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Team fighting Manitoba’s ban on homegrown cannabis has their day in court

Written by Staff on . Posted in Cannabis News.

The legal team fighting Manitoba’s ban on growing cannabis at home had their day in court Monday, May 2.

TobaGrown founder Jesse Lavoie, who has been leading the charge against the provincial ban, says he’s excited to see the case move forward and looks forward to the judge’s ruling.

“I’m extremely proud of how strong we’ve built our case with the mountains of evidence we have backing up our arguments, and now I feel we have one of the most qualified cannabis lawyers arguing our case for us,” Lavoie told StratCann late last year.

“Lookout, we’re coming for our four,” says Lavoie. 

Although federal regulations allow up to four cannabis plants to be grown in the home for non-medical use, provinces and territories are allowed to limit that number. The only two provinces to have limited that number are Quebec and Manitoba, which both placed an outright ban on cannabis home-grows. The federal government has in the past said while provinces can limit the total number of grows, they do not believe this allows provinces to limit that number to zero.

Jack Lloyd, one of the lawyers arguing the case for TobaGrown says the case is more about the intersection of provincial and federal law than simply homegrown cannabis.

This is an important issue that bears weight on a host of issues far beyond cannabis,” says Lloyd. “To allow provinces to issue blanket prohibitions on federally lawful activities will create a host of problems not just for Manitobans but also for all Canadians.”

Lloyd is also assisting with a similar case in Quebec that could be ruled on later this year as well.


Cannabis lawyer Jack Lloyd to assist in Manitoba home grow challenge

Written by David Brown on . Posted in Cannabis News.

An organization challenging Manitoba’s ban on homegrown cannabis announced a new lead counsel for their fight, Jack Lloyd. 

Lloyd is a well-known cannabis and psychedelics lawyer and advocate and has represented numerous cannabis advocates in court over the years. He is also the president of NORML Canada. 

Lloyd will take up the role of head lawyer for TobaGrown, the organization that is fighting the home grow ban in Manitoba, as well as their participation in a similar case being fought against Quebec’s own home grow ban. 

“I’m extremely proud of how strong we’ve built our case with the mountains of evidence we have backing up our arguments, and now I feel we have one of the most qualified cannabis lawyers arguing our case for us,” says Jesse Lavoie, the individual who has spearheaded the efforts of TobaGrown in Manitoba and Quebec. 

“Lookout, we’re coming for our four,” says Lavoie. 

Lavoie launched his challenge of Manitoba’s section 101.15 of the Liquor, Gaming and Cannabis Control Act in 2020. Although federal cannabis regulations allow up to four cannabis plants to be grown in the home for non-medical use, provinces and territories are allowed to limit that number. 

The only two provinces to have limited that number are Quebec and Manitoba, which both placed an outright ban on cannabis home-grows. In the past, the federal government has said while provinces can limit the total number of grows, they do not believe this allows provinces to limit that number to zero.

“Since the Supreme Court rules with the whole country in its lens, I am quite sure that they will analyze the case (from) a different angle than what the Court of Appeal did. In the end, the Court of Appeal has a tendency in constitutional matters to be pro-Quebec and pro-Independence of the province in the federal state that we are.”

Maxime Guérin, lead counsel in the Quebec home grow case

In September 2021, Quebec’s Court of Appeal reversed a previous ruling from the Quebec Superior Court in 2019 that said the ban on Quebecers growing their own cannabis was a violation of federal law. The Court of Appeal sided with the Quebec government this week on the province’s ban on homegrown cannabis. The opposition says they plan to appeal.

In her ruling, Quebec Court of Appeal Judge France Thibault wrote that both sides in the case were motivated by the desire to combat the harms associated with consumption. The Quebec government argued they could ban growing cannabis at home in order to protect Quebecers, especially young people. The other side argued that the Quebec government could not overrule federal law that allows Canadians to grow up to four plants per household.

This means that currently Quebec residents can be fined $750 per plant if found to be growing cannabis unless they are doing so with a medical authorization through their physician and Health Canada.

