The restrictions, as I understand them.... I simply want to be clear that the restrictions in the oils that are currently available are not for vaporizing. Those are for ingestion only.
I also want to make a comment that inhalation is a very important mode of administration and it can be done very safely when a vaporizer is used properly. I want to make sure that we're not demonizing it in terms of patients using inhalation since the immediate onset of symptom relief is very important. My understanding is that the restriction in the ACMPR currently is 30 milligrams of THC per millilitre—I'm not quite sure where the 3% number came from—and 30 milligrams of THC is quite a lot. When I am teaching patients how to use cannabis for the first time, if they're using oil, I have them start with 2.5 milligrams and wait until the next day before they increase it.
I just wanted to clarify that.
In terms of advertising, from the Compassion Club perspective we would like to be able to do more patient outreach. We have always worked very hard to be compliant with every bylaw, every little law we can possibly be compliant with, while we break the big ones. We don't do any patient outreach into other patient groups that could really benefit from our services because we don't want to be contravening any of the advertising regulations.
Two years ago we received a letter from Health Canada that was fairly heavy-handed in terms of informing us that relative to the menu that we had on our website and on our telephone line, if we didn't immediately cease and desist, there would be millions of dollars' worth of fines and years in jail, so we immediately complied. Most of the other unregulated dispensaries in Vancouver and the online ones have not complied in the same way that we have. As a result, we are losing revenue quite significantly, which is impacting our ability to provide patient services.
I suggest that the same thing will happen with the legal market. If the legal market is handcuffed in terms of being able to talk about the effects of the products, or able to talk about the qualities of the products, or even the nature of the company that has produced them, you're going to give a substantial advantage to players who are producing cannabis in an unregulated market.