Pubdate: Tue, 07 Oct 2003 9.
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2003 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Canadian Press
Links: to the court decisions are at http://cannabislink.ca/legal/#legalcases

COURT MAKES POT POSSESSION ILLEGAL AGAIN

Ontario Judges Tell Ottawa It Has Duty to Provide Medical Marijuana to the Ill

Canada's law against possessing small amounts of pot came back into effect 
today after the Ontario Court of Appeal struck down parts of Ottawa's 
medicinal marijuana program. Federal regulations governing the program 
unfairly restrict qualified users in getting the drug, the court found. But 
it stopped short of the true goal for many marijuana advocates: striking 
down the law in its entirety.

Instead, the three-judge panel nimbly singled out as unconstitutional 
specific provisions of the federal Marijuana Medical Access Regulations, or 
MMARs, leaving users to celebrate only a partial victory.

"That little gap that we had in Ontario where the law did not exist and 
police could not arrest you for smoking is over," lawyer Alan Young said 
outside court.

"Ultimately, I would prefer just to get rid of the law and let people take 
care of themselves as they see fit. That didn't happen today, but at least 
the court has given sick people some greater tools to be self-sufficient."

The provisions in question restricted licensed growers from receiving 
compensation for their product, growing the drug for more than one 
qualified patient and pooling resources with other licensed producers.

The ruling also struck down a requirement that sick people get two doctors 
to validate their need to use marijuana as a drug.

"This narrow remedy would create a constitutionally valid medical 
exemption, making marijuana prohibition . . . immediately constitutionally 
valid and of full force and effect and removing any uncertainty concerning 
the validity of the prohibition," said a synopsis of the ruling issued by 
the court.

In other words, the ruling reinstates laws that were effectively suspended 
in Ontario earlier this year when a judge ruled that possessing less than 
30 grams of pot was no longer against the law in the province.

The decision is encouraging because it will allow medicinal growers to 
produce a higher-quality drug in greater quantities, said Alison Myrden, a 
medicinal user and longtime marijuana crusader.

But Myrden, who is licensed to smoke marijuana to alleviate symptoms of 
chronic progressive multiple sclerosis and other severe ailments, admitted 
she was disappointed that the law survived.

"I'm pleased with it in one respect because sick people again collectively 
will have the opportunity to grow together; we have an opportunity there to 
make medicine en masse for sick and dying people in this country," Myrden 
said as she sat outside court in her wheelchair, smoking a joint.

"But my recreational friends are going to get burned in a way that I'm not 
happy with at all. So I don't think that's fair."

The ruling agreed with a lower court ruling in January that found the 
regulations were unconstitutional because they forced qualified users to 
either grow their own pot or buy it on the black market.

"Many of these individuals are not only seriously ill, they are also 
significantly physically handicapped and therefore cannot possibly grow 
their own marijuana," the synopsis said.

"A scheme that authorizes possession of marijuana by seriously ill 
individuals but which drives some of them to the black market . . . 
undermines the rule of law and fails to create a constitutionally valid 
medical exemption to the criminal prohibition against marijuana."

Officials from the federal government could not immediately be reached for 
comment on the ruling.

The decision in January by Ontario Court Justice Sidney Lederman left 
Canada's pot possession laws in tatters because it made it impossible to 
permit medicinal use while prohibiting possession for everyone else.

Lederman gave the government a July 9 deadline to either fix the 
regulations or supply the pot itself to users of medical marijuana.

Ottawa then instituted an interim policy that would see it sell pot at set 
prices to approved users, but also launched an appeal of the ruling, saying 
it shouldn't be forced to provide a legal source of marijuana.

The initial lawsuit was launched by seven Canadians with various medical 
conditions, along with their caregiver, who demanded the federal government 
provide a safe and reliable source of medical marijuana.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake