MARIJUANA RULING MAY IMPACT LOCAL CASE

A group of seriously ill people's battle with Ottawa over a federal medical
marijuana scheme may help a local man's plight.

Brighton defence counsel Dan Thompson said David Casteels' argument for a
stay of production and trafficking charges should be successful in light of
a recent court ruling that the federal government's Medical Marijuana
Access Regulations are unconstitutional because they prevent more deserving
people from exemption than they permit.

Casteels, 42, of RR3 Brighton, was charged with production and possession
of a narcotic. Casteels testified he applied for a medical exemption to use
marijuana for pain he suffers as a result of an accident that left his left
leg 5/8 of an inch shorter than his right.

He made an application for a medical exemption after being fined $1,000 in
August 2000 for possession of a narcotic.

"The precedent would be binding on the provincial courts which are dealing
with the Casteels matter," Thompson said. "The justice in the case will be
obliged to issue a stay (of the charges). A lot of people will be making
applications for a stay on the grounds that medical marijuana regulations
devised by the federal government do not comply with the direction of the
court of appeal. It will be interesting. It (Casteels case) was put over to
a March date for further medical evidence which will be irrelevant now."

Superior Court Justice Sidney Lederman's ruling is binding on lower courts
and could play havoc on the laws that make marijuana possession illegal,
lawyer Alan Young said.

"It's another nail in the coffin, and this is a big nail," Young said after
the ruling. "We feel it will be appealed, but it's the light at the end of
the tunnel ... I can't really see the law maintaining any operation after
this year. It's sitting on a really precarious foundation."

The federal government was supposed to give medical exemptions to the
Controlled Drugs and Substances Act which is the law that makes possession
of pot illegal for everyone else. But Young argued in September there's so
much red tape that the regulations discriminate against the people who are
supposed to be allowed to smoke marijuana to ease the symptoms of their
condition, ranging from multiple sclerosis to hepatitis C.

Young argued in court last year the regulations demand medical declarations
that few doctors are willing to provide given the legal consequences.

The federal rules make it impossible for a doctor to recommend a dosage
since marijuana remains unregulated.

The more than 300 people who have won a legal exemption for medical reasons
are forced to break the law, resorting to illegal sources of supply as the
federal government drags its heels on efforts to cultivate a pure supply
for clinical trial.

"There's no steady source of marijuana unless you grow it yourself,"
Casteels said during the first day of his trial last October.

The federal government grew marijuana in a Manitoba mine shaft under a
$5.7-million contract for clinical trials but refused to allow it to be
distributed because it isn't pure enough.

"Everyone's overjoyed; I'm getting calls from across the country from this
pot world," Young said. "They can't get out of bed in the morning, but they
can get this news very quickly."

The law will fall unless Ottawa appeals the ruling or comes up with a new
plan for medical-marijuana exemptions within six months, he said.

Justice Department spokesperson Dorette Pollard said the decision is being
reviewed. The department has 30 days to appeal.

Canada's marijuana laws suffered a major setback earlier this month when a
judge threw out possession charges against a 16-year-old boy in Windsor on
a technicality.

The judge agreed with defence counsel Brian McAllister's arguments that
flaws in the medical-marijuana regime negate the law's ability to prohibit
possession of five grams or less of marijuana.

The Justice Department has launched an appeal in that case.