FREEDOM FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA USERS

Ruling Says They Don't Have to Rely on Federal Supply

TORONTO -- Canadians who are prescribed marijuana to treat their
illnesses will no longer be forced to rely on the federal government
as a supplier following a Federal Court ruling that struck down a key
restriction in Ottawa's controversial medical marijuana program.

The decision by Judge Barry Strayer, released late Thursday,
essentially grants medical marijuana users more freedom in picking
their own grower and allows growers to supply the drug to more than
one patient.

It's also another blow to the federal government, whose attempts to
tightly control access to medical marijuana have prompted numerous
court challenges.

Currently, medical users can grow their own pot but growers can't
supply the drug to more than one user at a time.

Lawyers for medical users argued that restriction effectively
established Health Canada as the country's sole legal provider of
medical marijuana.

They also said the restriction was unfair and that it prevented
seriously ill Canadians from obtaining the drug they needed to treat
their debilitating illnesses.

In his decision, Strayer called the provision unconstitutional and
arbitrary, as it "caused individuals a major difficulty with access..."

Ottawa must also reconsider requests made by a group of medical users
who brought the matter to court to have a single outside supplier as
their designated producer, Strayer said in his 23-page decision.

While the government has argued that medical users who can't grow
their own marijuana can obtain it from its contract manufacturer,
fewer than 20 per cent of patients actually use the government's
supply, Strayer wrote.

"In my view it is not tenable for the government, consistently with
the right established in other courts for qualified medical users to
have reasonable access to marijuana, to force them either to buy from
the government contractor, grow their own or be limited to the
unnecessarily restrictive system of designated producers," he wrote.

Ron Marzel, a Toronto lawyer representing the group of medical users
who brought the matter before the Federal Court, called the decision a
"great remedy" for his clients.

The provision had been struck down by the courts before, but was
reinstated by the government who contracted Prairie Plant Systems Inc.
in Flin Flon, Man., to provide the drug to patients.

Ottawa could either rewrite the regulations, come up with a new ratio,
"or they can simply leave it as an open market so that people who are
experienced and have the right secure facility will be able to apply
to grow for 10 patients, 20 patients," said lawyer Alan Young, who
argued in court on behalf of the sick.

But he believes the Crown will appeal the decision.