FEDS LOSE ON MEDICAL POT

Policy Unconstitutional, Federal Court Rules

(CNS) - The federal government lost another court challenge to its
controversial medical marijuana program, and now has 30 days to
decide whether to appeal the ruling that declared one of its key
policies unconstitutional.

Under current regulations, licensed producers are allowed to grow the
drug for only one patient at a time. Federal Court Judge Barry
Strayer said that one-to-one ratio violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"What the federal court effectively did was assert that the
government of Canada does not have a monopoly over the production and
distribution of medical marijuana," said Alan Young, one of the
lawyers representing 30 patients.

Authorized users who cannot grow their own pot, often because they
are too ill, must then rely on a sole source provider - either a
licensed private producer, if they can find one, or the government,
which buys the plants from a Saskatchewan-based company.

About 2,000 people are legally allowed to use pot for medical
purposes, but fewer than 20 per cent buy it from the government's
supplier. Some say the quality is poor and others say only one strain
of the plant is offered - different strains having unique therapeutic effects.

The one-to-one ratio was first struck down by an Ontario appeal court
in 2003, but the government reinstated the policy several months
later. "We're reviewing the decision," said Health Canada
spokesperson Paul Duchesne.