FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO ALTER MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAWS

Changes Would Eliminate Individual And Private Growers

The federal government will be changing laws for medical marijuana
growers, but will not address an aspect of those laws that many
critics and several courts say is unconstitutional.

Government began the updating process Friday, launching public
consultations on a list of proposed changes it prepared, Health
Minister Leona Aglukkaq said.

The changes, which would eliminate individual and private growers
from the current system, were prompted by concerns the minister has
fielded from police, firefighters, mayors and doctors across the country.

They say the current system becomes dangerous when growers don't
follow local electrical, health and safety bylaws, and that with so
many licences floating around it's virtually impossible for
municipalities to know who is licensed and whether those growers are
honouring the conditions of those licences.

Aglukkaq said government is hoping the changes will "reduce the risk
of abuse ... while significantly improving the way program
participants access marijuana for medical purposes."

But in April, the Superior Court in Ontario -ruling in the case of
Matt Mernagh -found the current system to be unconstitutional and
ordered the government to change the medical marijuana program, a
decision the government has since appealed.

Mernagh started growing pot when he found it provided some relief
from chronic pain and other symptoms of his scoliosis, fibromyalgia
and epilepsy. But he couldn't get a licence to grow, because his
doctor wouldn't sign the document Health Canada currently requires to
issue one.

Police found Mernagh's plants in 2008 when they were in his apartment
building on an unrelated call. He was charged with production and
possession, and subsequently tried.

"The Superior Court said the laws he was charged under, growing, are
unconstitutional, because there isn't a functional med-pot system,"
his lawyer Paul Lewin said.

The government was given 90 days to come up with a constitutional
regime, one in which medical doctors don't act as "gatekeepers" to
the drug. Government has asked to have that ruling put on hold until
the appeal is heard.

Mernagh's case is not exceptional, Lewin said. Courts have ruled that
the current system is unconstitutional at least five times since
2001, he said. "That's a lot of times to be told your system isn't
fair," he said. The Health Canada propositions posted Friday don't
address the court rulings. The changes, available on the government
website, remove the agency from the licensing and distributing
process, and instead requires a patient to present a document from a
doctor to a licensed commercial producer.

Marijuana produced by licensed commercial producers would be subject
to quality standards, unlike the product that is produced by
individuals under the current program.

But people in the dispensing community are worried that removing the
rights of medical cannabis patients to produce their own cannabis
will do more harm than good.

"We believe the new regulations could also allow the patients to
produce their own," said Rade Kovacevic, director for the Canadian
Association of Medical Cannabis Dispensaries. "There's room for the
other suggestions they say will benefit patients ... The two aren't
mutually exclusive."

The public consultation period ends July 31.