Pubdate: Fri, 20 Sep 2002
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Page: A6
Copyright: 2002, The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.globeandmail.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Gay Abbate
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada)

SICK PEOPLE HAVE RIGHT TO USE POT, LAWYER ARGUES

Laws Governing Marijuana As Medication Violate Constitution, Ontario Court 
Hears

Marijuana helps Alison Myrden stay out of her wheelchair, she says.

She smokes the drug and puts it into her tea and muffins. She uses 12 grams 
a day to alleviate the pain from her various illnesses, including multiple 
sclerosis. Without the marijuana, the Burlington, Ont., woman said she 
would be wheelchair-bound and dependent on 32 pills and a large dose of 
morphine to get through each day.

Jari Dvorak says that marijuana alleviates his nausea so he can keep down 
the handful of pills he takes daily to fight HIV. He grows the marijuana on 
a Toronto balcony.

Marco Renda, 42, who has hepatitis C, smokes 10 joints a day to relieve 
nausea so he can eat and have the energy to run his business, he says. He 
grows his supply at his home near Dundalk, Ont.

All three were in a Toronto courtroom yesterday to hear their team of 
lawyers argue that federal regulations governing the use of medical 
marijuana violate their constitutional rights.

"This is about the right to make fundamental personal decisions," Toronto 
lawyer Alan Young told Mr. Justice Sidney Lederman of the Ontario Superior 
Court.

"Forcing the applicants by threat of criminal sanctions to refrain from 
using marijuana unless they meet criteria is a profound interference with 
the right to make personal decisions," he said.

Seven seriously ill people from across Canada and one caregiver launched 
the constitutional challenge against two federal laws, the Medical 
Marijuana Access Regulations, and the section of the Controlled Drugs and 
Substances Act that prohibits possession of marijuana. Three other 
individuals have joined the legal action, and the court is hearing all the 
challenges together.

As an alternative action, Mr. Young told Judge Lederman that he could use 
the Charter to compel Health Canada to distribute the marijuana being grown 
and harvested in a onetime mine in Flin Flon, Man., under a federal licence.

The regulations under attack were introduced by Parliament in July, 2001, 
after the Ontario Court of Appeal declared Section 4 of the Controlled 
Drugs and Substances Act to be invalid. The province's highest court gave 
the federal government 12 months to craft new legislation that allows 
seriously ill people to legally possess marijuana for medicinal purposes.

That legislation, Mr. Young told the court, is fraught with obstacles that 
make it difficult for ill people to obtain exemptions from criminal 
prosecution for possessing the drug. Depending on the illness, each 
sufferer may need two specialists to approve the exemption, a process that 
is long and difficult, especially for a person in a rural area or small 
town, Mr. Young said.

And fewer and fewer doctors are willing to sign exemptions, he said, 
because medical associations and the groups that provide malpractice 
insurance have warned physicians they could face legal action because of 
potential health risks associated with marijuana.

But Mr. Young said research shows there is no health risk, and he pointed 
out that Health Canada grants exemptions for the use of unapproved drugs 
such as heroin.

Health Canada has issued 299 exemptions for marijuana use, but the 
recipients have to grow their own or buy it through the black market 
because the federal government appears to have reneged on its promise to 
sell to those with exemptions the marijuana it grows in Manitoba, Mr. Young 
said.

Mr. Renda spent $300 on books to learn how to grow it, a time-consuming, 
strenuous process.

Ms. Myrden cannot grow her own because of her disability, even if she were 
able to obtain an exemption. So her mother and others buy it for her.

Growing or buying marijuana on the street can pose a health risk because of 
problems with strength and contaminants, Mr. Young said in defence of the 
government-sanctioned Manitoba operation where the marijuana is controlled.

The hearing continues.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager