Pubdate: Fri, 12 Jun 2015
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2015 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Authors: Geordon Omand and Terry Pedwell
Page: A7
Referenced: Supreme Court Judgment (R. v. Smith): 
http://mapinc.org/url/d2dzMbjW

HAVE YOUR POT CAKE AND EAT IT, TOO

Court Ruling Clears Medical Marijuana Users to Consume Drug in a Range of Ways

OTTAWA- A former cannabis club head baker at the centre of a Supreme 
Court of Canada ruling is both thrilled and relieved after the high 
court struck down limits on what constitutes legally acceptable 
medical marijuana products.

The court ruled unanimously on Thursday that medical marijuana can be 
legally consumed in a range of ways, from cannabis-infused cookies 
and brownies to cooking oils and teas.

"I think across the country there will be a lot more smiles and a lot 
less pain," said Owen Smith with the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club, 
whose 2009 arrest was the focus of the decision.

Smith was charged after police found hundreds of pot cookies and 
cannabis-infused olive and grape seed oils in his Victoria apartment. 
He was acquitted at trial and won an appeal.

The outpouring of gratitude since the ruling was handed down has been 
overwhelming, Smith said. He received a phone call from a mother who 
used cannabis-infused oil to treat her daughter's epilepsy.

"She was just overjoyed and in tears about the decision," he said. 
"It's been emotional, that's for sure."

Not only was it a unanimous 7-0 ruling, but the court made a point of 
attributing the written decision to the entire court - something the 
justices do when they want to underline a finding.

It was yet another rebuke of the Harper government's tough-on=crime agenda.

Until now, federal regulations stipulated that authorized users of 
physician-prescribed cannabis could only consume dried marijuana.

But limiting medical consumption to dried pot infringes on liberty 
protections under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the court said.

"The prohibition of non-dried forms of medical marijuana limits 
liberty and security of the person in a manner that is arbitrary and 
hence is not in accord with the principles of fundamental justice," 
said the written judgment.

The initial trial judge in Smith's case gave the federal government a 
year to change the laws around cannabis extracts, but the court said 
Thursday its ruling takes effect immediately.

Cheryl Rose, whose daughter Hayley takes cannabis for a severe form 
of epilepsy, said the 22-year-old's seizures have dropped dramatically.

Under the previous law, Hayley had to take 15 capsules of dried 
cannabis daily. Now, she will only have to take one concentrated pill 
made with oil.

"Without having extracts available for her, I don't think we'd be 
able to keep it up. It's way too much for a person to consume," she 
said. "She's finally going to fully have her life back."

Alex Repetski of Thornhill, Ont., could have been charged with 
possession and trafficking for converting dried bud into oil for his 
3-year-old daughter, Gwenevere, whose debilitating epilepsy has left 
her developmentally delayed.

Since starting on the low-THC marijuana, Gwenevere has seen an 
incredible recovery, Repetski said. He no longer fears prosecution.

Limiting medical marijuana use to dried pot "limits life, liberty and 
security of the person" in two ways, the court said.

First, the prohibition on possession of cannabis in forms other than 
dried pot places a person at risk of imprisonment when they wouldn't 
face the same threat if they possessed dried marijuana buds.

It also exposes people with a legitimate need for marijuana to other 
potential medical ailments, it stated.

"It subjects the person to the risk of cancer and bronchial 
infections associated with smoking dry marijuana and precludes the 
possibility of choosing a more effective treatment."

The decision was the latest in a series of rulings by the high court 
against the Harper government on a variety of issues, including 
unanimously rejecting the ban on providing doctor-assisted death to 
mentally competent patients.

Health Minister Rona Ambrose said she was "outraged" by the marijuana decision.

"The big issue here is the message about normalization," she said. 
"The message that judges, not medical experts, judges have decided 
something is a medicine."

Ambrose noted that marijuana has never faced a regulatory approval 
process through Heath Canada.

"This not a drug," she said. "This is not a medicine. There's very 
harmful effects of marijuana, especially on our youth."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom