4. Grow cannabis for your own medicinal purposes
Question & Answer
What are the rules about medicinal cannabis?You must live in Canada if you want to grow your own medicinal cannabis. And you must be over the age of 18.
To grow medicinal cannabis, you have to fill out Health Canada’s registration form and send it with your original medical document.
The registration form asks you for information such as:
- your name and date of birth
- where you live and where you will grow and store your cannabis
- whether you will grow the cannabis indoors, outdoors, or in both places
- if you have permission from the person who owns the property to grow cannabis, if you don’t own the property
You also have to promise that you will make sure the cannabis is secure, and that you won’t grow it next to a school, public playground, or other public place where children and youth spend time.
If you’ve been in the past 10 years of certain drug offences, such as importing or exporting cannabis, you might not be allowed to grow your own medicinal cannabis.
Designating a person to produce cannabis
You might be able to choose or designate a person to grow and produce your medicinal cannabis for you. A designated person is allowed to:
- water your plants
- harvest your plants
- make cannabis products for you
A designated person can also store, transport, ship, or deliver the cannabis to you.
Access to seeds and plants
When you register with Health Canada, you receive a registration certificate and a document from Health Canada that says what you’re allowed to do. You can use your registration certificate to buy seeds or plants from a federally licensed producer.
The maximum quantity of seeds and plants that you can buy is what your medical document allows. However, there’s no limit to the number of times you can buy them. So if your plants die, you can buy more.
