MEDICAL MARIJUANA USE ON LICENSED PREMISES NEVER CONTEMPLATED IN ONTARIO LAW

The owner of a Burlington, restaurant facing a discrimination
complaint for not allowing a medical marijuana smoker to light up
outside his restaurant is caught between a "regulatory rock and a
hard place," the Ontario government acknowledged yesterday.

Ted McMeekin, Ontario's Minister of Government Services, said
provincial laws never contemplated the scenario of someone smoking
marijuana for medical purposes on a licensed premises.

Ontario's liquor laws prohibit controlled substances from being
consumed where alcohol is served. Ted Kindos, owner of Gator Ted's,
said he could have lost his licence to serve liquor if he had allowed
former patron Steve Gibson to light up outside his restaurant.

Mr. Gibson, who has a licence to smoke marijuana for medical
purposes, says he is being discriminated against because he has a
disability. The case is set to be heard by the Ontario Human Rights
Tribunal this summer.