FEDERAL RESTRICTIONS ON MARIJUANA GROWTH UNCONSTITUTIONAL: B.C. JUDGE

VANCOUVER -- The federal government's medical marijuana program and the
restrictions it places on growing the drug are unconstitutional, according
to a B.C. Supreme Court justice who has endorsed a recent Federal Court
decision.

Justice Marvyn Koenigsberg gave the federal government a year to fix
regulations so that compassion clubs or groups of users can get together
and have a common grow operation.

At the moment, any licensed grower is restricted to supplying only one
licensed user.

Although Justice Koenigsberg found the regulations unconstitutional, she
still convicted Mathew Beren of Vancouver Island of trafficking. However,
she gave him an absolute discharge, meaning he will have no criminal
record.

Mr. Beren had been growing pot for a Victoria-area compassion club and
argued he should not be convicted because the regulations were an
unreasonable barrier to patients' access to needed medication.

But the judge said many of those served by the club lacked a government
licence to use medical marijuana.