So as we all know home growing is permitted for all medical patients once you apply and get approval from health Canada under the ACMPR. As /u/theCerberus pointed out that you have to legally obtain starting materials from an established Licensed Provider(LP). I think there was also some discussion about LPs dragging their feet on selling seeds or clones because that is cutting into their own market. Well, it seems they have a plan. It looks like they are just going to charge you a ridiculous fee to get a legal kit to start growing. As I found out today, Whistler Medical Marijuana Corp (WMMC) is the first LP to offer kits for sale, but they cost $750 plus tax for 5 plants of a single strain you choose and that will be the final link in getting started in home growing. Other than the fact you need to apply to Health Canada and essentially dedicate all of you script to growing or split it with another LP.
Anyway, here is the link the Canada's first legal medical home grow kits(for insane prices):
https://whistlermedicalmarijuana.com/plants/
The $750 plus tax seems to be like a membersbip fee in a sense as once you buy a kit which comes with an initial 5 plants you can then buy additional plants shipping to your door included for a reasonable $25 plus applicable taxes. Your grow permit could be for 10-20 or more plants depending on how much of your prescription you dedicate so you could need much more than the initial 5 plants to get started. The one thing that sucks is it looks like you can only continually buy plants of the strain you initially chose because that $750+tax kit you bought was technically for the rights almost to the genetics of a particular strain from that company.
Remember each monthly gram is equal to 5 indoor plants.
The other thing though is presumably you sign up with them for a duration like you do with a dried flower prescription, so likely on a maximum of a year. That makes me wonder now if you will have to buy the rights to the genetics or a new "kit" as the LPs call them for another $750+tax when you renew each year? What if you have a successful mother at home that you've established? I guess at that point you could then buy a kit for another strain if you wanted some more diversity. However, if you aren't the type to keep a mother plant around and pull clones off that you then you will be relying on the LP for new plants around or before(depending on your plant limit of course). So in those cases, you'll prob have to spend the $750 plus tax to continue with that strain you started with a year ago or switch to a new strain you are possibly uncertain of, in the least you don't have experience growing and tending to the new genetics.
If you want a diverse garden it is going to be expensive. If you have a 5 gram prescription, you would have a 25 plant allowtment. That would allow you to buy 5 different kits at max under the currently available pricing structure of $750 plus tax per kit. The 5 kits would cost $3750 plus tax altogether. Plus the materials for your grow like the housing, lighting, planting materials, additional costs if you are going hydroponic. So let's say for a non hydroponic tent that could have 10-20 flowering/maturing plants with say 5-15 as either possible mothers or simply plants in the seedling or vegetative stages the cost would be 1500-2500+tax depending on quality of and needed materials. Like you don't need a tent if you have a room in your house you can seal off and use.
It then looks like it will cost you about $6000 plus tax for a 5gram/25 plant permit and the equipment/facility to get started for your first year in ACMPR legal medical growing. Then a minimum $3750 plus tax each of the following years plus whatever maintenance costs like new bulbs and other lighting and ventilation parts that get worn.
What I want to compare this to now is the cost of just buying flower from the LPs if you have a 5gram a day script instead of converting it to a grow permit and producing at home. So for example, Tweed (
www.tweed.com), has a Hindu Kush strain that is usually around 25-28% THC and the lowest price available is under their compassionate pricing which makes this $4.80. They also offer a few other strains in the 7%-20 THC ranges as well as a variety of other strains but the better ones aren't always available. If you opt for something different you are bumped up to $7.20 per gram for strains in potency anywhere from 14-28%. Let's assume each day he consumes 3.5g of the $4.80/gram strains and 1.5g of the $7.20/gram strains he is spending a daily total of $27.60, which with tax is $31.19.
So that number($31.19/day), for 5grams of ready to smoke flower, multiplied by 365 days a year, is $11,384.
LET'S COMPARE
5g/day of dried flowers to your door is $11.384 per year.
5g/day/25 plants of legal Health Canada permitted home cultivation is roughly $6780 per year for 5 different sets of genetics and each additional year is $4238 minimum plus grow site maintenance costs for another 5 different sets of genetics. You also have to factor in how mainly harvests a year you will have beginning your first year as you will need to buy new seedlings/clones or whatever state the plants are in when the LPs sell them. If you have 3 additional harvests a year and need to order 25 plants 3 times that will cost you $706 each time. So in total for 3 addition harvests a year you also have an additional $2118.
So that first year $6780 is now $8898
That second year $4238 is now still a bleeding $6356
Again, let's consider a years worth of 5gram/day of LP cannabis to your door is a property estimated $11,384.
Home grow 1st yr vs LP Flowers
$8898-$11,384 = -$2486
Home grow 2nd yr and onward vs LP Flowers
$6356-$11,384 = -$5028
So I can still see there. Sing a market as there are countless people who would rather buy something already prepared than having to do it from scratch themselves. I liken it to take out food as people, 1/5 the cost, could easily prepare quality food at home, but choose to get take out for the convenience of time being saved as it is already prepared for you and there are no dishes needing to be washed.
******VERY IMPORTANT******
If you read this far I just want to reiterate my stance on personal production and the ACMPR. If you have to actually go the routes discussed above and acquire your genetics for ludicrous prices like $750+tax, I wholeheartedly disagree with that stipulation. I would have no problem in protest simply getting my permit and then starting with the seeds from the seed company of my choosing. I should have the right to decide which strains are most suitable for my ailments. I would never buy LP genetics. I know you could just buy them once for the $848 and then use whatever seeds you want, but we shouldn't have to give the LPs anymore piece of the pie they almost entirely have.
This $750+tax for the genetics and 5 plants is just a cover for them to secure back as much of the losses they will see when the medical home production becomes more popular and hopefully even easier to access than a lengthy Health Canada package.
