Pubdate: Thu, 02 Oct 2014
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2014 Times Colonist
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/letters.html
Website: http://www.timescolonist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Louise Dickson
Page: A4

OTTAWA APPEALING MEDICAL MARIJUANA RULING

The federal government is heading to the Supreme Court of Canada to
determine whether medical marijuana patients have a constitutional
right to cannabis oils, butters, teas and lotions.

The Public Prosecution Service of Canada last month filed a notice of
appeal of the decision of B.C.'s Court of Appeal in the Owen Smith
case.

On Aug. 14, in a 2-1 judgment, the appeal court said the country's
medical marijuana legislation was unconstitutional because it
restricts patients to possessing and smoking only the dried plant material.

Two of the appeal court judges dismissed the government's appeal in
the case of Smith, the former head baker for the Cannabis Buyers Club
of Canada. In 2009, Smith was charged with possession for the purpose
of trafficking and unlawful possession of marijuana after police found
more than 200 pot cookies and cannabis-infused olive oil and grapeseed
oil in an apartment on View Street.

At Smith's trial in 2012, lawyer Kirk Tousaw argued that the medical
marijuana access regulations were unconstitutional and arbitrary and
did not further the government's interest in protecting public health
and safety. Instead, they forced the critically and chronically ill to
smoke medical marijuana, which was potentially harmful.

In the end, Justice Robert Johnston agreed, ruling it was
unconstitutional to restrict medical marijuana patients to using dried
cannabis alone. Johnston found that criminalizing a patient's choice
of smoking or eating his or her medication was an unwarranted
infringement of security of the person rights guaranteed under Section
7 of the Constitution.

Johnston gave Health Canada a year to respond to his
ruling.

Smith was acquitted of the outstanding drug offences and the Crown
appealed Johnston's decision.

The notice of appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada is based on two
questions of law: whether Smith has standing to challenge the
constitutional validity of the medical marijuana access regulations
and whether these regulations are inconsistent with Section 7 of the
Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

No date has been set, Tousaw said.

"I find it distressing that our government will spend buckets of tax
dollars fighting against sick people's rights to ingest
physician-approved cannabis medicine in the form of cookies," Tousaw
said.

"I look forward to the opportunity to defend patients' charter rights
before the highest court in the land. This is a historic moment
because the Supreme Court of Canada has never heard a medical cannabis
case."

Since Johnston's April 2012 decision, patients in B.C. have been able
to make their own butters, oils, baked goods and lotions.

Smith said he said he is "proud to represent the many disabled or
diseased Canadians who find relief from edible or topical cannabis
extracts."
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