The federal budget makes excise tax changes to marijuana edibles, oils, and extracts and the Vice President of the Hexo Corporation says the feds missed a big opportunity.

Terry Lake says the change, linking THC content to the tax rate where the higher the THC, the higher the taxes, make sense in terms of recreational cannabis but not in terms of medical marijuana.

He believes the right thing to do would have been to remove the excise tax off of medical marijuana products.

“There is no question that some people who use medical cannabis have higher CBD, which is the component that does not get you high,” he said. “But many many medical patients use higher THC products.”

“In fact if you look at many of our veterans using cannabis for PTSD they require very high THC levels. Again they are trying to make square pegs fit in round holes.”

Lake says he has advocated for a similar tax system tying alcohol content to liquor taxation.