POT LAWS NEED TO BE LOOSENED: 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.

Koenigsberg still convicted Mathew Beren of Vancouver Island of
trafficking. She gave him an absolute discharge, meaning he will have no
criminal record.

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.