EXPERTS URGE OTTAWA TO FIX POT LAWS AS COURTS FACE INCREASE IN CASELOAD

TORONTO - Ottawa needs to fix long-standing loopholes in Canada's
marijuana laws to help the justice system contend with a surge of
court cases resulting from the Conservative government's new zeal for
enforcement, legal experts say.

With a dramatic increase in the number of possession cases, those
familiar with the intricacies of the law say it remains vulnerable to
the argument that Canada's medicinal marijuana program renders it
unconstitutional.

Four years after Ottawa supposedly closed off a complex legal
loophole that effectively rendered the law unenforceable, an Ontario
Court judge agreed Friday the law governing pot possession in Canada
was unconstitutional.

The Liberal government's decision in 2003 to allow eligible patients
access to marijuana for medicinal reasons was made by an informal
policy statement and never changed the existing statutes or
regulations, lawyer Bryan McAllister argued.

"It is a departmental policy that can be changed at whim, or even
ignored," McAllister said in an interview. "An aggrieved party cannot
go to court to seek enforcement of a government policy."

Without a clause that makes an exception for medicinal marijuana
users, "the policy is not enshrined in law, it has no value, and the
law as it stands is unconstitutional," McAllister said.