GET OFF THE POT AND END 'LICENCE' FIASCO

Unfair, dysfunctional and unconstitutional.

That's a pretty fair description of the system that is supposed to
allow Canadians with chronic or terminal illnesses to use marijuana
for pain relief.

At the moment, Lee Petherick is caught in the system. Four years ago
he consulted a doctor, filled out all the necessary forms and was
certified by Health Canada as a licensed medical marijuana user. He
can legally grow up to 15 plants and process the pot as medication for
his chronic back pain, the result of an injury.

However Petherick, like all licensed users, has to reapply for a
licence every year. And the federal agency that processes the
applications never seems to be able to keep up with demand.
Petherick's licence expired in May, nearly four months ago, and he's
still waiting for a new one.

But while the pain of dealing with a slow, overburdened bureaucracy
can be managed, real pain doesn't take four months off. Petherick
still needs his medication. He talked to his doctor and to Health
Canada and was told that as long as he hung on to his expired licence
he would be safe.

They were wrong. City police got a warrant, found eight pot plants
growing at the home where Petherick rents a room and charged him with
illegally producing and possessing marijuana.

A police spokesman inadvertently highlighted just how ridiculous the
Health Canada situation is when he defended the decision to lay
charges even though Petherick is producing what amounts to his own
supply of a legal, prescription drug.

It's a simple black and white situation, the officer
said.

"If their card has been expired, it's just like a driver's licence. It
expires, you're no longer allowed to drive."

Imagine what would happen if it took that long to get a driver's
licence renewed. Every five years, more than eight million Ontarians
would be driving illegally for four months -- or they could just park
their vehicles and stay off the roads.

Of course a driver's licence backup would never get to that point. And
if it did the police wouldn't be setting up RIDE style traffic stops
to charge "illegal" drivers.

But built-in delays for licence renewals caused by underfunding and
understaffing of Health Canada's Marijuana Medical Access Division are
just the symptom of a bigger injustice -- the existence of any sort of
licensing requirement at all.

Marijuana's medical benefits as a relatively mild, non-addictive
painkiller are well established. That trait was referred to in a
unanimous 2000 Ontario Court of Appeal decision that ruled it was
unconstitutional to deny patients access to legal medical marijuana.

The court gave the federal government a year to come up with a remedy.
The current licensing system was the result, and it was a bad compromise.

A doctor's prescription should be the only requirement for legal
possession of medical marijuana. That's how it works with many other
more powerful, potentially more dangerous narcotics.

Marijuana's reputation suffers from its demonization as a party drug.
Patients who rely on it shouldn't have to.