TobaGrown officially signed on as an intervener in the Quebec case in early 2020. Lloyd says he hopes to argue the case in Manitoba before the Quebec case (Murray Hall v. Procureure générale du Québec) reaches the Supreme Court.

Lloyd says he was surprised by the Quebec Court of appeal ruling and hopes to create a better legal precedent in Manitoba which can then also be allied in Quebec. 

“I’m hoping to move this forward as quickly as possible so we can A, strike this crummy law down and make sure that other provinces can’t follow suit and B, make sure that bad precedent of the Quebec Court of Appeals doesn’t become law from the Supreme Court of Canada”, says Lloyd. “The fight is on.”

“If you’re interested in the rights of people who want to possess and grow a little cannabis, this case is of paramount importance,” he continues. “Because if it is found that Manitoba is entitled to enact legislation like this, then every province is entitled to enact legislation like this and quite likely will.”

“The fate of a lot of small gardens with this harmless plant is at stake.”

Maxime Guérin, the lead counsel in the Quebec case says they expect that if the Supreme Court hears their case, it could still be a year or more away.

“We filed the case on October 29th in the Supreme Court of Canada,” explains Guérin. “Next step is that they will confirm the opening of the file and give it a number. Then, the Court will analyze if they want to hear us or not. If not, then the case is settled and the government has won. If they give us the right to be heard, then we expect to be heard in a year or 18 months from then.”

He says he would be “very surprised” if the Supreme Court isn’t willing to hear their case and is hopeful that it will overturn the Quebec Court of appeal’s own ruling against the Quebec Superior Court.  

“Since the Supreme Court rules with the whole country in its lens, I am quite sure that they will analyze the case (from) a different angle than what the Court of Appeal did. In the end, the Court of Appeal has a tendency in constitutional matters to be pro-Quebec and pro-Independence of the province in the federal state that we are.”

Group challenging Manitoba home grow ban now joining Quebec Supreme Court appeal

Written by Staff on . Posted in Cannabis News.

TobaGrown will join Quebec’s Supreme Court Appeal, while continuing their legal battle against the Manitoba Government’s ban on home-grown cannabis

Quebec’s Court of Appeal agreed with the Quebec Government’s ban on home-grown cannabis. This reversed the previous Superior Court ruling in 2019 which said the Quebec Government’s ban on home-grown cannabis was a violation of Federal Law.

The outcome of Quebec’s home-grown cannabis lawsuit will hold substantial weight in the similar case in Manitoba, where Jesse Lavoie started the “TobaGrown Movement” and filed a lawsuit against the Manitoba Government’s ban on home-grown cannabis back in August 2020.

Jesse Lavoie and the rest of his team are moving to both support the Quebec team in their preparation and to intervene in their case.

Intervening is the entry into a lawsuit by a third party who has a personal interest in the outcome of the case, often offering a different perspective on the issues before the court. 

“Maxime Guérin and his team have done a fantastic job building a formidable case that I believe will be victorious in the Supreme Court. Maxime will have our full support and access to our research as we apply to intervene in their case and argue alongside them in the Supreme Court of Canada.” said Jesse Lavoie

Statistics Canada estimates Canada’s current population is 38,131,104 people, with roughly 9,968,427 people living in Manitoba or Quebec combined. That means that 26% of Canadians are being denied their Federal Right to grow four cannabis plants for recreational purposes.

“It’s unfortunate that the Manitoba and Quebec Government’s have both taken this stance on home-grown cannabis, despite the overwhelming evidence that is stacked against their already debunked arguments and the positive data from other Provinces that have allowed home-grown cannabis since legalization.” said Jesse Lavoie.

The Manitoba case is poised to have its initial proceedings in the Queen’s Bench early 2022, while the Supreme Court hearing for Quebec will be roughly 18 months from now.

Court of Appeal sides with Quebec on home grow ban, next step is Supreme Court

Written by David Brown on . Posted in Cannabis News.

Quebec’s Court of Appeal has sided with the Quebec government this week on the province’s ban on home grown cannabis. The opposition says they plan to appeal.

