NO MORE GOVERNMENT MARIJUANA MONOPOLY IN CANADA

Ottawa's monopoly on pot over

Court dismisses federal appeal

28th October, 2008

By BRETT CLARKSON, SUN MEDIA
The Toronto Sun

Alison Myrden, who eats, drinks, and smokes 50 grams a day of medical pot, couldn't be happier that the federal government's marijuana monopoly has gone up in smoke.

Myrden, 44, was one of several medicinal marijuana users who yesterday watched as appeal court judges dismissed Ottawa's bid to keep the medical pot supply chain limited to one grower per smoker.

The controversial Health Canada one-grower-per-patient regulation was struck down in January by federal court Justice Barry Strayer, who ruled the restriction was unconstitutional.

Yesterday, federal lawyers Sean Gaudet and James Goreham mounted the government's appeal of Strayer's ruling. Because Strayer's ruling was under appeal, the Health Canada regulation was still in effect until yesterday's decision.

Gaudet and Goreham argued the one-to-one policy was required to ensure against the pot from licensed growers straying illicitly into the open market.

However, the three judges, John Maxwell Evans, Karen Sharlow, and C. Michael Ryers, didn't buy it. They dismissed the appeal after the lunch break, reducing the scheduled one-day hearing to a half-day.

And while the tight-lipped government lawyers — who declined to comment — started packing up, the pro-medicinal marijuana advocates cheered and congratulated lawyers Alan Young and Ron Marzel, who were representing 30 patients seeking the right to buy pot from a Smiths Falls grower called Carasel Harvest Supply Corp.

Yesterday's ruling means that licensed medical pot smokers are no longer restricted to getting their weed from a grower who only provides bud to them.

"We all want the same thing ultimately and that's our freedom. That's what it boils down to, the freedom to be able to do what we want without government intervention," Myrden said.

It also means that the much-maligned green grown in Manitoba by a federally contracted grower is no longer the only supplier who can provide weed to more than one person.

Myrden adamantly refuses to smoke the government-issue weed grown in Flin Flon by Prairie Plant Systems.

"I've tried it, it's garbage," said Myrden, a former corrections officer who smokes to combat symptoms of chronic progressive multiple scleroris. "It's 
absolutely disgusting, it's sticks and seeds and stems, I can't believe they'd make us smoke that as medicine."

Myrden, who also suffers from a rare facial condition she says causes "violent pains," has a government licence to grow her own. She consumes 50 grams a day by eating it, drinking it in tea, and smoking 30 joints.

Outside court yesterday, Young called on Health Canada to adopt more open-minded policies surrounding medicinal marijuana.

"It's time for Health Canada to recognize that medical marijuana is an established part of the regimen of a lot of patients," Young said. "Instead of thwarting patient needs, they should be accommodating patient needs. Hopefully this case will be a signal to them. Quite frankly, they've lost almost every round (in court)."

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Court OKs medical marijuana market

by Jordana Huber, Canwest News Service
Published: Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Canadians prescribed marijuana to treat illness will have more choice in where to buy their drugs after a court ruling Monday that ends the federal 
government's monopoly on supplying medical marijuana to patients.

Justice Department lawyers had sought to appeal a lower-court ruling that granted licensed producers the right to grow marijuana for more than one patient.

But the Federal Court of Appeal dismissed the government's challenge, saying it was not persuaded by government lawyers who argued that growers supplying more than one patient would lead to an unregulated industry.

In January, a federal court judge struck down the one-to-one ratio as unconstitutional and unnecessarily restrictive. The judgment was stayed pending Monday's appeal.

Lawyer Alan Young, who represented medical marijuana users, said the ruling was a victory for sick people.

"It's time for Health Canada to recognize that medical marijuana is an established part of the regimen for a lot of patients," Young said outside court.

"Instead of thwarting patient needs, they should be accommodating patient needs and, hopefully, this case will be a signal to them."

CALIFORNIA MEASURE :  A.B. No. 2279
AUTHOR(S) :  Mark Leno (Coauthors: Berg, Hancock, and Saldana).

AB 2279 aka "The Medical Cannabis Workers Rights Bill" would have amended the health and Safety code relating to medical marijuana. This bill would have saved the right to work for hundreds of thousands of Californians who can be fired because they are medical cannabis patients. In a state where medical cannabis use is as legal as the use of Vicodin or Valium, people with illnesses who choose the cannabis alternative should be encouraged to work, and not continue to face additional discriminatory actions. 
Terminated (Vetoed) by Governor Schwarzenegger 09/30/2008

You zee, I don't care eef yu haf a doktors note...your terminated.

CALIFORNIA MEASURE : A.B. No. 2279
AUTHOR(S) : Mark Leno (Coauthors: Berg, Hancock, and Saldana).

AB 2279 aka "The Medical Cannabis Workers Rights Bill" would have amended the health and Safety code relating to medical marijuana. This bill would have saved the right to work for hundreds of thousands of Californians who can be fired because they are medical cannabis patients. In a state where medical cannabis use is as legal as the use of Vicodin or Valium, people with illnesses who choose the cannabis alternative should be encouraged to work, and not continue to face additional discriminatory actions.
Terminated (Vetoed) by Governor Schwarzenegger 09/30/2008

You zee, I don't care eef yu haf a doktors note...your terminated.