A Federal Court judge just struck down regulations that had previously restricted the rights of medical marijuana patients to grow marijuana plants at home.
The judge gave the Canadian government six months to come up with new rules in place of the regulations that were struck down.
Judge Michael
Phelan issued the ruling on Wednesday in Vancouver that said that the
Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations were inherently an
infringement on charter rights. He declared that as of six months
from Wednesday, they will no longer have any force of law and cannot
be legally prosecuted.
That means that Canadians can grow medical marijuana at home. Read
the full decision (PDF) here!The judge noted that recreational marijuana is still not effected by this ruling. But now, an earlier injunction will remain in effect. That means thousands of Canadians can use medical marijuana and grow it at home.
But there’s still a long way to go. Lawyer John Conroy, who co-represented the plaintiffs in the case, said that as of today, there is still no benefit for medical marijuana users who didn’t have prior authorization. They will have to wait up to six months for the government to iron out new regulations related to home growing of medical marijuana.
“We will be heading back to court to fine-tune that injunction,” Conroy said on Wednesday afternoon.
“Hopefully
within six months we’ll have a reasonably regulated system in place
that solves the problems for everyone,” he added.
Conroy noted that “if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wanted to
move quickly on the issue, cabinet could simply issue an
order-in-council that would remove marijuana from Schedule 2 of the
Controlled Drugs and Substances Act,” according to CBC
News.“The next fight is making sure the dispensaries are legal,” he added.
Lawyer Kirk Tousaw, the co-counsel for Neil Allard, who CBC notes launched the court challenge, was overjoyed with the decision.
“Basically we won, and it was a complete victory,” Tousaw said. The Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations, “were declared to be unconstitutional and violate the charter rights of medical cannabis patients.”
Tousaw said it’s up to the government, which has expressed pro-marijuana leanings, to finish the job.
“The ball is in the federal government’s court. Mr. Trudeau and the justice minister have six months to respond to the court’s ruling and come up with a system of medical cannabis regulation in this country that doesn’t impact and negatively take away the charter rights of medical cannabis patients and their providers,” he said.
“We proved that growing medical cannabis can be perfectly safe, and can be done completely in compliance with the law and people ought to have a right to do that without fear of being arrested and locked in cages for that activity,” he added
“The lessons I think are pretty obvious. If you can grow cannabis for yourself for medical purposes safely and with no risk for the public, surely, you can grow cannabis for yourself for non-medical purposes safely and with no risk to the public,” Tousaw continued.
Perhaps the most profound aspect of this ruling was the judge denouncing law enforcement witness Cpl. Shane Homequist as “the most egregious example of the so-called expert,” who “possessed none of the qualifications of usual expert witnesses. His assumptions and analysis were shown to be flawed. His methodologies were not shown to be accepted by those working in his field. The factual basis of his various options was uncovered as inaccurate,” he wrote.
“I can give this evidence little or no weight,” the judge concluded.
Watch the local report below…
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