The judge’s decision reverses the previous Superior Court ruling in 2019 that said the ban on Quebecers growing their own cannabis was a violation of federal law. 

The government of Quebec had appealed that ruling.

The lead counsel for the man who was challenging the ban says they plan to appeal again, this time to the Supreme Court. 

“Unfortunately for Quebec cannabis enthusiasts, the Court of Appeal sided with the arguments of the Quebec government. We’re getting ready for the third round: the Supreme Court of Canada! We keep you informed of any development,” wrote Maxime Guérin on Facebook on Thursday. 

In her ruling, Judge France Thibault wrote that both sides in the case were motivated by the desire to combat the harms associated with consumption. The Quebec government argued they could ban growing cannabis at home in order to protect Quebecers, especially young people. The other side argued that the Quebec government could not overrule federal law that allows Canadians to grow up to four plants per household.

This means that currently Quebec residents can be fined $750 per plant if found to be growing cannabis unless they are doing so with a medical authorization through their physician and Health Canada. 

Guérin says he was surprised by the ruling, but he and his team are already prepared to appeal to the Supreme Court, including bringing in some other expert legal counsel. They have 60 days to file their appeal and says he expects it could be heard by the Supreme Court in about 12-18 months. 

“We were expecting a positive result but I’m not all that shocked,” Guérin tells StratCann. “It’s a surprise, but not a total shock, and we’re already preparing our appeal for the Supreme Court.”

“We are going with the big guns and will be assisted in the Supreme Court by trial lawyers who are very used to going to the Supreme Court and understanding Charter rights. So we will be backed by those who are used to going to the supreme court and the kinds of arguments you need to bring there.”

Earlier this year Guérin said he expected the Court of Appeal to side with his client, but he and his team were nonetheless prepared for any ruling and would be prepared to appeal if necessary. 

“The government is fighting the inevitable, so I would be very surprised if the Quebec Court of Appeals went against the first judgement,” he explained at the time. “But it’s Quebec, we always have that thing in our head called independence and sovereignty in our territory, so we might get a surprise and hear the Court of Appeals say this is Quebec’s right to do it. We would then take this to the Supreme Court because for us it’s unacceptable to know that Canadians can do it everywhere except here and Manitoba. It just doesn’t work in our mind.” 

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include recent comments from Maxime Guérin.

Manitoba’s home grow ban also challenged

Meanwhile, a challenge to the other Canadian province that banned homegrown cannabis is in the works of being challenged as well. Jesse Lavoie, who is leading the challenge to the Manitoba homegrown cannabis ban, filed affidavits earlier this year and hopes to be in court later this year to formally challenge the ban.

Lavoie launched his challenge of Manitoba’s section 101.15 of the Liquor, Gaming and Cannabis Control Act last September. The government’s own affidavit, filed in response last year, focuses on what they say is a risk to youth and others if people can grow their own cannabis, risk of diversion to the illicit market, risk to property, quality control concerns, and the difficulty of enforcing plant limits. 

Lavoie’s own affidavits in response to Manitoba’s, filed today in Manitoba court, aim to address these concerns and rebut them, utilizing the input from their own team of experts. The government will then have a few weeks to respond again and this process can play out until possibly the end of this year before they see court.

“This is a legal battle between closed-minded thinking and progress,” says Lavoie.

“I think we’ll see victory. It’s backed by a lot of evidence in our favour and I’m not seeing a lot of support on the other side. It’s just unfortunate that we have to take this long to get through this process and spend this much.”

Lavoie says he’s spent about $45,000 to get the case to come to this, with some help from a GoFundMe campaign he started last year that has brought in about $9,000 so far.

Ruling in Quebec home grow appeal expected later this year

Written by David Brown on . Posted in Insight.

The lead attorney with the group fighting Quebec’s ban on growing cannabis at home says they and the government of Quebec have now presented their argument before the court of appeal, and are awaiting a ruling. 

Although it could come sooner, Maxime Guérin, the lead attorney for the case with Groupe SGF, the law firm that took on the case, says a ruling is likely to come in the next three to six months. 

