The founder of the Halifax Cannabis Buyers’ Club says he’s worried about the options for his former clients now he’s been forced to close down his operation.

John Cook provided medical marijuana to as many as 150 people at a time over the last 10 years, always screening potential members to ensure they had a real medical need for pain relief.

A recent heart attack and other health issues have forced him to give it up.

He tells News 95.7 that leaves his former clients with only limited options for a new source – government marijuana is expensive and of dubious quality, and not everyone has the option of growing their own.

“That’s another pitfall of the government program, they want to eliminate that altogether and have a private company sell it,” he said. “That will be disastrous because not many people can afford it now anyhow, they’re on disability and whatnot. So ideally, they’d have their own supply or have a co-op set up that they could join and have it given to them for no cost.”

A local medical marijuana advocate says the closure of a compassionate club like Cook’s comes at a time when the federal government is taking an increasingly hardline stance on drug use.

Debbie Stultz-Giffin says the new omnibus crime bill, which takes effect in the fall, will impose a mandatory six-month jail sentence on anyone caught using or growing cannabis for personal use if they don’t have a medical exemption – and she says that’s not easy to get.

“In fact, only one per cent of doctors in the country are endorsing paperwork for patients who desperately need that signature,” she said. “So is that what the Harper government is going to qualify as medical, if you can get a doctor’s support, then you won’t go to prison?”

Stultz-Giffin says the Harper government has also cut funding for research and staffing in the medical marijuna access department, resulting in lengthy delays for anyone who does file paperwork for the exemption.