Pubdate: Wed, 13 Feb 2008
Source: Burlington Post (CN ON)
Copyright: 2008 Burlington Post
Contact:  http://www.burlingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1528
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Kindos

A QUESTION OF RIGHTS

Medical Marijuana Challenge

Does the right of a Burlington resident to smoke marijuana as a 
legally-recognized form of pain relief supercede the right of others 
in society not to be exposed to it?

That is one of the many legal questions the Human Rights Tribunal of 
Ontario will be facing when it hears the case of Burlington's Steve 
Gibson versus Gator Ted's Tap and Grill owner Ted Kindos later this year.

The two men have been deadlocked in a 2 1/2-year battle before the 
Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) over Gibson's contention that 
he should be allowed to smoke his medical marijuana in the same area 
outside the Guelph Line restaurant as cigarette smokers.

As an entrepreneur, Kindos believes he has to be able to address 
customer complaints about exposure to wafting marijuana smoke outside 
his restaurant's entrance.

Given our society's strong stance against secondhand smoke, we 
understand Kindos's concern.

In Burlington, restaurants were ordered to eliminate all indoor 
smoking after May 1, 2003, unless they invested in a 
separately-ventilated designated smoking room (DSR). The multi-phased 
municipal bylaw eventually banned all forms of smoking from inside 
restaurants on Jan. 1, 2006.

The Smoke-Free Ontario Act subsequently placed a similar smoking ban 
across the province on May 31, 2006.

About a year before the provincial legislation passed, Gibson -- who 
has suffered debilitating neck pain for 19 years following a 
workplace accident -- lit up a marijuana joint outside the 
restaurant. (Six months earlier he had been granted permission by 
Health Canada to use marijuana for relief from his chronic pain.) 
When some Gator Ted's customers complained, Kindos asked Gibson -- a 
regular patron of the restaurant for about 11 years -- to either 
smoke the marijuana further away from the restaurant's entrance or leave.

Gibson contends he was taking his medical marijuana within the same 
proximity of Gator Ted's as cigarette smokers.

The case has the potential to be precedent-setting should it find 
that medical marijuana users are free to administer their medicine 
whenever and wherever the need arises.

The case also raises an interesting question about whether Ontario 
smokers who've been legislated outside of bars and restaurants are 
being permitted to light up closer to these buildings than Ontario law allows.

On his restaurant website -- www.gatorteds.ca -- Kindos contends 
"that Ontario law now states smoking is not permitted within nine 
metres of an entrance."

Gibson claimed cigarette smokers have been permitted within about 
three metres of Gator Ted's entrance and that he only wants equal treatment.

Beyond the circumstances of this specific case, we believe it's time 
Canada's lawmakers clarify the rules regarding medical marijuana use.

Should Gibson's case succeed, we suspect others will try to push 
medical marijuana use into public spaces where today's cigarette 
smokers dare not go. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake