POT ILLEGAL IN ONT. AGAIN AFTER COURT AMENDS RULES

TORONTO -- Possessing small amounts of pot is illegal again in Ontario
after an appeal court ruling yesterday struck down parts of Ottawa's
medicinal marijuana program.

In the process of striking provisions it deemed unconstitutional, the
Ontario Court of Appeal sealed a legal loophole opened in January that had
rendered Canada's pot-possession laws virtually unenforceable.

"That little gap that we had in Ontario where the law did not exist and
police could not arrest you for smoking (marijuana) is over," lawyer Alan
Young said outside court.

The court upheld an earlier Ontario Superior Court ruling that found
patients who qualified under the program were unfairly restricted in
obtaining a safe, legal supply of the drug.

But it stopped short of the remedy many marijuana advocates had been hoping
for: striking down the law in its entirety.

Instead, the three-judge panel nimbly singled out and struck down specific
provisions of the federal Marijuana Medical Access Regulations in order to
restore the plan's constitutionality. Those provisions restricted licensed
growers from receiving compensation for their product, growing the drug for
more than one qualified patient and pooling resources with other licensed
producers.

It also struck down a requirement that sick people get two doctors to
validate their need to use marijuana as a drug.

The appeal court agreed with a lower court ruling in January that deemed
the government's regulations unconstitutional because they forced
participants to either grow their own pot or buy it on the black market.