Pubdate: Tue, 11 Jun 2013
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2013 The Vancouver Sun
Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Ian Mulgrew

MARIJUANA ADVOCATES VOW TO FIGHT FEDERAL DISPENSARY CHANGES

On April Fool'sDay next year, Ottawa is officially quitting the pot 
business and simultaneously uprooting thousands of home-grow 
operations across the country.

After two years of consultation and review, the federal government 
announced an overhaul of the medical marijuana program on Monday.

The details will be published June 19, but Health Minister Leona 
Aglukkaq is banning the indoor pot gardens that are the bane of 
police departments, fire marshals and municipalities.

A marijuana mail-order system for the ailing will be established.

"While the courts have said that there must be reasonable access to a 
legal source of marijuana for medical purposes, we believe that this 
must be done in a controlled fashion in order to protect public 
safety," Aglukkaq said.

She maintained that the 12- year-old medical marijuana program had 
grown exponentially - from under 500 persons to more than 30,000.

The unintended consequences of having so many Canadians exempt from 
the criminal law and allowing thousands to grow marijuana in their 
homes have proven too difficult to manage, Aglukkaq said.

Under the new rules, municipal zoning laws must be respected, and 
marijuana may only be grown by strictly regulated licensed producers 
who will sell their product by mail.

Her sympathies clearly lay with civic authorities rather than the 
sick - Aglukkaq made the announcement from an Ottawa fire hall, not a 
health setting.

Advocates for the illegal compassion clubs ( who lobbied Ottawa for 
legitimacy during the consultation process), as well as home-growers 
and patients ( upset about predicted cost increases), promised litigation.

The new rules continue to prohibit the dispensaries and may prompt 
municipalities such as Vancouver, which tolerate the illicit 
operations, to change their laissez-faire policies and shutter them.

"They've ignored the currently existing network of dispensaries that 
provide more pot to more patients than the Health Canada system 
does," complained Dana Larsen, of Sensible B. C. and who is behind an 
upcoming referendum on pot.

"My prescription for medical marijuana is to legalize it. It's safer 
than Aspirin and should be treated in a similar manner."

A lawyer who represents a coalition of people against the repeal of 
the current program, John Conroy, said litigation is inevitable.

"We'll seek a constitutional declaration that the new regulations are 
unconstitutional in that they fail to provide for personal 
production," he said.

"We'll seek a restraining order or injunction to prevent the 
introduction of the no-growing prohibition, and we'll ask the court 
to give the government a year to fix the new regulations to rectify 
the problem. If that fails, we'll sue them for damages. All these 
folks spent considerable amounts of money setting up grows."

Kirk Tousaw, a Vancouver Island lawyer and marijuana advocate, said 
it was unfortunate that Health Canada wanted to dispute patients' 
rights in court.

"These new rules, particularly the removal of small home gardens, 
will mean that patients will go without medicine because of the very 
high costs to buy it," he said. "This is not the type of reasonable 
access to medical cannabis that the Charter, and basic compassion, require."

Most people can produce marijuana for between $ 1 and $ 4 a gram, but 
it sells for between $ 8 and $ 10 a gram on the black market or in a 
compassion club. Legal pricing under the new regulations was 
predicted by Ottawa to be much higher.

The marijuana movement's most recognized voice, Jodie Emery, wanted 
the government to recognize that the "clubs and dispensaries are 
doing invaluable work that should be applauded and authorized by 
Health Canada," not left in limbo.

"The proposed plan of allowing many private businesses to provide 
marijuana to patients is a very good one, but the freedom of choice 
for access shouldn't be restricted or monopolized," she explained.

"Growing their own cannabis and accessing it from dispensaries should 
still be options available for patients."

Originally, Ottawa had proposed patients pick up their pot from 
pharmacies like any other medication, but pharmacists complained 
about the risks of robbery - as if handling pot were more dangerous 
than the opiates dispensed. Doctors, too, raised concerns about being 
asked to participate in the program by prescribing a substance they 
claimed to know little about. But the government ignored their bleating.

The old rules will apply until March 31, 2014.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom