{"id":181451,"date":"2018-09-13T23:10:07","date_gmt":"2018-09-14T03:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=181451"},"modified":"2018-09-13T23:10:07","modified_gmt":"2018-09-14T03:10:07","slug":"medical-pot-users-will-seek-alternative-sources-post-office-cant-deliver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/09\/13\/medical-pot-users-will-seek-alternative-sources-post-office-cant-deliver\/","title":{"rendered":"Medical pot users will seek ‘alternative’ sources if post office can’t deliver"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Postal workers will be in a legal strike position on Sept. 26 after urban and rural carriers voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike if contract talks with the agency fail. (Pixabay photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OTTAWA \u2014\u00a0Canada’s largest licensed producer of medical marijuana says a work stoppage at\u00a0Canada\u00a0Post could leave many of its customers without their medications, resulting in some looking for unregulated, black market sources of cannabis to fill the void.<\/p>\n

“What ends up happening is that people either go without their medicine or they find an alternative source,” said Jordan Sinclair, vice president of communications at Canopy Growth Corp.<\/p>\n

“Those are the choices people have. There is no other legal means of getting cannabis in\u00a0Canada, aside from through the mail.”<\/p>\n

The company has written to\u00a0Canada\u00a0Post and federal Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor as it prepares contingency plans for a possible strike or lockout at the Crown agency.<\/p>\n

“The message that we have to\u00a0Canada\u00a0Post and to the health minister is that this is an essential service,” said Sinclair.<\/p>\n

“It is essential for people to get their medicine and if the only route is through the mail, then that has to be taken into consideration.”<\/p>\n

Postal workers will be in a legal strike position on Sept. 26 after urban and rural carriers voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike if contract talks with the agency fail.<\/p>\n

Canada\u00a0Post could also lock out its employees on that date.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0Canada\u00a0Post spokesman said Thursday that talks with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers aimed at reaching contract settlements with two sets of its members are continuing with the help of a mediator.<\/p>\n

Medical marijuana producers faced a similar circumstance in 2016 when postal workers last threatened to walk off the job.<\/p>\n

At that time, Canopy Growth subsidiary Tweed, based in Smiths Falls, Ont., proactively switched courier services in advance of a potential postal strike that never materialized.<\/p>\n

Sinclair said circumstances have changed dramatically over the past two years presenting more of a challenge.<\/p>\n

“We have way more customers, so the contingency plan has to include a lot more capacity,” he said.<\/p>\n

In 2016, the company served approximately 20,000 registered clients.<\/p>\n

“Today we’ve got 85,000 people we have to serve, and the entire market has grown along with that,” Sinclair said.<\/p>\n

“Canada\u00a0Post is the lion’s share of the mail that goes around in this country, so when there’s a threat of a strike, it’s really concerning for us and our customers.”<\/p>\n

One advantage it has now that the company didn’t have in 2016 is a contractual relationship with another service provider, Purolator.<\/p>\n

But, said Sinclair, “there’s only so much secondary capacity.”<\/p>\n

Under Health\u00a0Canada’s medical marijuana regulations, patients can only buy the medication from licensed producers through the mail or by courier companies that provide tracking during transit and a signature on delivery.<\/p>\n

Even with private couriers filling the delivery gaps created by a strike at\u00a0Canada\u00a0Post, vulnerable Canopy Growth customers may still face difficulties obtaining their medications, said Sinclair.<\/p>\n

“Typically there’s a correlation between the people that are using medical cannabis and people that have limited means,” he explained.<\/p>\n

“So if you’re asking somebody to go out to a depot for a courier after hours if they miss their delivery, that can be incredibly inconvenient or just not feasible.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA \u2014\u00a0Canada’s largest licensed producer of medical marijuana says a work stoppage at\u00a0Canada\u00a0Post could leave many of its customers without …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":177962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,37,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-181451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-health","category-news","mauthors-terry-pedwell","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}