Shoppers Drug Mart and Loblaws recently made headlines by announcing they will cover medical cannabis for their employees. But the devil is always in the details. While these two chains should be praised for their progressive steps forward, we also need to ask who this coverage is provided for, how much is being covered, as well as how this fits with the overall long-term strategy to position pharmacies as the front-line dispensers of medical cannabis.

While to some extent, I believe homeowners should have some say in what happens in their rental properties, this needs to be balanced with the rights of individuals to grow their cannabis for medical purposes and have access to affordable medicine.

Wednesday's release of Health Canada's new medical cannabis regulations, the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations brings some big changes for patients. Perhaps the biggest is the reintroduction of statutes that allow Canadian patients to grow for themselves, or to designate someone to grow on their behalf.