Medical marijuana may be coming to a pharmacy near you! Shopper’s Drug Mart, Canada’s largest pharmacy chain has formally applied to be a distributor.
In June, the latest government data showed that more than 75,000 Canadians had valid prescriptions for medical marijuana and they had purchased a total of more than 4,000 kilograms of dried marijuana in the previous three months. That works out to a little less than a gram of pot per day, per person.
Ottawa is also in the process of updating the laws surrounding the drug in general, including possibly legalizing it in a limited fashion for recreational use. The previous government prohibited people with a valid prescription from producing medical marijuana themselves, requiring them instead to order it from a licensed producer, who would deliver it by mail. Officially, people who need medical marijuana have to either produce it themselves or obtain it from one of a few dozen licensed producers — a list that Shoppers isn’t on but wants to get involved with.
“As we have indicated in the past we believe that allowing medical marijuana to be dispensed through pharmacy would increase access, safety, quality and security for the thousands of Canadians who use the drug as part of their medication therapy,” Shoppers said Tuesday.
Shoppers is owned by Loblaw Companies Ltd. and at the company’s annual general meeting in May, chairman Galen G. Weston said he supported the industry’s push toward dispensing marijuana via bricks and mortar pharmacies.
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