Pubdate: Sat, 02 Feb 2013
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2013 The Ottawa Citizen
Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Author: Colin Perkel

MARIJUANA STAYS ILLEGAL AFTER COURT UPHOLDS LAWS

Opportunity Missed, HIV/AIDS Group Says

TORONTO - Canada's ban on marijuana was effectively upheld Friday when
Ontario's top court struck down an earlier court decision that said
Canada's laws related to medicinal pot were unconstitutional.

In overturning the lower-court ruling, the Court of Appeal ruled the
trial judge had made numerous errors in striking down the country's
medical pot laws.

Among other things, the Appeal Court found the judge was wrong to
interpret an earlier ruling as creating a constitutional right to use
medical marijuana.

"Given that marijuana can medically benefit some individuals, a
blanket criminal prohibition on its use is unconstitutional," the
Appeal Court said.

"(However), this court did not hold that serious illness gives rise to
an automatic right to use marijuana."

Currently, doctors are allowed to exempt patients from the ban on
marijuana, but many physicians have refused to prescribe the drug on
the grounds its benefits are not scientifically proven.

The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network called the decision a
disappointing missed opportunity.

"Allowing the current regulations to stand unchanged will leave many
people with serious health conditions without effective access to
legal authorization to use cannabis as medicine," said executive
director Richard Elliott.

"People shouldn't have to risk going to prison in order to get the
medicine they need."

The ruling comes in the case of Matthew Mernagh, 37, of St.
Catharines, Ont., who suffers from fibromyalgia, scoliosis, seizures
and depression.

While he argues marijuana is the most effective treatment of his pain,
he said he was unable to find a doctor to support his application for
a medical marijuana licence.

Mernagh resorted to growing his own and was charged with producing the
drug in April 2008.

In April 2011, Ontario Superior Court Justice Donald Taliano found
that sick people cannot get access to medical marijuana through
appropriate means. He said that forced ill people who should be able
to get the drugs to resort to criminal acts.

Taliano struck down the laws prohibiting possession and production of
cannabis as unconstitutional but the ruling was put on hold pending
the federal government's appeal, which was heard last May.
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