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WildCardsRevenge
Grade Eh Meat
Registered: 07/17/00
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Update on Canadian Pot Saga
#1205663 - 01/09/03 08:47 PM (21 years, 2 months ago) |
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Read the Story here
MEDICINAL POT LAW TAKES HIT Judge gives Ottawa 6 months to make sure patients can get access to grass
By SAM PAZZANO, COURTS BUREAU
Marijuana could be legal for everyone in Canada within six months unless Ottawa fixes its medicinal marijuana regulations or provides a legal source and supply to sick people, said one of the lawyers involved in the landmark Superior Court decision yesterday.
Justice Sydney Lederman declared the current Marijuana Medicinal Access Regulations (MMAR) unconstitutional, but gave the government an ultimatum: Fix the regulations or supply the pot itself by July 9.
"The government must be granted time to fix the MMAR or otherwise provide for a legal source and supply of the drug the MMAR authorize seriously ill individuals to possess and produce, consistent with their (Charter) security rights," Lederman wrote in a judgment.
"But ultimately it is up to the government -- and not the courts -- to decide how to create an appropriate legal source and supply of marijuana.
"Access is compromised because there is simply no legal way for individuals with production licences to obtain the marijuana seeds required to grow it. Even if it were somehow acceptable for individuals to rely on black market supplies to exercise their constitutional rights, the unreliability of this source cannot be ignored," Lederman wrote.
Lawyer Joseph Neuberger, who represented some of the applicants to the Charter challenge, said that "when six months retires, if the government repairs the regulations and permits safe access and supply to ill people, then the law is intact.
ON THE HOOK
"If they don't (do either of those options), the possession law is out the door."
He also said that if Ottawa "doesn't fix the regulations, it is on the hook to supply marijuana permanently.
"That's an onerous task and I sincerely doubt it'll do that."
Both Neuberger and lawyer Paul Burstein, who represented another applicant, agreed that it's unlikely that authorized marijuana users would be prosecuted in the next six months since the judge has suspended the quashing of the legislation for that time period.
"It's open to police to do it but given Lederman's findings I can't imagine any judge or jury convicting a sick person who needs marijuana of this offence," Burstein said. "But there is still a legal limbo of sorts for MMAR users. There is clear statement from a Superior Court judge that there is no legitimate way to get access to marijuana."
STILL IN BREACH
Neuberger also said he doubts that ill people who need pot for medicinal purposes but lack authorization will be prosecuted, "although they are still in breach of the law as it is."
Justice department spokesman Dorrette Polland said their lawyers are "carefully reviewing the reasons in the decision and will advise the minister, Martin Cauchon, accordingly on the next step to take."
A Health Canada spokesman said his agency will be consulting with officials at the justice department once they have read the decision.
Burstein said Lederman's ruling is another in a "series of landmark rulings ... this may be the straw that breaks the camel's back."
Lederman was scathing in his criticism of the MMAR.
"Laws which put seriously ill, vulnerable people in a position where they have to deal with the criminal underworld to obtain medicine they have been authorized to take, violate the constitutional right to security of the person," Lederman wrote in his judgement.
"The MMAR expose the applicants, who all have serious medical conditions, to further risk to personal safety. Not only do they face risks associated with consorting with criminals, and the possibility of prosecution ... they have to deal with the uncertain quality of the (street) product.
"I have grave reservations about a regime which is supposed to grant legal access to marijuana while controlling its illicit use, but instead grants legal access by relying on drug dealers to supply and distribute the required drug."
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GGreatOne234
Stranger
Registered: 12/23/99
Posts: 8,946
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Wow
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neuro
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Isn't that old? I remember seeing the same ultimatum months and months ago.
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Kelly
tripper
Registered: 01/18/03
Posts: 18
Loc: Alexandria, Virginia
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I'm in agreement with nuero.
-------------------- "Sleep, those little slices of death, how I loath thee." -Edgar Allan Poe "Never be bought and never be sold.: -Anonymous -Daytripper
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WildCardsRevenge
Grade Eh Meat
Registered: 07/17/00
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Re: Update on Canadian Pot Saga [Re: neuro]
#1265727 - 01/31/03 11:35 AM (21 years, 1 month ago) |
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your both correct and wrong
Your right that a similar statment was made last year. The government made the changes that allowed medical pot.
Just recently (bigininng of Jan) another judge ruled that the Pot law was still unjust and that more changes needed to be made
So same situation all over agin
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neuro
Phytophiliac
Registered: 08/10/99
Posts: 6,633
Loc: Rigel 7
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oh i see, i thought i had a big case of deja vu
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Azmodeus
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Re: Update on Canadian Pot Saga [Re: neuro]
#1276843 - 02/04/03 05:35 AM (21 years, 1 month ago) |
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I'm "sick" of being called a criminal, and NEED my "medicine"...
-------------------- "Know your Body - Know your Mind - Know your Substance - Know your Source. Lest we forget. "
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sir tripsalot
Administrator
Registered: 07/09/99
Posts: 6,487
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Re: Update on Canadian Pot Saga [Re: Azmodeus]
#1279674 - 02/04/03 06:59 PM (21 years, 1 month ago) |
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Well you should be in luck, hiccups is listed as one symptom prescribable with marijuana.
-------------------- "Little racoons and old possums 'n' stuff all live up in here. They've got to have a little place to sit." Bob Ross.
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Mitchnast
Toadmonger
Registered: 10/27/99
Posts: 8,656
Loc: Okanagan
Last seen: 4 days, 11 hours
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hmmm, can a doctor tel if youre faking hiccups? tell him occasionally you smoke pot, and have noticed that for some reason its the ONLY thing that qwells your violent chronic hiccups. say about one joint a day. keeps you good all day. but when you DONT smoke WHAT hicough central
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