PROTESTERS LIGHT INTO NEW FED POT RULES

TORONTO -- A motley band of seriously-ill people crowded into court
yesterday to do battle with the federal government over a scheme to permit
the use of medical marijuana they say violates their constitutional rights.

The group, whose members have conditions ranging from AIDS and hepatitis C
to epilepsy and multiple sclerosis, wants to strike down rules governing
medicinal pot, as well as the law that makes possession a crime.

"This is about the right to make fundamental personal decisions," Toronto
lawyer and longtime cannabis crusader Alan Young told Superior Court
Justice Sidney Lederman.

"The right to make personal decisions has been called fundamentally
deserving of the highest protection."

Canada's Medical Marijuana Access Regulations, or MMARs, were supposed to
honour previous court decisions by allowing those with serious illnesses to
choose marijuana as a means to treat their symptoms.

Instead, they're laden with obstacles, Young said.

Black-Market Weed

The regulations demand medical declarations that few doctors are willing to
provide given the legal consequences, he argued. And they make it
impossible for a doctor to recommend a dosage, since the drug remains
unregulated.

Even those who do win a legal exemption -- more than 300 people in Canada
are currently permitted by the feds to smoke pot for medical reasons -- are
forced to break the law, resorting to black-market weed because the
government is dragging its heels on efforts to cultivate a pure supply for
clinical trial.

There are seven marijuana consumers included in Young's group of
applicants, along with a caregiver.

If they can't get the regulations thrown out, the group is willing to
settle for access to the federal government's stash: Pot grown in a
Manitoba mineshaft under a $5.7-million contract for clinical trials.

Buying from a dealer can be tricky, applicant Alison Murden complained.

"It's nothing but sticks and stems and seeds one day, and it's a whole bag
of bud the next," said Murden, who suffers from a host of ailments,
including multiple sclerosis.