Pubdate: Tue, 11 Feb 2014
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2014 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU
Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: Tom Blackwell

MARIJUANA LAW FACES CHARTER CHALLENGE

Based on patient's life, liberty, security

Canada's messy, controversial world of medical marijuana is coming
under more legal scrutiny, as two British Columbia men launch a novel
constitutional challenge of the federal law that bans "compassion clubs."

The legislation violates the right of patients to life, liberty and
security of the person by depriving them of the well-tested, reliable
pot sold by the clubs, they allege in a challenge to be filed in court
Tuesday.

Carl Anderson and Wesley Jenkins ran such a club in Kamloops, B.C.,
but in 2011 the Royal Canadian Mounted Police charged them with drug
trafficking.

Trying to shut down nonprofit retailers forces people authorized to
use medical marijuana to seek out street dealers and consume cannabis
that may lack the active ingredients they need, argues the application
under the Charter of Rights & Freedoms. The result can be bad for the
customers' health.

"When the interests of the state are basically nothing more than to
make life difficult for people who are ill and trying to improve their
health ... that's a major problem," Mr. Anderson said Monday.

"If somebody can go buy enough OxyContin to kill a whole school full
of children at the pharmacy, why can't I go and buy my medical
marijuana from the dispensary?"

A spokesman for the federal prosecution service could not be reached
for comment.

The court document says the cannabis-oil pills Mr. Anderson takes are
the only effective treatment he's found for pain from a 1997 car accident.

In the past, taking powerful pharmaceutical painkillers made him
suicidal.

When he tried to buy pot on the street, a dealer stole hundreds of
dollars from him and threatened to stab him with a knife.

Fed up, in 2010 he opened the Canadian Safe Cannabis Society, with a
gas-chromatograph-equipped lab for testing.

Dozens of compassion clubs and cannabis "dispensaries" have cropped up
in the last several years across the country, claiming to provide a
reliable source for Health Canada-approved marijuana users.

Though police often turn a blind eye, the government considers such
operations to be illegal and some have been raided.

Under the original federal regulations, patients could grow their own
pot or buy it from Health Canada, which contracted with a single
company to produce marijuana.

Further muddying the waters, the medical pot system is in flux, with a
new set of rules being phased in. Under the updated regime, scheduled
to be fully in effect by April 1, people with marijuana prescriptions
must buy from producers licensed by Health Canada.

They will only be able to order by mail, with no retail stores
allowed.

Still, the clubs and dispensaries are likely to continue to operate in
legal limbo, offering a more hands-on service many patients value,
said Shawn Buckley, Mr. Anderson's lawyer.

Mr. Buckely argues in the Charter challenge Canadian law requires
testing and quality assurance for all other types of medicine.

The compassion clubs are currently the chief way medical marijuana
users ensure their pot is safe and contains the required levels of
drugs, such as THC and cannabidiol - and yet the organizations are
considered criminal, the application says.

"This places people ... in danger," it adds.

That, in turn, means their right to life, liberty and security of the
person under Section 7 of the Charter has been violated.

In fact, the planned licensed producers will be required to do testing
and quality assurance. The new system is also being challenged in a
separate court case and compassion clubs are likely to try to live on,
said Mr. Buckley.  
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