Marijuana plant strains are held in jars as MediJean lab manager Abdul Ahad works in the research and tissue culture development lab at the medical marijuana facility in Richmond, on March 21, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
March 30, 2014 - 10:15 AM
OTTAWA - Facts and figures on medical marijuana in Canada, which is subject to new rules on Tuesday that require patients to acquire their pot from government-approved producers rather than home-grown supplies. (A temporary Federal Court injunction has delayed full implementation of the new regime until a legal hearing.)
Number of authorizations to possess under the old rules: 37,800
Patients authorized to grow for themselves: 25,000
People designated to grow for someone else: 3,900
Estimated number of home-grown plants under the old system: 3.3 million
Price of dried marijuana, per gram, when purchased directly from Health Canada under the old rules: $5
Number of commercial producers currently licensed under the new regime: 12
Number of applications to Health Canada, as of early February, to become a licensed producer: 454, with about 25 new applications coming in each week
Expected price of dried marijuana, per gram, under the new rules: Varies among producers and their individual products, but expected to average about $8 initially.
Projected total additional cost to all approved patients as a result of the new system: $166 million a year for 10 years
Projection of number of medical marijuana patients by 2024: Up to 450,000
Sales projections for the new industry by 2024: $1.3 billion a year.
(Source: Health Canada)
News from © The Canadian Press, 2014