The appeal comes after SGF’s lawyers, representing Quebec resident Janick Murray Hall, successfully argued that Quebec’s ban on allowing residents to grow cannabis at home was in violation of federal law. The judge in that case ruled against the provincial government’s ban, but the province quickly appealed the ruling, meaning their law stayed in place, pending appeal. 

This means that currently, Quebec residents can be fined $750 per plant if found to be growing cannabis unless they are doing so with a medical authorization through their physician and Health Canada. 

Guérin says he had his team present their arguments in front of three judges on Tuesday, rebutting the Quebec government’s assertion that the previous judge had erred in her decision. The entire hearing took about two to three hours, and the three judges will now consider the arguments before coming to a ruling, potentially sometime later this year. 

The argument can then be appealed only one more time, in the federal Supreme court. If Quebec loses, Guérin says his team will absolutely appeal and expects the Quebec government to do the same. 

Although he says he and his team are relatively confident in their argument that the province cannot completely ban homegrown cannabis, he says it’s always an unknown how the court will rule. 

“The government is fighting the inevitable, so I would be very surprised if the Quebec court of appeals went against the first judgement,” he explains. “But it’s Quebec, we always have that thing in our head called independence and sovereignty in our territory, so we might get a surprise and hear the court of appeals say this is Quebec’s right to do it. We would then take this to the Supreme Court because for us it’s unacceptable to know that Canadians can do it everywhere except here and Manitoba. It just doesn’t work in our mind.” 

Pointing to the federal government’s own statements when the issue was debated in the House and Senate in 2018, Guérin says the precedent is there that provinces can put restrictions on homegrown cannabis, such as BC’s ban on plants being visible to the public, and could even potentially limit the number of plants they can grow beyond the federal limit of four, but that banning them entirely goes against the spirit of the Cannabis Act and its Regulations and is therefore out of the scope of provincial authority. 

“The (Health) Minister clearly stated during the debate that they reject any demand of a province to ban that right, and with that in mind I have no choice to continue to the end,” he continues. “I don’t understand why the Quebec government is fighting it. Here in Quebec we are kind of stuck with the fact that we have those people going against cannabis smokers.” 

In addition to his role with Groupe SGF, Guérin is also a shareholder at the first micro in Quebec MINDIcanna.

Another lead counsel who argued in the original case was hired last year by the Quebec government’s cannabis branch, the Société Québécoise du Cannabis (SQDC).

Manitoba’s own homegrow ban also being challenged

Meanwhile, a challenge to the other Canadian province that banned homegrown cannabis is in the works of being challenged as well. Jesse Lavoie, who is leading the challenge to the Manitoba homegrown cannabis ban, filed affidavits earlier this year and hopes to be in court later this year to formally challenge the ban.

Lavoie launched his challenge of Manitoba’s section 101.15 of the Liquor, Gaming and Cannabis Control Act last September. The government’s own affidavit, filed in response last year, focuses on what they say is a risk to youth and others if people can grow their own cannabis, risk of diversion to the illicit market, risk to property, quality control concerns, and the difficulty of enforcing plant limits. 

Lavoie’s own affidavits in response to Manitoba’s, filed today in Manitoba court, aim to address these concerns and rebut them, utilizing the input from their own team of experts. The government will then have a few weeks to respond again and this process can play out until possibly the end of this year before they see court.

“This is a legal battle between closed-minded thinking and progress,” says Lavoie.

“I think we’ll see victory. It’s backed by a lot of evidence in our favour and I’m not seeing a lot of support on the other side. It’s just unfortunate that we have to take this long to get through this process and spend this much.”

Lavoie says he’s spent about $45,000 to get the case to come to this, with some help from a GoFundMe campaign he started last year that has brought in about $9,000 so far.

Second round against Quebec’s homegrown cannabis ban begins

Written by Staff on . Posted in Cannabis News.

The second round of the fight against Quebec’s homegrown cannabis ban begins this week. 

The law firm that helped first take on the Quebec government’s homegrown cannabis ban will be back in court this week as the province seeks to appeal the 2019 ruling that overturned the government ban. 

