B.C. SUPREME COURT BACKS MEDICINAL POT GROW-OPS

Star News Services 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 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.

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 needed medication.

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