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Hullaboarder
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Toronto
Journal Entries: 3 
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Quote:
TORONTO (CP) - Possessing small amounts of pot is illegal again in Ontario after an appeal court ruling Tuesday 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.
"The interests of justice are best served by removing any uncertainty as to the constitutionality of the possession prohibition while at the same time providing for a constitutionally acceptable medical exemption," the three-judge panel said in a written decision.
"The law did not exist in the past several months because of problems with the medical program," Young explained.
"(Tuesday), the court fixed the problems with the medical program, so if the medical program is operating constitutionally then the criminal law also operates constitutionally."
Warren Hitzig, founder of the Toronto Compassion Centre, which provides patients access to marijuana to ease their symptoms, said the changes could result in fewer restrictions on such facilities.
"For the centres, it puts us in a very good position," Hitzig said. "The government has run out of many options and this opens up the door . . . (for the centres) to have licences to distribute out the marijuana."
Toronto and provincial police officials refused to comment on the decision, saying it was still under review.
In Ottawa, Health Minister Anne McLellan said she and Justice Minister Martin Cauchon will review the judgment and "determine how we're going to move forward."
McLellan said she was pleased that the court approved of the interim policy of supplying marijuana to qualified applicants Ottawa introduced in July in order to get around the constitutional issue.
"(The court) upheld the overall regime in light of our interim July policy around licit supply of seed and product; obviously, I'm very pleased about that," she said.
"We will evaluate the rest of the decision, it's a very complex decision."
The fact that the law remained standing left some medicinal marijuana advocates celebrating only a partial victory.
"I'm pleased with it in one respect because . . .we have an opportunity there to make medicine en masse for sick and dying people in this country," said Alison Myrden, a medicinal user and longtime marijuana crusader, as she sat in her wheelchair outside the courthouse, smoking a joint.
But Myrden, who is permitted to smoke pot to alleviate symptoms of chronic progressive multiple sclerosis and other severe ailments, admitted she was disappointed that the law survived.
"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 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.
Kent Roach, a law professor at the University of Toronto, said the panel tried to steer clear of whether or not marijuana should be illegal at all.
"The court was very careful to distinguish this case, about medical marijuana, from the broader issue of whether it's constitutional to prohibit the possession of marijuana," Roach said.
The Supreme Court of Canada is expected to rule on a different case this fall that could determine the future of marijuana possession laws, he added. And Parliament is bracing for fierce debate over proposed legislation that would soften penalties for possessing small amounts of the drug.
"This is not the end of the story," Roach said. "There are many more chapters to come."
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October 8th, 2003, 11:19 AM
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