FEDS APPEAL POT RULING

Told to Fix Laws or Supply Weed

Ottawa is appealing last month's landmark Superior Court ruling that
ordered the federal government to fix its medicinal marijuana regulations
or provide a legal source and supply to sick people.

Last month, Justice Sydney Lederman declared the current Marijuana
Medicinal Access Regulations (MMAR) unconstitutional but gave the
government an ultimatum -- fix the regulations or supply the pot itself by
July 9.

Lederman was scathing in his criticism of the MMAR in his judgment.

"Laws which put seriously ill, vulnerable people in a position where they
have to deal with the criminal underworld to obtain medicine they have been
authorized to take, violates the constitutional right to security of the
person," Lederman wrote.

Government lawyers have another nine days to seek a stay of Lederman's
declaration that would quash the regulations in July, preserving the
current laws until an appeal is heard, perhaps later this year.