Quebec originally banned all homegrown cannabis (non-medical) in 2018 but had the law overturned in late 2019 following a court challenge led by SGF Groupe, a division of Saraïlis that specializes in cannabis law and consulting. 

The group now says they will be back in court on April 27 to begin the second round of this fight, facing off against the government again. 

The agency will be missing one member who was part of the original, successful case overturning the ban who now works as legal counsel for the province’s cannabis branch, the Société Québécoise du Cannabis (SQDC). 

The Quebec government had argued that they had the right to ban cannabis production entirely, and were doing so to protect young people. The court disagreed, stating that while the province had the right to limit the number of plants a Quebecer could grow in their home to less than the four plants allowed under federal law, they could not limit it to zero, or ban it entirely. 

While federal law in Canada established allowances for things like up to four homegrown cannabis plants, or up to 30 grams of cannabis in one’s possession while in public, provinces are allowed to lower those amounts, within reason. This is similar to how there is a federal age limit of 18 for access to alcohol, but provinces can raise this amount. 

All provinces and territories in Canada except Alberta and Quebec have established 19 as the age of access for cannabis. Alberta’s is 18 and Quebec’s is 21.

Lead lawyer poached by province

Julien Fortier, a former lawyer with Saraïlis and a consultant with the SGF group, is the lawyer who successfully took on the Quebec government’s ban on homegrown cannabis.

Following the 2019 ruling, the Quebec government quickly announced their intentions to appeal the ruling, and shortly thereafter Fortier was hired by the Société Québécoise du Cannabis (SQDC) as legal counsel.

A representative for the SQDC says Fortier was hired as the SQDC’s internal counsel after “a rigorous hiring process through which he emerged as the best choice for the position opened at that time. Understandably, Mr. Fortier’s qualifications in cannabis legislation supported his candidacy, along with several other areas of evaluation.”

The young lawyer’s role at the SQDC, explains the representative, is advising the crown cannabis corp. on its management of matters including governance and corporate documentation.

Although Fortier is not involved in the Quebec government’s appeal of the homegrown case—handled by the Attorney General for Quebec who handles litigations related to the constitutionality of statutes—the move does in effect ensure Fortier is not able to handle the province’s challenge of the 2019 ruling against their home grow ban.

Manitoba home-grow challenge progresses

Meanwhile, a challenge to the other Canadian province that banned homegrown cannabis is in the works of being challenged as well. Jesse Lavoie, who is leading the challenge to the Manitoba homegrown cannabis ban, filed affidavits earlier this year and hopes to be in court later this year to formally challenge the ban.

Lavoie launched his challenge of Manitoba’s section 101.15 of the Liquor, Gaming and Cannabis Control Act last September. The government’s own affidavit, filed in response last year, focuses on what they say is a risk to youth and others if people can grow their own cannabis, risk of diversion to the illicit market, risk to property, quality control concerns, and the difficulty of enforcing plant limits. 

Lavoie’s own affidavits in response to Manitoba’s, filed today in Manitoba court, aim to address these concerns and rebut them, utilizing the input from their own team of experts. The government will then have a few weeks to respond again and this process can play out until possibly the end of this year before they see court.

“This is a legal battle between closed-minded thinking and progress,” says Lavoie.

“I think we’ll see victory. It’s backed by a lot of evidence in our favour and I’m not seeing a lot of support on the other side. It’s just unfortunate that we have to take this long to get through this process and spend this much.”

Lavoie says he’s spent about $45,000 to get the case to come to this, with some help from a GoFundMe campaign he started last year that has brought in about $9,000 so far.

Home growers have many options for testing their crop

Written by Staff on . Posted in Cannabis News, Labs.

As home growers continue to increase across Canada many are turning to Canada’s analytical testing labs to give them an understanding of what is in their cannabis. 

From personal cannabis growers curious about how much THC or CBD they managed to coax from their plants, to those who want a detailed understanding of full cannabinoid and terpene profiles, along with heavy metal, pesticides and microbial testing, there are an array of labs offering these services. StratCann spoke with just a few below to get a sense of costs and services available.

