Canada has been very progressive when it comes to legalizing marijuana. They have legalized it medically, and the current leading platform is extremely open to legalizing recreational marijuana next year. It is expected that cannabis is going to be completely legalized in the state within the next few years, if not sooner, but medical cannabis use is becoming very popular among an unlikely audience: Police officers
Canada’s police force is increasingly accepting and using medical marijuana. For about a year now, the amount of active and former members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) who were reimbursed for their cannabis prescriptions have gone up by more than a hundred percent. Government documents from a Montreal news outlet states that Forty-seven police officers had their prescriptions covered by the insurance for people who have suffered injuries while on the job. The total cost for medical marijuana ended up being about $272,000.
During 2014, twenty officers were reimbursed under the plan for just $64,000. In 2013, the total cost of medical marijuana was just $8,000. There has been significant growth thanks to Canada’s progressive stance on the issue. 5,200 out of 28,461 members of the police force are under medical marijuana. Although marijuana is going to be legalized recreationally soon, people still say that law enforcements using marijuana are not a good thing. The controversy of the subject hit its peak when an officer was filmed smoking medical marijuana to raise awareness about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among officers was forced to retire.
“I’m trying to draw attention to the fact that the RCMP fails to have a program in place for proper PTSD screening for their members and proper information for their families,” Cpl. Ron Francis, who served with the force for more than 20 years and suffered from PTSD, said in an interview.
