FED POT POLICY PANNED

TORONTO -- It's a marijuana "monopoly" that deserves to go up in
smoke, activists say.

Lawyers representing a group of 30 medicinal marijuana users will be
in court Monday to fight the federal government's bid to keep control
of large-scale medicinal marijuana distribution in Canada.

Activists say the government-issued pot is weak.

They say Health Canada's regulation that forbids licensed pot growers
from providing weed to more than one sick person at a time is unfair
and arbitrary.

One Company

Currently, government-issue pot is only grown by one company, Prairie
Plant Systems in Manitoba. Any licensed medicinal marijuana user who
doesn't have an exclusive grower that provides pot to them -- and them
only -- is restricted to smoking the government bud. The group of 30
patients wanted to all get their medicinal weed from a small-scale
provider called Carousel, so they took their battle to the courts.

Justice Department lawyers will argue the government's appeal of a
decision early this January by Federal Court Justice Barry Strayer,
who ruled against the federal policy.