Canvas Labs

One lab offering such services, Canvas Labs, in Vancouver, BC, says they see about half of their current business coming from either home growers or personal or designated medical growers, with the other half coming from commercial producers. 

For those casual home growers, explains Jean-Michel Dentinger, a Manager at Canvas Labs, they can offer basic cannabinoid testing for as little as about $60, requiring only about one gram of dried cannabis. The cannabis can be mailed in a simple, airtight container through Canada Post, getting results back in about three days after the product arrives at the lab. 

Although a larger sample can provide a better representation of a larger crop, Dentinger says many growers just want a basic idea of how much THC may be in their product. For those who are looking for a more accurate and representative testing result, they can then produce larger samples. 

“If the grower is not too concerned about the consistency across their crop and they believe that just a small sample is representational of their whole batch, it really only takes about a gram of flower per test to run the analysis,” explains Dentinger. “(This) is in contrast with a LP who really needs to know the characteristics or potency of their crops across their operation.”

Demand is high, he says.

“It definitely seems to be something people like to use. We try to make it easy for individuals to access the service and make it affordable, because information is valuable and it’s good for them to know what they’re doing and improve.”

Keystone Labs

Keystone Labs, in Alberta, is another lab offering testing services for commercial and home growers. Keystone has been offering analytical testing services for cannabis since 2015, even developing a specialized Keybox service for home growers, focussing at the time on the personal and designated medical growers, and now offering those services for non medical growers, as well. 

Keystone’s Keybox service for about $170, providing analyses for an array of cannabinoids and terpenes, with a small amount of cannabis required, which can be partially prepared by the home grower before sending it in for analysis. For growers only interested in THC and CBD levels, they offer a similar test for about $125, that requires about three grams of cannabis. 

Whereas the Keybox gives a wider array of results and gives the grower more control over the sample preparation, growers who are just looking for their THC and CBD levels and don’t want to bother with preparing their own sample can just send in a few grams via Canada Post. 

“Patient or home growers can get their home grown bud tested with us a couple of different ways,” says Stephanie Ostrander, an Account Manager at Keystone Labs. “We will definitely point them to the Keybox website, and that gives you analysis for ten cannabinoids and thirty terpenes. And that bang for the buck is probably the best one. Then the next option is to just send your bud to us so that you don’t have to do the sample preparation.”

Turnaround, says Ostrander, is about a week, depending on what they are testing for and the sample size. For additional tests such as microbials, the test is around $155, heavy metals about $100, and pesticides can be upwards of $800, and can require a much larger sample size. 

Pathogenia

A third lab offering these services for home growers, Pathogenia Inc. in Quebec, says they have seen a real increase lately in requests from home growers, either looking for services, or simply trying to better understand how the process works and what types of equipment is used to get these results. 

Prasant Prusty, the company’s co-founder, says the bulk of their business is currently commercial growers, but that he routinely fields calls from home growers, as well. Like Keystone and Canvas, they require only a few grams of cannabis for each test, and Prusty says he’s happy to answer any questions anyone might have. 

“We are always happy to answer those questions for the home growers, and happy to share our methods and how the testing works,” says Prusty. “We really want to make a difference in the testing domain, and feel we can really help home growers not only with testing results, but with understanding the process and methods we use and why.”

Basic THC and CBD testing is about $150 and requires about three grams of cannabis, he says, although he points out the larger the sample the more representative and accurate the results will be.  Like the other labs, clients can log into an online platform to read their results in about a weeks’ time, depending on the size and scope of their request. A pesticide array is around $300, testing for microbials around $150 and heavy metals around $100. 

“If you’re looking for a certificate of analysis, we’re not that kind of lab” explains Prusty. “But if you’re looking for what’s there, we are the kind of lab who can help you make sure that you understand what you are looking for.”

Cannabis collective looks to connect home growers with patients in need

Written by David Brown on . Posted in Cannabis News, Insight.

An organization in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside is seeking to address some of the challenges the neighbourhood residents are facing when it comes to accessing cannabis legally, by connecting legal home growers with those in need of cannabis. 

Home growers who want to provide cannabis at no cost to those in need can reach out to the nonprofit through their new initiative recently launched online. 

Started in 2017 by local activist Sarah Blyth, the High Hopes Cannabis Collective is a harm reduction program that has been seeking to provide access to cannabis as an alternative for opioids for marginalized residents of the city’s most economically challenged neighbourhood. High Hopes Cannabis Collective is a project of High Hopes Research Society – a registered non-profit in British Columbia.  

Among other initiatives, the group has worked to supply free and low cost cannabis and cannabis products to residents of the Downtown Eastside, largely via donations from local growers and dispensaries in the community. 

Now that cannabis is legal in Canada, and Vancouver has become less permissive of operations such as High Hopes that previously operated in a grey area of under enforcement, Blyth says they are pivoting to a distribution model that works within the confines of the federal regulations. 

Since it is legal in Canada to grow up to four plants per household (except currently in Quebec and Manitoba, pending some court challenges), High Hopes has established and recently launched a program that encourages home growers to donate cannabis that High Hopes can then provide to their clients in need, at no cost. 

Home growers who wish to take part in the program and donate a portion of their harvest can sign up on their website, and High Hopes will then contact the growers to begin the vetting process to ensure their goals are aligned with the organization. 

A representative with High Hopes who asked to only be identified as “Minna” says they are taking careful steps to ensure they work with growers that they know and trust, who can deliver a quality of cannabis suitable to their clients, who often have compromised immunity and require a high quality, high potency product. 

“For us right now,” says Minna, “we pick people that we trust and that we have heard good things about their supply. A lot of the people that we provide cannabis to are using it to manage their illness. So things like moulds, or really dried cannabis might aggravate certain conditions they have, so we’re making sure that the home grow suppliers know what they are doing.”

Although the program only recently launched, Minna says they have already heard from a few growers who wish to donate, and they are looking forward to hearing from others. 

In addition to this program, High Hopes is also in the process of working on getting their non medical sales licence form the province, a process they started in 2019. The nonprofit’s application has reportedly received initial approval from the province, and they are now awaiting approval from the city of Vancouver. Once the province completes the first stage of an application from a prospective cannabis retailer, it is sent to the city for approval, before being sent back to the province for final approval and issuance of the licence. 

However, because High Hopes operates in Vancouver’s ‘exclusion zone’ within the Downtown Eastside, they have to apply for a variance from the city. Because of the COVID-19 health crisis, the city’s Board of Variance is not currently meeting, so High Hopes will be waiting until at least this summer to have their variance application heard. 

Initially, High Hopes operated in what Blyth refers to as the grey area of under-enforcement by the city of Canada’s cannabis laws pre-legalization. Since legalization, she says they have been working to operate within the boundaries of federal legalization, while still ensuring they can serve their patients and clientele. 

“Before legalization we were operating in the grey area where the city was allowing people who had applied for licenses (through the city’s medical cannabis licence program, the MMRU) to open,” says Blyth. “But then lots of things became illegal when cannabis became legal. There was no more grey area. In some ways when cannabis became legal, what we did became more illegal. So everybody who was operating without a licence had to shut down or apply for a licence (with the province).”

She says High Hopes originally applied with the city for an MMRU licence in 2017, but had to apply for a variance due to the city’s ‘exclusion zone’ in the Downtown Eastside that prevented any cannabis dispensaries from operating in the low income neighbourhood. 

The intention behind their non medical sales licence is to create a revenue stream for the organizations charitable and non-profit activities in the community.

“We want to see if we can have a unique approach for people who are living in poverty. It’s a different approach,” continues Blyth. “We want to give people access to safe supply of cannabis. You can’t do things any more that aren’t legal without risking penalties of some sort so we’re doing everything in a legal, legitimate way right now because we want to make sure that we get a program that will last for people and will help people in the community, run by the community, for the community.”

Those interested in learning more about High Hopes can contact them at their website at discoverhighhopes.com/contribute.

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