Pubdate: Wed, 08 Oct 2003 Source: Kitchener-Waterloo Record (CN ON) Copyright: 2003 Kitchener-Waterloo Record Contact: http://www.therecord.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/225 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada) POT POSSESSION ILLEGAL AGAIN TORONTO - Possessing small amounts of pot is illegal again in Ontario after an appeal court ruling yesterday 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. 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. "(Yesterday), the court fixed the problems with the medical program, so if the medical program is operating constitutionally then the criminal law also operates constitutionally.'' - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk