Pubdate: Wed, 02 Mar 2016
Source: Abbotsford News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 Abbotsford News
Contact:  http://www.abbynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1155
Author: Tom Fletcher

JUDGE STRIKES DOWN BAN ON HOMEGROWN MEDICAL MARIJUANA

The federal government has struck down down regulations requiring
licensed medical marijuana users to buy from Ottawa-approved growers,
giving people the green light to continue growing at home.

The ruling is suspended for six months, but the four B.C. residents
who launched the court challenge had their growing licences protected
under an earlier interim order. Thousands of people in B.C. and across
Canada received licences to either grow pot themselves or designate
someone else to do it, before the Conservative government attempted to
restrict production to large commercial growers who sent it by mail.

With Prime Minister Justin Trudeau intent on legalizing recreational
marijuana use, Kirk Tousaw, a lawyer for the four, says the latest
ruling should "once and for all end the stigmatization and
criminalization" for medical users and their providers.

"And in addition, all pending criminal cases against medical cannabis
producers, patients, growers and dispensaries should be immediately
terminated," Tousaw told CTV Wednesday.

The court challenge was brought by four different people, including
39-year-old Abbotsford resident Shawn Davey, who suffered a brain
injury in a motor vehicle accident and receives a federal disability
pension. He held licences to grow for himself and as a designated
grower for others, authorizing him to produce 122 plants indoors and
store 5,490 grams at the site of production. Abbotsford lawyer John
Conroy's firm represented the plaintiffs in the case.

In a statement issued late last week, Abbotsford Conservative MP Ed
Fast said he was "deeply disappointed" in the decision, in which
Federal Court Judge Michael Phelan ruled that preventing people from
growing marijuana for medical purposes violates section seven of the
Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees "the right to life,
liberty and security of the person."

Fast said the rules introduced by his Conservative government aimed to
"balance legitimate access to medical marijuana against our goal of
keeping our communities safe and of preventing marijuana from falling
into the hands of youth." He said illegal grow-ops posed a danger to
the community, due both to fire and safety aspects issues, and because
of what Fast said was their frequent association with organized crime.

"Abbotsford has been a hotbed of marijuana grow-ops, and my residents
will no doubt be quite angry that the court has essentially dismissed
their concerns," he said. "This ruling potentially sets a precedent
for the manufacture within private homes of other dangerous drugs.
This is not a road we should be travelling down."

- - with files from Tyler Olsen
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MAP posted-by: Matt