Diabetics who shop SDM...Do you get points on your supplies?

[FrugalKris]

I was just at Shoppers Drug Mart today at about 4 o'clock this afternoon, to get in on the deal "if you spend $75 or more get 18,500 points" as of June 29 - July 3.
I needed to get my insulin, which I started to get exclusively from Shoppers, ever since they had the Optimum Rewards program so I would routinely get large number of points worth a good deal of free supplies by the end of the year, worth at least three or four bottles of insulin (FREE!!) each year. HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS!!!
As of a last week Shoppers Drug Mart, NO LONGER GIVES POINTS ON INSULIN!!!!!!!! When I complained to the pharmacist, he checked with the manager on staff and she checked the employee website and printed off the exclusions list for Optimum members which included insulin. She told me to call the Optimum phone number (1-800-SHOPPERs or 1-800-746-7737 in Ontario) and when I did, the woman I talked to, was unsure of what was on the exclusion list for points she went off the line and checked. When she came back she said yes, that was correct, BY LAW, they can no longer offer points due to the fact that the Ontario government guidelines consider the "points" as equal to a cash value, and can't be given for insulin products. This means that I didn't spend any were near enough to get the 18,500 points.
As I see it, the number of hours that I work and only at minimum wage, pretty much all my money goes to my diabeteic needs, with little left over, with no benifits any longer of getting ANYTHING free with the rewards program, I really have no reason to shop there any longer due to the governments interference. Since I find that Shoppers product pricing is somewhat higher due to the fact they give points, I am better off shopping elsewhere to save money, as I will never get enough points anymore if my largest expenses come from my diabetes and no longer qualify.
If anyone else has stummbled upon this and are as frustrated as I am over the government screwing us over again, chime in, and maybe let me know where I can go to log a complaint to the Ontario government over this since this seriously costs me more now, without getting freebies. Why would the government meddle with such a requirement NOW, when they haven't done so before now?? It makes no sense!? I'm just the little guy and have enough trouble making ends meet, yet the government seems to want to make more difficult. That's just my rantting right now since I'm so frustrated at the moment.
I tried Googling this but got no hits on a Ontario site that could give me a reason as to the new change. Anyone out there have a clue as to where to go?
Please help!
Craig.

Craig this is really interesting - I had HUGE problems with getting points for my last penfils of insulin (Levemir) on the last 20x the points - The pharmacist cashed me out - issue only got 30 points. I thought it might have been because of new packaging but I guess not! A supervising cashier (bless her heart she was amazing!) had to redo the transaction and MANUALLY put the points in 1,000 at a time. I thought it was a weird glich - but this is interesting if this IS true - I will be really upset this is what gets me like 26,000ish points on 20x the points days. I don't have drug coverage and it is bloody expensive to get this stuff - the optimum program offers me to have Christmas presents/items for myself and family this year. If anyone knows more info I would like to know as well. Hopefully we can figure something out. Thanks for the heads up on this issue.

[nalaric]

Any Diabetic's willing to give me some up to date information on using shoppers to get the most amount of points? (in BC, not sure if that makes a difference)