Health Canada is warning medical marijuana users to get rid of their current supply or face prison.
The federal agency is alerting 42,000 participants by mail that marijuana obtained under the current soon-to-expire program will be illegal after March 31.
Health Canada is also adding staff to track responses to a questionnaire on the amount of dried pot, seeds and plants each user has destroyed.
After April 1, marijuana users with a doctor’s note will still be able buy the drug for medical purposes, but only from commercial suppliers licensed under a new program put in place last fall.
Medical marijuana users will no longer be allowed grow their own marijuana or buy it from individuals with supplier licences–something they were allowed to do under the expiring program. Police say those regulations resulted in illegal trafficking and other crime.
Health Canada says that users cannot legally possess marijuana obtained under the former program after March 31, even if their licence shows a later expiry date.
Last year, the Conservative Party government toughened drug laws to provide a mandatory six-month minimum jail term for growing as few as six marijuana plants.
Opponents of the new law say the new regulations will force up costs and could make certain strains that ease their health problems unavailable.
In Vancouver on Tuesday, a lawyer for a group of medical marijuana patients told a Federal Court judge that stopping his clients from growing their own pot would violate their charter rights.
The lawyer, John Conroy, asked for an injunction to prevent the new regulations from taking effect until the court can rule on his constitutional challenge.
He said the new law would effectively force patients to choose between their medicine and potential jail time because growing marijuana for personal use would be illegal under the new regulations.
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