Being in the ACMPR consulting industry, we are often asked by patients where they can grow their medicine. We recommend always getting the landlords permission when renting an apartment or house for ethical reasons but the fact remains that this will almost always result in the landlord not renting out his property. There is a stigma around the damage that could be done to a property by growing indoors and rightfully so. Many small growers lack the necessary budget to control the climate indoors and even if the grow space is set up properly, unusually hot days and accidents can cause damage.

So for the million dollar question?

Can you grow in a rented dwelling without getting permission from the landlord?

The answer is YES.

Under the Health Canada ACMPR rules, if the place that you plan to grow in is your primary residence, you do not have to get the landlords permission or let them know. When you submit your ACMPR forms to Health Canada, you merely write in the address that you plan to grow at as your primary residence (and hopefully it is!) and the official licence will come back permitting you to grow at that address. Health Canada is swamped with applications and does not have the resources to check if the location is actually your primary residence or not but of course, lets try and play by the rules people.

The picture below is from page 5 of the Health Canada ACMPR form that must be mailed to Health Canada along with the original prescription in  order to get a legal license to grow. Notice that if the proposed production site is your place of residence, you are to skip Section A2 which is the section for the owners consent.

Please note that this will allow you to legally assign your licence to this location but it will not help you if your landlord tries to evict you for any other reasons. In the case of a multi unit dwelling there is serious risk to neighbors for chance of fire, mold or toxic fumes from pesticides or CO2 generators. This is something to really take into consideration when going through this process as past growers, usually from the underground illegal realm, have made people very fearful about living around a grow location.

To begin the process of applying for a licence to grow legally in Canada, you will need a medical practitioner to prescribe you a certain amount of grams per day. Here at Licence to Grow we can connect you and assist you through this process to make it fast and easy. Click here to fill out the application to get started.