TOKE 'N' MIRRORS

Public Marijuana Use In Canada Has Guidelines, But No Rules

There's outrage in Ted Kindos' voice.

Nearly three years ago, a customer stepped outside his Gator Teds Tap
and Grill in Burlington to light up a legal medicinal marijuana joint.

Kindos, not sure what the rules were and having asked the regular
customer repeatedly to stop, confronted him because he didn't want to
force customers -- including families and kids -- to walk through a
plume of pot smoke to get inside.

He certainly didn't want to jeopardize his liquor licence, which he
said could be revoked if drugs are used on the premises.

It might have been better if he'd kept his mouth shut.

There are guidelines but no rules in Canadian law that regulate where
medical marijuana users can smoke their legal pot -- a loophole
critics say needs to be closed.

ARTHRITIS, CANCER

With an aging Baby Boom generation, Canadians in growing numbers, tens
if not hundreds of thousands, will turn to medical marijuana over the
next few years to cope with everything from arthritis to cancer.

The confrontation between Kindos and his customer three years ago may
be the catalyst to change national laws, or it could ruin him.

Kindos has already spent nearly $20,000 of his own cash, and estimates
he could spend upwards of $150,000 more fighting an Ontario Human
Rights Commission complaint launched by Steve Gibson, who is licensed
to smoke marijuana by the feds to manage the chronic pain of a neck
injury that has kept him out of work since 1989.

Fighting the case, which will be heard by the province's Human Rights
Tribunal in May, could send Kindos' business into bankruptcy and is
playing hell with his health, he said.

"If this thing goes to the tribunal, that's it, we're done. Our
restaurant is done," he said. "We've already been told we can't win.

"I had a heart attack at 38. I've already had a quadruple bypass. The
business pretty well killed my dad (who died of a heart attack at 48
in 1991) and now, with all this stuff going on, it's killing me ...
I'm under so much stress right now."

Opposition critics say Kindos' case exposes the current medical pot
policy, the Marihuana (sic) Medical Access Regulations, as flawed and
are calling for change.

"I contacted the minister of health and told him these regulations
have got a giant loophole in them, I mean you could drive a truck
through it, so maybe it's something we ought to deal with," Halton MP
Garth Turner told the Sunday Sun.

Turner, whose riding includes Burlington, said restrictions should be
placed on where licensed marij uana users can light up.

"It's evident to me the law is very flawed," he said. "They (medicinal
marijuana users) should be allowed to do it, but they shouldn't be
allowed to infringe on the rights of other people."

Federal NDP drug policy critic Libby Davies said the reluctance of
governments, both the previous Liberals and now the Conservatives, to
clear up the "botched" legislation that the Liberals brought in 2001
"kicking and screaming" has resulted in problems not just for the
public but also for users themselves.

"The law says they (medicinal pot smokers) are allowed to do what
they're doing, and yet there are so many barriers that make it almost
impossible for them to be able to use medical marijuana," she said
from her constituency office in Vancouver's east end.

"In effect, this government has abdicated its responsibility here ...
They don't want to touch this (the medical marijuana file)," Davies
said. "They think somehow they're going to be tainted by this and it's
going to taint their ideology about drugs."

Federal Health Minister Tony Clement declined to comment, but a
spokesman for his office did e-mail the Sun stating where licensed pot
smokers can light up is provincial jurisdiction.

However, Margarett Best, the province's minister of health promotion,
rejected the federal suggestion that it's Ontario's job to police
where medical marijuana users can smoke.

The province's smoke-free Ontario legislation deals exclusively with
tobacco smoke, Best said.

Not surprisingly since marijuana is a federally controlled substance
and that only a federal exemption can allow people to access it,
restrictions on the use of marijuana would be "under Health Canada's
jurisdiction," she said.

The only explicit guidance merely recommends discretion and comes from
a Health Canada form used by applicants for medical marijuana.

"Given the nature of marihuana (sic) and the fact that the provision
of marihuana is for your personal treatment needs, Health Canada
recommends not consuming this controlled substance in a public place,"
the application form states.

"Please take note that persons in charge of public or private
establishments (e.g., bars and restaurants) can request that you not
smoke marihuana on their premises, even if you have authority to
possess marihuana for medical purposes. There may also be municipal
bylaws that prevent smoking. In addition, others should not be exposed
to second-hand marihuana smoke," it states.

