Pot Charge Rejected in Potential Landmark Case

[boulder]

Windsor, Ont. — An Ontario Court judge threw out a marijuana charge against a 16-year-old boy Thursday in a decision lawyers say could soon spell the end of Canada's prohibition on possessing small amounts of pot.

 

Justice Douglas Phillips dropped the charge after lawyer Brian McAllister argued in court that there is effectively no law in Canada prohibiting the possession of 30 grams of marijuana or less.

 

McAllister warned that even though the ruling could be precedent-setting, anyone possessing small amounts of marijuana could still be charged.

 

"I doubt police will stop charging people for the moment," said McAllister.

 

McAllister had brought forward an application to have the charge dropped on the grounds that Ottawa has not yet adequately dealt with a ruling two years ago from the Ontario Court of Appeal.

 

In that landmark decision, the appeals court sided with marijuana user Terry Parker, who argued that the law violated the rights of sick people using the drug for medical reasons. Parker, an epileptic, said he needs marijuana to control his seizures.

 

As a direct result of that ruling -- and Ottawa's failure to adequately address it -- the federal Controlled Drugs and Substances Act no longer prohibits marijuana possession, McAllister argued.

 

The federal government's response to the Parker ruling was its now-infamous Marijuana Medical Access Regulations, which are supposed to allow marijuana use for medical reasons under certain circumstances.

 

Those regulations are currently the subject of a separate constitutional challenge by a group of marijuana users who say they don't adequately meet the needs of seriously ill people who need pot for treatment.

 

Joseph Neuberger, one of several lawyers involved with that challenge, said Thursday's decision could be the beginning of the end of the laws that make simple possession illegal in Canada.

 

"Because of the Parker decision, the government had to put in place a regime that allowed proper access for those who needed it for medical purposes," Neuberger said.

 

"The argument is the government never complied with that order ...that for simple possession, there really was no law."

 

In the case of the Windsor-area teen -- who can't be named because he's a minor -- federal drug prosecutor Ed Posliff argued that it was a crime to possess marijuana if it wasn't authorized for use for medical reasons.

 

McAllister argued, however, that the Ontario Court ruling made the entire law invalid because the federal law wasn't changed properly.

 

"Parliament didn't fix the problem in the right way," McAllister said Thursday. "They did it by way of regulations and the Court of Appeal (was) required to address the issues with some legislation."

 

McAllister noted that even though the possession charge involving the youth has been challenged, it's still illegal to traffic and grow marijuana.

 

Source: CTV (Canada)