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.