Introduction to Health Canada’s ACMPR License and How to Apply Online

Out of all the old and new trends relating to medical marijuana, the one that has made the greatest impact among patients is home cultivation. It’s not even fair to call this a “trend” since people have been growing their own cannabis plants for centuries.

Even though growing weed for personal medical reasons has been around for a while, there has definitely been a spike in the number of home growers, especially in North America. A huge reason for this is that governments around the world are allowing their citizens to grow medical-grade plants from the comforts of home. Canada is the perfect example.

About Canada’s Medical Marijuana Program

In 2001, the federal Canadian government approved its first medical marijuana program, which allowed patients to grow their own natural, green leafy medicine from the comforts of home. Health Canada (the governmental department that runs this program) has made the application process easy, and almost anyone can apply.

Today’s program is called the ACMPR, but in the past, it was the MMPR, and before that the MMAR. With each new program, there have been minor changes in rules and regulations, but the entire premise behind each of them is to give medical marijuana patients easy access to their treatment by allowing them to grow from home.

ACMPR Basics

The Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations, ACMPR for short, was officially passed in 2016. Under these new medical laws, medical growers who have gone through the licensing process can access medical marijuana in three different ways:

1. Purchase it from licensed producers of cannabis
2. Grow it from home
3. Designate another person to grow for them

The most popular route of access out of all three is #2, mainly because there’s no easier method of access than to grow from home on your own. But the beauty of the ACMPR is that medical marijuana patients have choices, so if they aren’t willing or able to grow cannabis at home, there are other options.

For those who do choose to grow (or designate someone else to grow for them), plant counts are determined by Health Canada. The number of plants each medical patient is allowed to grow mainly depends on their treatment needs, which directly correlates to their medical marijuana prescription sizes (measured in grams per day)

The higher the prescription received from a licensed healthcare practitioner, the more plants a patient is legally allowed to grow. The other determining factor for plant counts is whether a patient wants to grow indoors or outdoors. Since outdoor plants tend to be much larger than indoor ones, the allowed number of plants for outdoor growers is less than indoor growers.

How to Apply for the ACMPR Online

Technically, it’s not possible to complete the entire ACMPR application online, but there are ways to get the majority of it completed by typing on a keyboard and clicking a mouse.

Many ACMPR applicants choose to receive their medical marijuana prescriptions by visiting a private doctor’s office or a free clinic, but there’s actually a way to complete this part of the process without leaving the house.

Some medical professionals see their patients over online video appointments and then send the prescription via mail. Although it’s not the traditional way of doing things, it’s definitely the easiest way. The hard part is finding these doctors, but the good news is that this company and others like it can help.

Partnering up with an ACMPR consulting service (like the one linked to above) is a great way to simplify the application process. There are companies that have made it their mission to help medical marijuana patients get licensed to grow from home with a smooth application process.

4 Steps to Getting ACMPR Licensed the Easy Way

If you do choose to do things the easy way and hire an ACMPR consultant, then the process can be done in 4 easy steps.

Step #1 is to send in your basic information – things like name, address, date of birth, and medical marijuana needs and history. Submitting your info will give the consulting service all the necessary information to get the application process underway.

Step #2 is to schedule an online appointment with a licensed Canadian healthcare professional. In most cases, this appointment takes only 10 to 15 minutes, and as long as you can prove your history with medical marijuana or explain why you need it to treat your health condition, then the doctor will be willing to write a prescription.

The doctor or nurse practitioner (both are legally allowed to write medical weed scripts) will then send the RX in the mail to the applicant’s address. This is the original copy of the prescription, and it must be sent to Health Canada for approval.

Step #3 is to fill out the application forms that have been created by Health Canada. These can be accessed on the government’s website, but if you have hired a consulting service, you will receive the paperwork directly from the consultant.

Once the application has been completed and the prescription has been received, Step #4 is to send the documents in the mail to the headquarters of Health Canada. Once Health Canada has received the application, the final part of the process is to wait for the approval.

Once approved, Health Canada assigns each ACMPR member with a registration number and sends the registration form to the applicant’s home address. As soon as this arrives in the mail, you are officially licensed to start growing medical marijuana plants from home.