LAWS CONFUSING FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA USERS

Re: Drugs: crime and punishment, Times-Reformer, March 17

"It is illegal to knowingly have any of these drugs in your
possession at any time, even if they do not belong to you. Unless,
you are the holder of a valid 'medicinal marijuana' certificate."

As a federally licensed medical marijuana user, who is also married
to one, I would like to comment on this.

First of all, medical marijuana users might be exempted from the
Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, but these exemption regulations
(which have never been enacted as actual law) directly conflict with
many provincial legislations.

This is the basis of my Ontario Human Rights complaint against the
Ontario government.

For example, the MMAR allows licence holders to possess marijuana,
but the Ontario Liquor License Act forbids us from actually holding
it in a licensed drinking establishment, or using it outside on their
property. Furthermore, although we are federally allowed to "use"
marijuana for medical purposes, the regulations are, at best,
ambiguous, and non-binding. Patients are urged to use "common sense"
when using their marijuana in public, which should mean that we are
allowed to smoke our pot wherever tobacco is being used. But
provincial laws forbid us from actually doing so.

For example, if I am driving and carrying my pot, I am not in
violation of any traffic laws, but if someone else is driving and I
am a passenger, they are in violation of the law, but I am not.
According to provincial laws, I am technically not allowed to possess
my medicine in a hospital, on a city bus, in a park, on the grounds
of any school (even universities), in my doctor's office, or even in
my own home!

The federal pot licences also allow the growing of medical marijuana
in the user's home, but the Landlord Tenant Act forbids it. It is a
wildly absurd conundrum, and it is all due to the fact that the
federal government refuses to legislate our rights into actual law.

It should also be noted that because the med-pot licences are very
difficult to get (due to government bureaucracy), and onerous to
those who can get them, they have been repeatedly ruled
unconstitutional by many different courts. Even without an actual
licence, hundreds of thousands of Canadians are protected from
prosecution because of this mix-up. If they can afford to "lawyer-up."

And finally, one must consider that we have to carry special papers
around with us to keep us out of jail because we have medical
conditions that require marijuana. That is medical segregation! In
Canada! In 2009! OK, so it isn't Apartheid or the Warsaw Ghetto, but
big things like that start out as little things like this. Canadians
should be deeply offended by this -- terrified, in fact.

Russell Barth

Federally licensed medical marijuana user Patients Against Ignorance
and Discrimination on Cannabis (PAIDOC) www.paidoc.org