WEED-WHACKING CONSERVATIVES LOSE YET AGAIN

Ottawa must have a heck of a pot headache after losing its latest
medical marijuana case in the Federal Court of Appeal.

Remember years ago when sick people who needed cannabis to relieve
their symptoms had to get special permission from the federal health
minister to smoke pot? Since then, it's been one legal fight after
another to bring in common-sense reforms on the issue.

On Monday, the Federal Court of Appeal upheld a January ruling that
quashed Ottawa's pot monopoly. Under Health Canada's insane
regulations, licensed medical pot growers could only provide
marijuana to one patient.

Now, if the appeal court judgment stands, licensed growers will be
able to supply pot to multiple patients - a far more efficient way of
meeting the needs of the hundreds of people legally allowed pot for
medical use.

Can the legalization of compassion clubs be far behind? Well, yes, I
suppose. We are talking about the Conservatives. Why Ottawa is even
in the pot-growing business in the first place is a mystery. Few of
Canada's medical pot patients actually buy government-grown pot
because it's so awful.

"I never bought any but I tried some once and it was terrible,"
recalls Russell Barth, an Ottawa-area licensed medical marijuana
user. "It didn't even smell like pot. It looked more like the stuff
you sprinkle on the floor to soak up puke."

Most medical pot patients get their weed from illegal sources,
including acquaintances and compassion clubs, Barth notes. And the
government-grown pot is just one strain, but medical pot patients
need different kinds depending on their ailments, he says.

Barth, who suffers from chronic pain, smokes a different type of pot
than his wife, also a licensed medical pot user, who has epilepsy.
He'd like to see designated medical pot growers supply various strains.

"The ... thing that really hurts is how many people still seem to
think that we are just stoners who are looking to get high, and that
we are hiding behind our 'illnesses' to facilitate a groovy party or
something," says Barth.

Over on Parliament Hill, the Conservatives are probably tearing their
hair out over this latest marijuana setback and cursing those darn
liberal judges.

If only the last Liberal government had managed to fulfil its promise
to decriminalize small amounts of pot for personal use. That door,
alas, has been slammed shut for the foreseeable future.

Meanwhile, the Tories are stuck with an issue they can't stand. You
can bet they'd like to dismantle the whole medical marijuana program
and burn all that government ditch weed growing in Flin Flon.

But they can't because there have now been numerous court rulings
upholding - and expanding - the rights of certain people to grow or
otherwise legally obtain pot for therapeutic reasons.

Nevertheless, Ottawa is wasting significant public money on all these
legal challenges and will, no doubt, continue to do so. Thank
goodness for lawyers like Alan Young, who's been nipping at the
government's heels for years on behalf of medical marijuana users.

Theoretically, growers like Carasel Harvest Supply Corp., outside
Ottawa, and Island Harvest, on Vancouver Island, now have the legal
go-ahead to apply for pot-growing licences for groups of patients.

Ideally, Ottawa's pot-growing operation, run by Prairie Plant
Systems, should be shut down. After all, what does the government
know about weed?