Lawyer asks judge to toss reports

VANCOUVER — A lawyer for the federal government is asking a B.C. Supreme Court judge to reject the reports of three doctors and a criminologist she says are either unqualified or biased in favour of medical marijuana dispensaries fighting to stay open in Vancouver.

Andrea Gatti says the reports solicited by lawyers for dispensary operators should be found inadmissible as the City of Vancouver seeks an injunction to shut down the unlicensed facilities.

Two of the three doctors practise exclusively in Ontario, and Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson suggested that may be an issue in the relevance of their opinions.

Gatti says the report of a rheumatologist who operates a medical marijuana clinic in Toronto makes overarching statements on issues without adequate expertise.

She says the other two doctors also base their reports on hearsay and limited experience while a criminology professor from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia appears to not have understood his role as an expert witness.

However, lawyer Jack Lloyd, who represents some of the dispensaries involved in the case, says while the reports may include some deficiencies the doctors provided their opinions based on their experience with patients who were prescribed medical marijuana.