Pubdate: Fri, 12 Jun 2015
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Times Colonist
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/letters.html
Website: http://www.timescolonist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Lindsay Kines
Page: A1
Referenced: Supreme Court Judgment (R. v. Smith): 
http://mapinc.org/url/d2dzMbjW

VICTORIA MAN WINS MAJOR BATTLE OVER POT

Court Widens Legal Use of Medical Marijuana to Cookies, Oils, Teas

Owen Smith spent Thursday morning fielding calls of gratitude from 
people who rely on cannabis-infused cookies, oils, teas and lotions 
to cope with pain and illness.

They wanted to thank the former head baker of the Victoria Cannabis 
Buyers Club for taking their battle all the way to the Supreme Court 
of Canada. And winning. The country's highest court ruled unanimously 
on Thursday that medical marijuana can be legally consumed in a range 
of ways, not just in its dried form.

"It's almost more than I can bear," Smith said of the calls from 
patients, "because their pain is the most extreme pain that you can imagine."

One of the callers uses cannabis-infused oil to treat her daughter 
for epilepsy, he said.

"Having your child seize endlessly is something that nobody should 
have to go through, and if this medicine can help those people, then 
I think everyone would agree that they should have it right away."

Smith was arrested at a Victoria apartment in 2009 and charged with 
possession of THC for the purpose of trafficking after police found 
pot cookies and other cannabis-infused foodstuffs on the premises.

His lawyer, Kirk Tousaw, successfully argued before the B.C. Supreme 
Court and the B.C. Court of Appeal that Canada's laws are 
unconstitutional because they restrict seriously ill patients to 
possessing and smoking only "dried marijuana," while barring them 
from using other cannabis products.

The Supreme Court of Canada agreed and attributed its written 
decision to the entire court - something the justices do when they 
want to underline a finding.

"The prohibition of non-dried forms of medical marijuana limits 
liberty and security of the person in a manner that is arbitrary and 
hence is not in accord with the principles of fundamental justice," 
the judgment said.

The initial trial judge in Smith's case gave the federal government a 
year to change the laws around cannabis extracts, but the court said 
Thursday its ruling takes effect immediately.

The decision thrilled 71-year-old John Douglas, who uses cookies and 
body oils from the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club to cope with back 
pain caused by years of lifting. "I was really excited," he said. "I 
never thought I'd live to see the day, really. It's an emotional 
time; I mean, it's just really a good sign of things to come."

It was especially emotional for Smith, whose sister, Ceri, died from 
skin cancer at age 20. In the end, cannabis gave her the ability to 
cope with the effects of chemotherapy and to eat, sleep and 
communicate with her family, he said. Her experience fuelled Smith's 
battle with the government. "The quality of life that this medicine 
can bring to people in serious, serious need is second to none," he 
said. "It's something that we really can't afford to [make] illegal."

Limiting medical marijuana use to dried pot "limits life, liberty and 
security of the person" in two ways, the court said.

First, the prohibition on possession of cannabis in forms other than 
dried pot places a person at risk of imprisonment when they wouldn't 
face the same threat if they possessed dried marijuana buds.

It also exposes people with a legitimate need for marijuana to other 
potential medical ailments, it stated.

"It subjects the person to the risk of cancer and bronchial 
infections associated with smoking dry marijuana and precludes the 
possibility of choosing a more effective treatment."

The decision was the latest in a series of rulings by the high court 
against the Harper government on a variety of issues, including 
unanimously rejecting the ban on providing doctor-assisted death to 
mentally competent patients.

Health Minister Rona Ambrose said she was "outraged" by the marijuana decision.

"The big issue here is the message about normalization," she said. 
"Judges, not medical experts, judges have decided something is a medicine."

Ambrose noted that marijuana has never faced a regulatory approval 
process through Health Canada. "This is not a medicine," she said. 
"There's very harmful effects of marijuana, especially on our youth."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom