What the marihuana for medical purposes regulations overlook : disclosure and remediation of inappropriately used dwellings

Summary: The Marihuana Medical Access Regulations (MMAR), which are administered by Health Canada, permit Canadians access to marihuana for medical use provided they have been deemed to require this medical treatment by a physician. These regulations enable individuals to (a) grow marihuana, (b) empower a third-party to grow marihuana on their behalf, or (c) purchase marihuana from Health Canada. To address a range of key stakeholders concerns identified with the MMAR, Health Canada has gazetted a proposed revised framework entitled the Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR), the main objectives of which would be to phase out individual licences to grow and focus the scheme on licenced commercial producers. This paper outlines the motivation underlying the proposed changes and then explains why the revisions fail to address the need to repair buildings that will almost certainly have been damaged as a result of inappropriate, agricultural use permitted by the MMAR. The paper concludes by arguing that in order to completely address the health and safety issues that will have arisen through the MMAR, a comprehensive process is also required for the disclosure and remediation of the structures that have been utilized by licence holders to produce medical marihuana under the existing regulations.