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The MMPR will require Canada’s 37,000 authorized medical marijuana consumers to buy their weed from a small number of tightly regulated commercial grow operations, scattered across several provinces. Patients will no longer be allowed to cultivate their own marijuana or purchase it from their neighbours.

Not everyone is happy with the changes. Some medical marijuana users are attempting to delay or avoid the MMPR scheme, by suing the Government of Canada. In one case, filed in federal court in Vancouver, five plaintiffs claim the MMPR will lead to severe cannabis shortages, and to higher prices, and that its provisions will violate their constitutional rights. The plaintiffs are seeking exemptions from the MMPR and an injunction preserving the MMAR.

“The old system had its problems, there’s no question about it,” says one medical marijuana insider and advocate who helps prospective marijuana growers obtain federal permits. “But on April 1, there’s going to be a marijuana shortage, and there will be a significant percentage of the market that’s going to have to resort to other remedies and break the law in order to obtain medicine.” He spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals from Health Canada.

As of this week, Health Canada had licensed just eight commercial growers, capable of producing an estimated 31,000 kilograms of marijuana per year. Another 12 commercial growers will be licensed by the April 1 regime change, Health Canada predicts.