Pubdate: Fri, 12 Jun 2015
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2015 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: http://www.torontosun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://torontosun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457
Author: Michele Mandel
Page: 8
Referenced: (R. v. Smith): http://mapinc.org/url/d2dzMbjW

SUPREME COURT SMOKES FEDS

Tories' war on weed a losing battle - and rightly so

Well, there go more of our tax dollars up in smoke.

What exactly were the feds toking? In an obviously losing battle,
Ottawa went to the Supreme Court of Canada to argue that patients
using medical marijuana should only be allowed to inhale - that
getting their pot in any other form breaks the law.

Not surprisingly, the high court kicked them to the curb, again.
Medical marijuana is legal, the court reminded them in a unanimous
decision, and that means there should be no difference between whether
it's ingested via a joint or baked in a brownie. For many patients,
marijuana is more effective when eaten rather than inhaled and for
many others - such as children and patients with lung conditions -
smoking medicinal pot isn't an option.

The federal government, they said, was making arbitrary rules that
were actually contrary to public safety. "It is therefore difficult to
understand why allowing patients to transform dried marijuana into
baking oil would put them at greater risk than permitting them to
smoke or vaporize dried marijuana," the justices said.

Limiting medical consumption to dried pot alone infringes on liberty
protections under the Charter, the court said. And their obvious
disgust with the unconstitutional law was apparent in their ruling
that it be struck down immediately - with Ottawa given no time to drag
their feet and find a new legislative way to get around it.

Health Minister Rona Ambrose is outraged, of course. Asked to comment,
she practically sputtered a nonsensical "just say no to drugs" spiel
and dismissed the thousands of Canadians who use marijuana for chronic
pain and other medical conditions as criminal potheads just looking
for an illegal high.

Shame on her.

We get it. This is a government that is tough-on-crime and their war
on drugs is part of their philosophical and political mantra. With a
federal election just months away, the Conservatives are hell-bent on
distinguishing themselves from the Liberals' Justin Trudeau and his
call for the legalization of marijuana.

In their eyes, pot will always remain the "devil weed," even if it
means being irrationally opposed to it providing medicinal relief to
those who are suffering. They're demonizing the wrong people,
overreaching in a way that seems truly beyond comprehension.

They can't possibly want to criminalize little Gwenevere
Repetski.

Gwen turns three this weekend. Her father, Alex, says that oil derived
from a special strain of marijuana called Avidekel has been the only
treatment they've found for her debilitating epilepsy and the
resulting developmental delays. "It's been pretty life-changing for
her," her dad explains. "It's really turned her life around in an
extraordinary, positive way."

After eight traditional anti-epileptic drugs failed to help her, the
Thornhill parents decided they had to try cannabidiol (CBD), the
non-psychoactive compound in marijuana. "I inundated doctors with
research and logical arguments for a year before one was willing to
give us a prescription, with the clear understanding that they could
not help me with dosing but would follow her progress, which has been
amazing."

Until today, Canadian law only allowed patients the dry, bud form of
marijuana, so Repetski has had to cook it into an oil himself. "I get
every batch tested by a lab so I know the exact concentrations of
cannabinoids and can keep her dose very stable," he says.

They began administering the oil to Gwen eight months ago and an EEG
in January showed their toddler had no epileptic activity for the
first time since she was three months old. She's rapidly overcoming
her developmental delays and is now crawling, standing and playing.
"Her quality of life has improved by 1,000%," her father beams.

But giving her marijuana in an oil form was breaking the law. "There
aren't a lot of two- and three-year-olds who can smoke," Repetski says
wryly.

So he greeted the Supreme Court decision with relief. "It takes the
legal threat out of the equation. We - and others - can continue to
treat our children without fear of prosecution."

Yet the feds, so blinded by the smoke of their ideology, somehow think
that's a bad thing.
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MAP posted-by: Matt