No THC Vapes And Concentrates Yet, Says Health Canada

No THC Vapes And Concentrates Yet, Says Health Canada

Canada’s legal cannabis industry is missing out on the most popular products. Although it’s been known that edibles wouldn’t be available to the recreational market just yet, new disappointment comes in the form of the lack of vape pens and concentrates in Canada, too.

Apparently, Canada’s Bill C-45, the law that legalizes cannabis, doesn’t legalize the use of concentrates. Health Canada, the main governing body that dictates what and won’t be available in the legal cannabis market, is worried about the safety of these products. According to the Cannabis Act, cannabis manufacturers can’t be involved in “altering or offering to later the chemical properties of cannabis by the use of an organic solvent.” To them, an organic solvent would be the “means of any organic compound that is explosive or extremely flammable,” and this includes solvents that use butane, which is what makes up a majority of concentrates on the market.

Fears of Health Risks

There are also fears that availability of these products will contribute to mental problems. “I think there are concerns, in terms of psychosis, in terms of anxiety,” says Michael John Milloy, a researcher at the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use. Since cannabis concentrates are made using industrial procedures, they are not considered “natural”, says Milloy, who is also an assistant professor at UBC. However, Milloy does acknowledge the benefits of using vapes, which includes simplified dosing as compared to smoking.

Dosist, a California company that manufactures vape products, has been fighting back to bring vapes to Canada. Although dosist has an office in Vancouver, they are only selling products in California because of regulations. “If the government’s mandate is to protect children and stamp out the black market, this is the single biggest gift that the government could give to the black market. To allow for certain forms of cannabis, and not all,” says dosist president Josh Campbell, in an August feature by CBC.

Campbell adds that the black market will eventually start getting into the business of making oils, which have better value and potency. Concentrates are still not regulated, which makes it easy for the black market to profit from it.

Potency Limits

The THC limits set for cannabis oil are at 30mg of THC for each milliliter, but no restrictions have been set for dried flower because this is an effort to prevent people from buying from the black market (the irony).

The limits imposed on pre-rolled joints are a maximum of one gram.

However, there is no limit on how much CBD a product can have.

In an August press release, James Casey, president of MJN Express, said: “The typical user with epilepsy requires 2 grams of weed to deal with seizures, a time consuming and very large amount of flower to smoke.”

“Omitting some of cannabis’ most innovative and popular products leaves a significant segment of the cannabis market unaccounted for. Leaving many new and alternative methods of cannabis consumption on the sideline, in favor of strains (hybrid, indica and sativa) could be a disaster come October,” Casey said. “Hopefully everyone can get what they need, and in the long-term recreational legalization will be fantastic,” he says. “But out of the gate, it doesn’t look like it.”

Health Canada may take another year to come up with the final regulations for edibles and concentrates. They did say that “edible products and concentrates will be legal for sale approximately one year after the Cannabis Act came into force on October 17th, 2018.”

Even if Canadian cannabis consumers think it’s a nuisance not to be able to enjoy vapes and concentrates, it poses a serious issue particularly when it comes to the potency limits, for patients with debilitating medical conditions. Loosening up a lot of the restrictions surrounding cannabis in Canada will not only lead to the development and availability of more products in shelves, but it’s even more important because it could unlock the potential for more cannabis research. With most cannabis concentrates containing WAY more than the current limit of Canada for them to be effective, their current rules essentially ban all kinds of vape products with THC.

But as with other countries, the legalization of cannabis in Canada is a continuous process and not a definitive one. We can only tell how legalization in the Great White North will look like in a few years, even if it started out with much to be desired.