Weed-whacking Conservatives lose yet again

[kiwi_farmer]

By MINDELLE JACOBS

Wed, October 29, 2008

http://www.edmontonsun.com/Comment/2008/10...236716-sun.html

Copyright © 2008, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved

 

 

Ottawa must have a heck of a pot headache after losing its latest medical marijuana case in the Federal Court of Appeal.

 

Remember years ago when sick people who needed cannabis to relieve their symptoms had to get special permission from the federal health minister to smoke pot? Since then, it's been one legal fight after another to bring in common-sense reforms on the issue.

 

On Monday, the Federal Court of Appeal upheld a January ruling that quashed Ottawa's pot monopoly. Under Health Canada's insane regulations, licensed medical pot growers could only provide marijuana to one patient.

 

Now, if the appeal court judgment stands, licensed growers will be able to supply pot to multiple patients - a far more efficient way of meeting the needs of the hundreds of people legally allowed pot for medical use.

 

Can the legalization of compassion clubs be far behind? Well, yes, I suppose. We are talking about the Conservatives. Why Ottawa is even in the pot-growing business in the first place is a mystery. Few of Canada's medical pot patients actually buy government-grown pot because it's so awful.

 

"I never bought any but I tried some once and it was terrible," recalls Russell Barth, an Ottawa-area licensed medical marijuana user. "It didn't even smell like pot. It looked more like the stuff you sprinkle on the floor to soak up puke."

 

Most medical pot patients get their weed from illegal sources, including acquaintances and compassion clubs, Barth notes. And the government-grown pot is just one strain, but medical pot patients need different kinds depending on their ailments, he says.

 

Barth, who suffers from chronic pain, smokes a different type of pot than his wife, also a licensed medical pot user, who has epilepsy. He'd like to see designated medical pot growers supply various strains.

 

"The ... thing that really hurts is how many people still seem to think that we are just stoners who are looking to get high, and that we are hiding behind our 'illnesses' to facilitate a groovy party or something," says Barth.

 

Over on Parliament Hill, the Conservatives are probably tearing their hair out over this latest marijuana setback and cursing those darn liberal judges.

 

If only the last Liberal government had managed to fulfil its promise to decriminalize small amounts of pot for personal use. That door, alas, has been slammed shut for the foreseeable future.

 

Meanwhile, the Tories are stuck with an issue they can't stand. You can bet they'd like to dismantle the whole medical marijuana program and burn all that government ditch weed growing in Flin Flon.

 

But they can't because there have now been numerous court rulings upholding - and expanding - the rights of certain people to grow or otherwise legally obtain pot for therapeutic reasons.

 

Nevertheless, Ottawa is wasting significant public money on all these legal challenges and will, no doubt, continue to do so. Thank goodness for lawyers like Alan Young, who's been nipping at the government's heels for years on behalf of medical marijuana users.

 

Theoretically, growers like Carasel Harvest Supply Corp., outside Ottawa, and Island Harvest, on Vancouver Island, now have the legal go-ahead to apply for pot-growing licences for groups of patients.

 

Ideally, Ottawa's pot-growing operation, run by Prairie Plant Systems, should be shut down. After all, what does the government know about weed?