DECISION OPENS FIELD FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA GROWERS

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.

"All this means is that the limit - the one-to-one ratio - it's the
last nail in the coffin for that ratio," he said in an interview.

"The court has said, 'Look, unequivocally, this is unconstitutional,
it's arbitrary. All the reasons you've provided us with so far for
this one-to-one ratio, they don't pass muster. We don't buy it, we
don't accept it.' "

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.

"(It was) constitutionally suspect from the beginning," said lawyer
Alan Young, who argued in court on behalf of the sick.

"My position always was that if you're going to do something like
that, you'd better have an adequate alternative."

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," Young said.

The government may also draft quality-control regulations for outside
suppliers to ensure patients get the best product possible, said Marzel.

But he believes the Crown will appeal the decision.