Thank you.
I'm actually thanking the member opposite for bringing this amendment up, because I think clarification is important, and it appears that Mr. Julian doesn't necessarily understand the difference in what prescribed cannabis is.
First of all, there's prescribed cannabis. There's prescribed cannabis with a DIN or a regulation, or approved by Health Canada. The drug identification number that's attached to cannabis in fact does not have an excise tax attached to it. I think that's an important clarification. There are prescriptions that will be obtained from doctors, which people will take to their local pharmacy for cannabis that has a drug identification number approved by Health Canada. That does not have an excise tax. I think we need to be very clear about that.
I did a little bit more research on this, and one of the other things I think we need to be very clear about is the fact that pharmaceutical products derived from cannabis will also be exempt, providing that the cannabis product has a drug identification number and can only be acquired through a prescription.
Because of this, because it is addressed here.... Let's remember the harmonization of this excise duty was part of the recommendation from the 2016 task force. As a government, we believe we've hit all of the right points in terms of ensuring that cannabis is kept out of the hands of children and the profits are out of the hands of organized crime. For those reasons we believe this amendment is not necessary.