COURT MAKES POT POSSESSION ILLEGAL AGAIN

Ontario Judges Tell Ottawa It Has Duty to Provide Medical Marijuana to the Ill

Canada's law against possessing small amounts of pot came back into effect
today after the Ontario Court of Appeal struck down parts of Ottawa's
medicinal marijuana program. Federal regulations governing the program
unfairly restrict qualified users in getting the drug, the court found. But
it stopped short of the true goal for many marijuana advocates: striking
down the law in its entirety.

Instead, the three-judge panel nimbly singled out as unconstitutional
specific provisions of the federal Marijuana Medical Access Regulations, or
MMARs, leaving users to celebrate only a partial victory.

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

"Ultimately, I would prefer just to get rid of the law and let people take
care of themselves as they see fit. That didn't happen today, but at least
the court has given sick people some greater tools to be self-sufficient."

The provisions in question 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.

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

"This narrow remedy would create a constitutionally valid medical
exemption, making marijuana prohibition . . . immediately constitutionally
valid and of full force and effect and removing any uncertainty concerning
the validity of the prohibition," said a synopsis of the ruling issued by
the court.

In other words, the ruling reinstates laws that were effectively suspended
in Ontario earlier this year when a judge ruled that possessing less than
30 grams of pot was no longer against the law in the province.

The decision is encouraging because it will allow medicinal growers to
produce a higher-quality drug in greater quantities, said Alison Myrden, a
medicinal user and longtime marijuana crusader.

But Myrden, who is licensed to smoke marijuana to alleviate symptoms of
chronic progressive multiple sclerosis and other severe ailments, admitted
she was disappointed that the law survived.

"I'm pleased with it in one respect because sick people again collectively
will have the opportunity to grow together; we have an opportunity there to
make medicine en masse for sick and dying people in this country," Myrden
said as she sat outside court in her wheelchair, smoking a joint.

"But my recreational friends are going to get burned in a way that I'm not
happy with at all. So I don't think that's fair."

The ruling agreed with a lower court ruling in January that found the
regulations were unconstitutional because they forced qualified users to
either grow their own pot or buy it on the black market.

"Many of these individuals are not only seriously ill, they are also
significantly physically handicapped and therefore cannot possibly grow
their own marijuana," the synopsis said.

"A scheme that authorizes possession of marijuana by seriously ill
individuals but which drives some of them to the black market . . .
undermines the rule of law and fails to create a constitutionally valid
medical exemption to the criminal prohibition against marijuana."

Officials from the federal government could not immediately be reached for
comment on the ruling.

The decision in January by Ontario Court Justice Sidney Lederman left
Canada's pot possession laws in tatters because it made it impossible to
permit medicinal use while prohibiting possession for everyone else.

Lederman gave the government a July 9 deadline to either fix the
regulations or supply the pot itself to users of medical marijuana.

Ottawa then instituted an interim policy that would see it sell pot at set
prices to approved users, but also launched an appeal of the ruling, saying
it shouldn't be forced to provide a legal source of marijuana.

The initial lawsuit was launched by seven Canadians with various medical
conditions, along with their caregiver, who demanded the federal government
provide a safe and reliable source of medical marijuana.