Ottawa's monopoly on pot over

SOURCE: Toronto Sun

Ottawa's monopoly on pot over

Court dismisses federal appeal

Last Updated: 28th October 2008, 3:59am


A court decision that effectively loosens Ottawa’s tight grip on access to medical marijuana has been upheld by the Federal Court of Appeal.



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)."