The vagueness of Health Canada's guidelines, with words like
"recommends" and "should," indicate for some at least it is possible
federal laws could be tightened to restrict where the rapidly growing
number of medical marijuana smokers in this country can light up.

And that is another issue.

The aging of the Baby Boom generation and increasing medical
acceptance of the possible benefits associated with medical marijuana
is creating demand for the drug.

The number of licensed users in Canada -- currently just under 2,500
- -- has exponentially increased over the past six years by an average
of 371 new licensed marijuana users per year.

But although licensed users number about 2,500, the Canadian Medical
Association
estimated in a 2001 journal article titled "Marijuana: Federal smoke
clears, a little"
that about 400,000 Canadians use cannabis for medical use.

The increase and the number of people who may be eligible to smoke
marijuana legally, said celebrated pro-marijuana lawyer and Osgoode
Hall law professor Alan Young, should get governments moving to not
only clean up the legislation, but also legitimize marijuana's use in
society.

"We know that the numbers in Health Canada's program ... can easily
grow five-fold. At some point, we are going to have to tackle this
issue about public medicinal use," he said, noting common sense could
go a long way to balance everyone's rights.

Kindos, who is not against the idea of medicinal marijuana, said
that's all he's wanted from the start -- clarification from the
government about what's allowed and for everyone to use a little
common sense when exercising their rights, whatever those may be.

"Just give me guidelines. When the federal government introduced this,
why didn't they send us a package telling us what's allowed?" he said.

"When you have customers complaining about having to walk through
marijuana smoke, you have to react. We more than accommodated him," he
added. "He (Gibson) pushed the envelope ... He refused to move away
from my front door, what was I supposed to do."

Even Canada's own Prince of Pot, Marc Emery, said common sense and
reason are paramount in this issue to effectively balance everyone's
rights.

"I don't see people with insulin bringing their syringes out in the
middle of restaurants and giving themselves injections," Emery, who is
facing a 10-year jail sentence at the U.S.'s behest for selling
marijuana seeds, said from his home in B.C., noting that since Gibson
was drinking alcohol at the time of the Burlington incident in 2005,
he could have ingested the cannabis via an alcoholic tincture that
would have been just as effective and more discreet.

"It's important, when you're a minority, to appear to be reasonable
about your needs and requirements," he added. "Clearly, it's an
imposition on businesses to have to monitor the quality of certain
smokes outside their front door. That's unreasonable. When you're
balancing your rights against the rights of others, there is a certain
sense of reasonableness required."

But reason and common sense might not be enough to effectively manage
not just the growing number of licensed users but also the
corresponding increased demand to smoke in public, and at work.

Since the fall of 2006, Doug Hutchinson, a philosophy professor at the
University of Toronto, has been allowed to smoke marijuana inside the
walls of Trinity College.

He was the first of two professors in the city -- the other worked at
York -- to be given a special ventilated room where they can treat
themselves, as it were.

VENDING MACHINES

The situation south of the border isn't much clearer, despite the fact
that California has begun dispensing medical marijuana in vending
machines, and the country's second largest association of doctors, the
American College of Physicians, recently stated they support greater
use of marijuana for medicinal purposes and are encouraging the
government to increase research into proper dosages and practices.

Although 12 states allow the use of medicinal marijuana, the federal
government's Drug Enforcement Agency still deems its use criminal.

Conflicts there, like here, are being settled in court because no one,
it seems, knows who is allowed to do what when it comes to medicinal
marijuana.

LEGAL BASIS TO SMOKE POT

The federal government could issue you a licence to smoke pot if you
suffer from one of the following illnesses:

- - Multiple sclerosis

- - Spinal cord injuries or diseases

- - Cancer

- - HIV/AIDS

- - Arthritis

- - Epilepsy

- - The government will also consider granting someone a licence who
suffers debilitating symptoms from additional medical conditions if
confirmed by a specialist.

- - Marijuana is also sometimes used to treat glaucoma.

Source: Health Canada's website

LICENSED USER GROWTH

Growth of number of licensed medicinal marijuana users in
Canada

- - October 2002, 405 people licensed in Canada to use marijuana for
medical purposes.

- - October 2003, 677

- - October 2004, 747

- - October 2005, 1,042

- - October 2006, 1,468

- - October 2007, 2,261

- - February 2008, 2,432

Source: Health Canada's website