Production staff harvest marijuana plants inside the flowering room at Harvest One Cannabis Inc. in Duncan, B.C., on Friday, August 4, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito

The latest plank in Canada’s evolving cannabis framework was laid recently with the announcement of an excise tax to which all cannabis products will be subject: a one-dollar per gram (or 10 per cent, whichever is higher) excise tax on all cannabis products — with explicit confirmation that the tax will apply also to medical cannabis.

This is an unprecedented move in Canadian pharmaceutical policy. Applying sales and excise taxes to medical cannabis is a policy based on false assumptions, misguided logic and erroneous principles. If adopted, the proposed taxation of medical cannabis would mark a profound — and negative — shift in the way Canada deals with access to medicines.

Supporters of the government’s position argue there are no precedents for differential taxation between medical and recreational cannabis in other jurisdictions. That’s not true. California charges a 7.25 per cent state tax plus a 15 per cent excise tax for retail cannabis — but medical cannabis is exempt because it’s medical.

Maine has a 10 per cent sales tax on recreational products and no tax on medical cannabis. Massachusetts charges a 10.75 per cent retail tax, a 6.25 per cent state tax and a 3 per cent municipal tax — and medical cannabis is exempt. The list goes on but the point remains the same: all these jurisdictions treat recreational and medical cannabis differently, because they are different.

One false argument put forth in support of taxing medical marijuana is the suggestion that, by treating recreational and medical products the same way, we eliminate the incentive for non-medical users to abuse the medical system as a cheaper source of supply. But that amounts to taxing the 99 per cent of patients who are legitimately accessing treatment to go after a hypothetical 1 per cent who might be gaming the system.

That’s not how we make public policy in Canada. And if such a problem does emerge, aren’t we better off focusing on enforcement?

Taxing medical cannabis is a policy based either on a hunger for government revenue or simple prejudice. Taxing medical cannabis is a policy based either on a hunger for government revenue or simple prejudice.

Medical cannabis is well established as an effective treatment for multiple ailments. Over 200,000 critically and chronically ill Canadians have their physicians’ support to use it for a range of conditions, including pediatric epilepsy, chronic pain, chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, and multiple sclerosis.

More and more, we’re seeing encapsulated oral dosage for cannabis, making it like any other medicine; we’re well past the old stereotype of medical users lighting up a joint. Canada’s medical cannabis regime is based on precisely-dosed, tightly regulated medicine, produced in pharmaceutical-grade facilities.

Germany already treats medical cannabis seriously: all medical users there have full coverage. In the Netherlands, the vast majority of medical cannabis users are covered by private insurance. In Canada, we are still fighting outmoded stereotypes.

A progressive and fact-based treatment of new therapies would see medical cannabis given the same respect and sober policy-making as all other prescription drugs. And we don’t tax prescription drugs.

Taxing medical cannabis is a policy based either on a hunger for government revenue or simple prejudice. Moreover, the current misguided GST/HST on medical cannabis would become a “tax on a tax” once it’s applied after the proposed excise levy.

Excise taxes are “sin taxes” designed to moderate use. Medicines are therapies and are typically sales- and excise-tax to reduce barriers to access. This is a fundamental principle common to both tax and health policy. It is echoed by the Liberal party’s election platform and the health minister’s mandate letter, which promised to reduce cost as a barrier to medicines.

The Government of Canada has an opportunity to demonstrate a progressive, science-based and mature public policy approach to medical cannabis. De-stigmatizing recreational use while concurrently re-stigmatizing medical cannabis with “sin” taxes and asymmetrical barriers to access is bad policy — and it goes against the interests of the many thousands of Canadian patients who already benefit from medical cannabis use.

The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.