Skip to main content
Several comprehensive reports, from the Le Dain commission in 1972 to the more recent rounds of debates in the Canadian senate have concluded that the health risks of cannabis prohibition outweigh those of a regulated market. Cannabis legalization requires provisions for edibles, as the absence of edibles in the legal market incentivizes the potentially less healthy practice of inhaling smoke. As such the introduction of a regulated market for cannabis edibles should be reason for celebration among those concerned with a health-based approach to drug policy. However, despite Canada’s innovation and international leadership in cannabis policy the CMAJ editorial marking the introduction of cannabis edibles (Grewal & Loh) focused exclusively on harms, and included an unsupported suggestion that Canadian adults be directed to avoid homemade or illicit edibles.
With regard to the caution on homemade edibles the authors provide no reason to expect that cannabis cuisine is more likely to bear food borne illness than any other home-prepared food. Are Canadians unsafe in their own pantries? More pernicious is the tired canard of narcotic contamination of cannabis. There are reasons to avoid the illegal market, but narcotic contamination is not one of them. As researchers active in the area of cannabis and public health we have not yet encountered any reliable evidence of the contamination of cannabis with opioid narcotics. Indeed, misplaced concern regarding fentanyl contamination was sufficient to provoke Dr. Jane Philpott during her tenure as Minister of Health to unequivocally state : “Very important that everyone understands that — and we have confirmed this with chiefs of police, law enforcement officials across this country — there is zero documented evidence that ever in this country cannabis has been found laced with fentanyl.” Claiming imaginary harms is a hallmark of drug panics such as the “reefer madness”of the 1940s. Canada is in the midst of a very real and deadly drug contamination crisis with fentanyl in illicit powders and pills. Our national medical journal need not distract its readers by chasing shadows of hysteria past and should instead lend its voice to support Canada’s progress toward more sensible, safe, and healthy drug policy. The regulation of cannabis edibles is a step in that right direction.