Health Canada gaffe outs up to 40,000 medical marijuana users in letters

OTTAWA – A gaffe by Health Canada has outed thousands of medical marijuana users.

Earlier this week, the department mailed 40,000 letters to medical marijuana users across the country, alerting them to major changes coming in the program beginning April 1.

But the letters came in an envelope that referred explicitly to the Medical Marijuana Access Program, and included the name of the patient on the outside.

George Da Pont, the deputy minister at Health Canada, has issued an apology on the Health Canada website today, calling it an administrative error.

He says the department has reported the incident to the privacy commissioner.

Medical marijuana user Marcel Gignac says the gaffe has painted a target on the backs of medical marijuana patients across Canada.