licence between renewals and by having licences that are anywhere from 2-5 years in length this would also free up health canada as it is now I have been given to understand it is staffed by the same number of people as when it was first created the problem being is with 4000 people on the program presently and more joining each month eventually the people there are going to be having to process 10,000 applications a year most being renewals and if the increase continue as they have been another 1000 new applications each year this is eventually going to create a bottle neck as to make this program run smooth there should be enough agents to process each months new applications in 8-10 weeks and another department to handle renewals for the 4-6k present patients which would require about 3 times the staff as the new application department. But as they stand now they arent even able to return a call back even after 3 weeks of waiting.

 

[Purple Goose]

Just wondering if anyone knows of any canadians who put in therer first application to health canada this year and if so how long has there wait been to get there licence info back in so they could start there garden or be able to purchase there med legaly. As for myself right now I have been waiting since march 9 so right now I am at 19 weeks so getting kinda anxious now as I would like to get my garden started.