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Ontario court strikes down marijuana laws
CTV.ca News Staff
Date: Wednesday Apr. 13, 2011 1:54 PM ET
An Ontario court has struck down Canada's laws that prohibit the possession and growing of marijuana after ruling that the medical marijuana program is unconstitutional.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Donald Taliano found that the marijuana program is failing to ensure that patients who need the drug can get the necessary approvals. So the St. Catharines, Ont. justice declared the "Marihuana Medical Access Regulations" invalid.
And, because the problems with the program force medical marijuana users to resort to illegal means to obtain their marijuana, Taliano also struck down two sections of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act that prohibit possession and cultivating marijuana.
He deemed the sections unconstitutional because they can be used to charge medical marijuana users who haven't been able to obtain medical marijuana licences.
"Rather than promote health – the regulations have the opposite effect. Rather than promote effective drug control – the regulations drive the critically ill to the black market," he wrote.
The ruling doesn't immediately make pot possession legal: the judge suspended his ruling for three months, giving Ottawa until July to fix the problems his ruling identified.
The federal government is expected to appeal.
The case was brought by Matthew Mernagh, a 37-year-old St. Catharines man who suffers from several illnesses, including fibromyalgia, seizures and scoliosis.
He says marijuana is the most effective treatment for his pain but has been unable to find a doctor to support his application for a medical marijuana licence. So he resorted to growing his own cannabis and was charged with producing the drug.
Taliano stayed those charges with his ruling.
The court heard that doctors across Canada have effectively boycotted Health Canada's medical marijuana program. The doctors have been refusing to grant the licences because they say they haven't been given enough training about how to prescribe the drug. They also say the government has failed to fund sufficient clinical trials of the drug.
Several other medicinal users of the drug testified they faced similar problems that Mernagh described, and that Health Canada would take months to process their applications.
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No one is asking Brad Wall or Dalton to ride naked with them. Asking a politician to do this is sexist pure and simple, even if he was joking.
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Mr. Obvious
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Ali
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I haven’t had any problem over the past 3 years. I saw a Psychiatrist twice a month and he was even amazed by the outcome and he has reduced the amount of medications I take.
Lindsay
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GKnightBC
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ConservativeChristian
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Retired in Burlington
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Z-Rho
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To the person who said earlier that legalizing marijuana for personal or medical use will create more problems with guns on the street, that is ridiculous. The government could easily make it illegal to grow or traffic large amounts of marijuana but still put in place a system which allows users to legally obtain it through licensed sellers or grow a small amount for personal use.
And t the man who said he was afraid of the second hand smoke interfering with his family, who said anyone would be able to smoke a joint anywhere they please...make it the same as cigarettes, no public places, only in the privacy of a person's home or something similar.
Fred S
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EEPS
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John ( again )
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It all comes down to money- the pharmaceutical companies tried and failed to create a pill form of marijuana where they could profit from it. As it stands now, they lose money every time a doctor fills out a prescription for medical marijuana instead of pain medications. It's competition. You know who the largest contributors are to the Partnership for a Drug-Free America are? Used to be the alcohol, tobacco, and pharmaceutical companies, until it came out in the press, at which point they stopped taking money from alcohol and tobacco companies, but continue to take money from pharmaceutical companies.
Meltdown
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The Big Cee
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Mike
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You are fundamentally wrong - judges have ALWAYS, since this country was founded and before when there were separate colonies, looked to the laws they are interpreting to determine if they are constitutional and otherwise "legal" - ie not overbroad, vague or otherwise improper.
It is how a democracy works and is called the Rule of Law.
Look it up some time.
Damon
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Doug @ BC
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Damon
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biker Don
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of a person killed from a stoned driver. I
still feel texting and cell phone use is a far
bigger risk to others. Or how about old
people that shouldn't be on the roads because
they can't drive. Stupidity kills more people
in Canada than booze or weed, get your facts straight
Jay
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Knowledge
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Laurie Crozier
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Matt In NB
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Patrick Abel (Chatham, ON)
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realist
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Democracy Now
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mari
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Richard in New Brunswick
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I didn't think we had a federal government at the moment.
Perhaps a more sensible and less anal-retentive set of control freaks will be elected and there will be no appeal. (The way I dream, you think I'd been smoking the stuff!)
Mike
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womanofthe2011s
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conductor274
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MarkinTO
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duffman
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sk
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Old Ted
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