People pass by a Shoppers Drug Mart in downtown Toronto on Monday, July 15, 2013. Shoppers Drug Mart says pharmacies are the "safest option" for dispensing marijuana.Canada's largest drugstore chain made the statement Wednesday after the Globe and Mail, citing unnamed sources, reported that Shoppers is looking at the possibility of selling medical marijuana. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graeme RoyGRAEME ROY/The Canadian Press
Fact: Medical marijuana is a drug. Fact: Nearly all drug prescriptions are filled at pharmacies – but not medical marijuana. Should that change?
The news, first revealed by the Globe and Mail, that one of the country's largest drug stores is quietly looking into teaming up with a medical-grade cannabis grower will feed reflection on what Canada's rules for selling both medical and recreational marijuana should one day look like. There's a pretty good argument to be made for selling a psychoactive substance in a secure environment where people have advanced degrees in such matters.
Shoppers Drug Mart says it's only interested in dispensing medicinal weed, but when the Trudeau government legalizes recreational use and purchase – something it has promised – the retail market could also be up for grabs. It's no coincidence rival chains are putting out feelers as well.
And while the feds control criminal law, a lot of health and safety regulation is in the hands of the provinces. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, when asked about the issue on Wednesday, sounded open-minded about pharmacies selling medical marijuana – while rejecting the idea of recreational pot in drug stores. She continues to favour Ontario's provincial liquor monopoly, the LCBO, as the dispenser of any future retail pot.
She's making a distinction between pot used for therapeutic purposes and that used simply to get stoned. And right now, that's a very real line: The sale and use of the former is legal, the latter is not. But after the Trudeau government legalizes marijuana, will that be a distinction without difference?
Also on Wednesday, a Federal Court judge ruled it unconstitutional to forbid patients from growing their own medicinal weed – striking down rules put in place by the Harper government that permitted medical marijuana, but restricted supply to large, licensed growers.
The court says those rules aren't working, with medical marijuana legal, but often hard to get legally. That has to change. Medical marijuana shouldn't be less available than other prescription drugs – all of which raises the question of who gets to dispense it. Just one more issue for the Trudeau government to tackle.