MEDICAL MARIJUANA DEFENCE FAILS

Ruling - Judge says accused didn't have authority to grow, possess
pot

An Upper Hainesville man who argued he didn't break the law by having
marijuana for medical purposes has been found guilty of drug
possession and fined.

Chief provincial court Judge Leslie Jackson found Todd Terrence
LeClair guilty of a charge of possession of marijuana in a decision
issued recently in Woodstock provincial court.

LeClair was charged after police executed a search warrant at his home
Oct. 19, 2009. Officers found 215 grams of bud marijuana and 1,300
grams of low-quality pot commonly referred to as "shake."

At the time, LeClair had a medical practitioner's declaration in
support of his application under the Marijuana Medical Access
Regulations to grow and possession pot for medical reasons.

He didn't receive his official authorization to possession marijuana
until Jan. 13, three months after the raid.

LeClair argued that the doctor's declaration in and of itself should
be enough to exempt him from prosecution because Health Canada took
too long to process his application for an authorization to possess.

Jackson didn't agree.

"LeClair also suggests that the procedure is manifestly unfair as the
delays prevent him from having timely access to his 'medicine'
pointing out that if (the doctor) had issued a prescription for
Dilaudid for his chronic pain instead of marijuana, he would have been
able to access his medicine in hours not weeks or months," the judge
wrote, noting that the defendant's arguments don't hold up.

"Firstly, despite Mr. LeClair's use of the term 'prescription' to
refer to (the doctor's) 'medical practitioner's declaration and
signature,' that document is not a prescription. Indeed, no physician
can prescribe marijuana as it is a prohibited drug.

"The declaration is a necessary part of an application for an ATP
(authorization to possess) but is not on its own a legal authorization
to possess marijuana."

Jackson said the slow pace of the application process doesn't make it
unfair as long as the wait times are reasonable.

LeClair had also asked the court to declare relevant sections of the
Controlled Drugs and Substances Act unconstitutional.

Jackson rejected that argument, citing a binding precedent from a
higher court.

"In his testimony in this trial, LeClair asserted ... that once he got
the signed form, in his words, 'prescription,' from (his doctor) that
he believed he was 'good to go' and could possess and grow his own
marijuana for medicinal purposes.

"He also said that Health Canada provided him with no instruction on
what he should do during the period in which his application for an
ATP was being processed," the judge said.

"In my view, LeClair has not shown that he relied on the advice of any
official in Health Canada in coming to his belief that (the)
'prescription' was authority for his possession of marijuana, and even
if he could, it could not be said that such reliance was
reasonable."

Jackson fined LeClair $575 for the offence.