IMAGE 2021-04-11 18:47:41

How many medical marijuana patients in Canada?

 Health Canada collects the data below under the Cannabis Tracking System Ministerial Order. The Order and the Cannabis Act and its regulations replaced the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (ACMPR) on October 17, 2018. Data collected by Health Canada under the ACMPR is available in archived format.

Additional data on cannabis is available on the Cannabis research and data page. In particular, the amount of cannabis sold for medical purposes is published on a monthly basis and is available on the Cannabis market data page. 

Definitions

Active licence holder client registrations

Number of registrations with licensed sellers of cannabis for medical purposes that were active at the end of each month. Patients can be registered with more than one licensed seller and with Health Canada provided an original medical document was used with each registration.

Active personal or designated production registrations

Persons actively registered at the end of each month with Health Canada to produce cannabis for their own medical purposes, or designate someone to produce it for them.

Authorized amount

Daily quantity of cannabis, expressed in grams of dried cannabis per day, authorized by a registrant’s health care practitioner.

Health care practitioners

Doctors or nurse practitioners authorized to issue medical documents to patients in their jurisdiction of practice.

Refusals

Cases in which Health Canada deems an individual ineligible to be registered for personal or designated production under the provisions of Part 14 of the Cannabis Regulations.

Revocations

Cases in which Health Canada revokes an individual’s registration for personal or designated production under the provisions of Part 14 of the Cannabis Regulations.

Under the Cannabis Act, individuals with a medical document signed by a health care practitioner can purchase cannabis for medical purposes directly from a federally licensed seller. Individuals may also register with Health Canada to produce a limited amount of cannabis for their own medical purposes or designate someone to produce it on their behalf.

The amount of cannabis an individual is authorized to possess or produce for medical purposes is determined by their health care practitioner and is expressed as a daily authorized amount. The daily authorized amount determines how much cannabis the individual may possess in public or, if they register with Health Canada, how much cannabis they may produce (or designated someone to produce on their behalf) for their own medical purposes.

Health care practitioners are expected to make authorization decisions justified by the condition for which their patient is receiving treatment and which are grounded in the available evidence.

Health care practitioners are regulated by provincial or territorial medical regulatory (licensing) authorities. Most provincial and territorial medical regulatory bodies have their own set of standards and guidelines for members, which may include codes of practice related to authorizing cannabis for medical purposes. As a result, authorization practices and the use of cannabis for medical purposes may vary among provinces and territories.

Health Canada publishes information for health care practitioners on its website. This includes the “Daily amount fact sheet (dosage),” which provides information regarding dosing of cannabis for medical purposes, and “Information for health care professionals,” a comprehensive monograph on the pharmacology, potential therapeutic uses and risks of using cannabis for medical purposes.

Highlights on medical client registrations

 Highlights for the current update include:

The number of medical client registrations with federally licensed sellers grew 24% from 303,221 in June 2020 to 377,024 in September 2020, which can partially be explained by the June 2020 regulatory amendment that extended the validity period by 6 months for medical authorizations that were set to expire between March and September 2020.

The number of individuals registered with Health Canada for personal and designated cultivation of cannabis for their own medical purposes increased 29% from 33,614 in June 2020 to 43,211 in September 2020.

Since March 2020, Health Canada has seen a decline in the number of registration applications processed within eight weeks. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic Health Canada has experienced a delay in issuing physical registration certificates for the months of April to September 2020, as processes and procedures continue to be adjusted for remote operations. Several measures have been put in place to help ensure Canadians authorized to use cannabis for medical purposes have reasonable access to cannabis for medical purposes. Most significantly, the Cannabis Regulations were amended on June 26, 2020 to temporarily extend the validity period of existing registrations by six months.

Highlights on daily amounts authorized by health care practitioners

The majority of individuals (approximately 375,000) who access cannabis for medical purposes under the Cannabis Act and its regulations do so by obtaining quality-controlled cannabis from a federally licensed seller of cannabis for medical purposes. The average daily amount authorized by health care practitioners for these individuals who access from federally licensed sellers has remained relatively constant at 2 grams per day since the coming into force of the Cannabis Act in October 2018. This average daily authorized amount is in line with published evidence and guidance about the use of cannabis for medical purposes. Scientific evidence suggests that most patients who use cannabis for medical purposes use up to 3 grams per day of dried cannabis, though amounts under 1 gram per day are used with perceived benefits and decreased risk of side effects.

With respect to the smaller number of individuals (approximately 43,000) registered with Health Canada for personal or designated production, Health Canada has seen a progressive and concerning increase in the average daily amount being authorized by some health care practitioners in some jurisdictions. Nationally, the average daily authorized amount for these individuals is well above the amount suggested in available guidance and evidence. Health Canada is concerned that high daily authorized amounts are, in a few instances, leading to abuse of the access to cannabis for medical purposes framework and are undermining the integrity of the system that many patients – and health care practitioners – rely on to access cannabis to address their medical needs. While treatment options remain a decision best made in consultation between a patient and their health care practitioner, high daily authorized amounts may pose risks to public health and safety, including the risk of cannabis being diverted to the illicit market. Health Canada continues to receive questions from provincial and territorial as well as municipal officials, law enforcement, and the public on the daily amounts authorized by health care practitioners for personal and designated production.

In an effort to support provincial or territorial medical regulatory (licensing) authorities in their oversight of authorizing practices in their jurisdiction, Health Canada began proactively sharing data on the number of health care practitioners and the daily amounts authorized with these regulatory authorities in May and June 2019.

Consistent with Health Canada’s commitment as a regulator to openness and transparency, and to support collective efforts to address potential misuse of Canada’s access to cannabis for medical purposes framework, while preserving reasonable access for those who need it, the Department will henceforth publish new data sets on daily amounts authorized by health care practitioners on a quarterly basis.   

The new data sets are as follows:

The monthly average daily amount authorized by health care practitioners for active personal or designated production registrations, broken down by province or territory

The total number of health care practitioners associated with active registrations with federally licensed sellers in the past 12 months, broken down by province or territory

The number of health care practitioners associated with active personal or designated production registrations, broken down by province or territory

For active personal or designated production registrations, the number of health care practitioners who have authorized a patient to access 25 grams of cannabis per day or more, broken down by province or territory

For active personal or designated production registrations, the number of health care practitioners who have authorized a patient to access 100 grams of cannabis per day or more, broken down by province or territory

Revocations of personal or designated production registrations

Highlights of the data as of March 2020

The average daily amount authorized by health care practitioners for individuals registered to access cannabis for medical purposes from federally licensed sellers was 2 grams per day. This amount has remained relatively constant since October 2018 when the Cannabis Act came into force.

The average daily amount authorized by health care practitioners for individuals who are registered with Health Canada for personal or designated production was 36.2 grams per day.

There were 7,467 health care practitioners associated with registrations made in the previous twelve months with federally licensed sellers.

There were 2,339 health care practitioners associated with active personal or designated production registrations.

Of these, 458 health care practitioners authorized amounts equal to or above 25 grams per day, and 47 authorized amounts equal to or above 100 grams per day.

The majority (81%) of health care practitioners having authorized amounts equal to or above 25 grams per day were located in British Columbia and Ontario. Similarly, 94% of health care practitioners having authorized amounts equal to or above 100 grams per day were located in British Columbia and Ontario.

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