Pubdate: Wed, 25 Feb 2015
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Ian Mulgrew
Page: A2

WHO GETS TO GROW MEDICAL POT?

Joint Submissions: In a Vancouver Courtroom, the Conservative 
Government and Its Opponents Make Their Case

In a vast, near-empty federal courtroom high above downtown 
Vancouver's Georgia and Granville streets, the fate of the country's 
medical marijuana grow-ops is being decided.

Lawyers for the Conservative government and those for patients and 
growers began cross-examining witnesses Monday about best practices, 
the price of dirt and whether you pronounce the particularly powerful 
hybrid strain Oh Gee or, more caveman-like, Og Kush.

I thought it meant Old Geezer pot but apparently it stands for 
Original Gangsta or Ocean Grown, depending on whether you listen to 
the boasts of rap musicians or California growers. Who knew? Forget 
the potency of the weed, the evidence at times is eyes-glaze-over 
dull - such as the dense discussion sparked by federal lawyer Jan 
Brongers about cross-contamination - but the case unfolding over the 
following three weeks is important.

Ottawa transformed the 14-year-old medical marijuana delivery system 
last April by replacing personal grow operations with companies 
producing and selling various varieties of dried marijuana.

The Conservatives were spurred by the medical program's recent and 
unanticipated exponential demand curve, which had shot through the 
roof. As medical and recreational marijuana have won legitimacy and 
legality in the U.S., so the drug has become increasingly used and 
accepted here.

Health Canada reported that some 37,000 had signed up for the medical 
program by last year and many, many more were lining up for the herb 
touted as a remedy for everything from menstrual cramps to post 
traumatic stress disorder.

That's a far cry from the few dozen dying Canadians expected when the 
program was originally established in 2001.

Just look around Vancouver - there are more than 50 illegal weed 
dispensaries doing a booming business.

Still, the prospect of more and more grow operations in 
neighbourhoods, which was inevitable under the old plan, was too much 
for the Tories to tolerate.

The radical change, Brongers maintains, was motivated by public 
safety - the need to eliminate the grow-op next door because of 
allegedly attendant problems of smell, mould, potentially violent 
ripoffs and fire.

Under the new scheme, there is no personal or proxy growing; would-be 
medical marijuana firms are vetted, pass security checks and obtain a 
special licence.

Across the country, there now are numerous companies selling to more 
than 10,000 approved patients, who pay between $2.50 and $15 a gram 
for pot delivered to their door.

Still, many of those who grew their own medication and growers who 
had licences to produce for others filed legal challenges over the 
attempt to legislate their gardens out of existence.

They won an injunction last March that prevents Ottawa from cutting 
down their plants and shields them until this court case 
consolidating the various challenges is resolved.

Their lead lawyer, Abbotsford's John Conroy, the dean of Canada's 
legal cannabis crusaders, says the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, 
Sections 1 (reasonable limits) and 7 (life, liberty and security of 
the person), are at issue.

Some patients can't afford their medication under the new program, 
some can't find the special strain they need from the corporate 
offerings, others claim they have a heavy investment in their grow 
operations or have a right to grow.

Conroy says many are again wrongly being forced to choose between 
their health or black market and jail.

Unlike a normal trial, the voluminous evidence in this case has been 
filed by affidavit and the witnesses are appearing only to be 
cross-examined about the written testimony.

Three weeks has been set for this stage of the case, with another 
week available if there is a major disruption in the schedule. 
Afterwards, lawyers will make written submissions to Justice Michael Manson.

A decision is expected no earlier than August, but more likely 
September or later in the fall.

It may be moot - the Liberals have promised if they form the next 
government, to follow the U.S. down the path to legalization, while 
the proliferation of storefront dispensaries mocks the government's 
program and its attempt to keep a lid on pot consumption.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom