Pubdate: Tue, 28 Sep 2010 Source: Peterborough Examiner, The (CN ON) Copyright: 2010 Osprey Media Group Inc. Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/4VLGnvUl Website: http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2616 Author: Fiona Isaacson PROSECUTOR ARGUES AGAINST POT LAW CHALLENGE Any argument that a landmark marijuana case in 2000 deleted cannabis from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act is wrong, a federal prosecutor argued Monday. Kevin Wilson, with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, argued that two men challenging the country's marijuana possession laws had no standing in Peterborough's Superior Court of Justice but could make their arguments at trial in Ontario Court of Justice, which is a lower court. Mark MacDonald and Benny Almud have been charged separately with possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking. Almud is also charged with marijuana production. Their cases are currently before the Ontario Court of Justice. Their application to superior court is that marijuana possession laws were invalid for six years starting in 2003. Both men have since been approved by Health Canada to use marijuana for medical purposes. Their central argument is the 2000 case when long-time medicinal-marijuana advocate Terry Parker won the right to smoke pot for medicinal purposes. Parker was one of seven supporters in court Monday. His legal victory gave medicinal-marijuana users the right to possess less than 30 grams of pot but the presiding judge delayed the ruling's effect for one year in hope the federal government would introduce a medicinal marijuana law. The government didn't. Instead, cabinet issued regulations for access to medicinal marijuana one day before the year-long grace period ended in 2001. In early 2003, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled those medical access regulations were unconstitutional because they were failing to provide a legal supply of the drug. As a result of the ruling, marijuana possession charges were stayed for about 4,000 people. The government changed the medicinal marijuana regulation again in 2003, which marijuana activists argue made the laws invalid once more until new changes in 2009. The Parker decision did not have the effect of deleting marijuana from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and Parliament had no obligation to reenact it because it was never removed, Wilson said. "A declaration does not delete a provision from a statute," he said. MacDonald and Almud have put a "slightly new spin" by their reading of the act that governs the interpretation of government statutes and regulations," Wilson said. "I grant them that that's inventive but completely misses the point (of the act)." Both sides had previously submitted case law to Madam Justice Cory A. Gilmore, who presided Monday. MacDonald was charged in December 2008 at his Otonabee- South Monaghan home. OPP say they found 1,441 grams of marijuana bud worth $21,660 and 43 marijuana plants worth $21,400. Police also say they found marijuana shake. When police raided Almud's Smith-Ennismore-Lakefield home in July 2009 they found $144,554 worth of marijuana plants, bud and shake. Outside court MacDonald said things went as expected, maybe better. He was the only one to address the court and said little, instead directing the judge to cases they filed with their motion. Gilmore denied activist John Turmel the right to speak on MacDonald's behalf. "I'm so new at this. I've never had a speeding ticket.... I'm kind of shy and reserved as it is," MacDonald told The Examiner. Turmel said Wilson's line of reasoning and case law supports their argument. It's a matter of different interpretations of legal cases, Turmel said. Almud's 21-year-old granddaughter, Sabrina, is also charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking and production. Almud has said she had nothing to do with the drugs and was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Almuds will be in Ontario Court of Justice on Tuesday and MacDonald on Wednesday. Gilmore said she would issue her decision in writing but did not set a date. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D