OPP TO GET CHARGE OUT OF POT USERS

TORONTO -- The glory days for Ontario marijuana smokers are over, at least
for now, with provincial police poised to start laying possession charges
again after months of turning a blind eye to public toking across the
province when pot laws were temporarily loosened. Ontario Provincial Police
officers have been advised that they can now enforce Canada's laws against
simple possession of pot after a court ruling last week clarified that the
law was constitutional.

OPP Supt. Bill Crate said yesterday officers have been told that they can
now enforce the law, which had been suspended since earlier this year due
to a previous court ruling.

Ontario's pot possession laws were called into question earlier this year
by a court case in which an Ontario court judge in Windsor threw out a
marijuana possession charge against a 16-year-old boy.

The boy's lawyer successfully argued that since there was no effective
program for sick people to possess medical marijuana without breaking the
law, then the law doesn't prohibit possession.

But an Ontario Court of Appeal ruling made Oct. 7 struck down parts of the
federal government's medical marijuana access program, making the program
- -- in the eyes of the court -- effective and constitutionally valid.