Source: Toronto Sun (Canada) Contact: http://www.canoe.ca/TorontoSun/ Pubdate: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 Author: Michael Clement T.O. MAN LOSES BID FOR LEGAL GRASS A Toronto man living with AIDS has lost a bid to have an Ontario court exempt him from the law controlling the use of marijuana. Jim Wakeford smokes about two marijuana joints a day and says they help him with his nausea and loss of appetite -- both symptoms of the disease. Wakeford, 53, was seeking an exemption from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA), which prohibits the use and possession of marijuana and other drugs. "I feel that the government has deprived me of my constitutional right to use marijuana as medicine to deal with AIDS," Wakeford said at a press conference yesterday. In a judgment released Tuesday, Justice Harry LaForme said that while the law does infringe upon Wakeford's Charter rights of both his "liberty" and "security of the person" -- those infringements are in accordance with the "principles of fundamental justice." "The infringement is not unconstitutional because the judge believes that there is a provision available in the CDSA to obtain lawful access to marijuana," Wakeford's lawyer, Alan Young, told The Toronto Sun. That mechanism is a little-known special application directly to the federal minister of health for an exemption. Young says Wakeford plans to make the application. Copyright (c) 1998, Canoe Limited Partnership. - --- Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson