Toronto Star

Have your pot cake and eat it, too

Court ruling clears medical marijuana users to consume drug in a range of ways

- GEORDON OMAND AND TERRY PEDWELL THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA— A former cannabis club head baker at the centre of a Supreme Court of Canada ruling is both thrilled and relieved after the high court struck down limits on what constitute­s legally acceptable medical marijuana products.

The court ruled unanimousl­y on Thursday that medical marijuana can be legally consumed in a range of ways, from cannabis-infused cookies and brownies to cooking oils and teas.

“I think across the country there will be a lot more smiles and a lot less pain,” said Owen Smith with the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club, whose 2009 arrest was the focus of the decision.

Smith was charged after police found hundreds of pot cookies and cannabis-infused olive and grapeseed oils in his Victoria apartment. He was acquitted at trial and won an appeal.

The outpouring of gratitude since the ruling was handed down has been overwhelmi­ng, Smith said. He received a phone call from a mother who used cannabis-infused oil to treat her daughter’s epilepsy.

“She was just overjoyed and in tears about the decision,” he said. “It’s been emotional, that’s for sure.”

Not only was it a unanimous 7-0 ruling, but the court made a point of attributin­g the written decision to the entire court — something the justices do when they want to underline a finding.

It was yet another rebuke of the Harper government’s tough-oncrime agenda.

Until now, federal regulation­s stipulated that authorized users of physician-prescribed cannabis could only consume dried marijuana.

But limiting medical consumptio­n to dried pot infringes on liberty protection­s under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the court said.

“The prohibitio­n of non-dried forms of medical marijuana limits liberty and security of the person in a manner that is arbitrary and hence is not in accord with the principles of fundamenta­l justice,” said the written judgment.

The initial trial judge in Smith’s case gave the federal government a year to change the laws around cannabis extracts, but the court said Thursday its ruling takes effect immediatel­y.

Cheryl Rose, whose daughter Hayley takes cannabis for a severe form of epilepsy, said the 22-year-old’s seizures have dropped dramatical­ly.

Under the previous law, Hayley had to take 15 capsules of dried cannabis daily. Now, she will only have to take one concentrat­ed pill made with oil.

“Without having extracts available for her, I don’t think we’d be able to keep it up. It’s way too much for a person to consume,” she said. “She’s finally going to fully have her life back.”

Alex Repetski of Thornhill, Ont., could have been charged with possession and traffickin­g for convert- ing dried bud into oil for his 3-yearold daughter, Gwenevere, whose debilitati­ng epilepsy has left her developmen­tally delayed.

Since starting on the low-THC marijuana, Gwenevere has seen an incredible recovery, Repetski said. He no longer fears prosecutio­n.

Limiting medical marijuana use to dried pot “limits life, liberty and security of the person” in two ways, the court said.

First, the prohibitio­n on possession of cannabis in forms other than dried pot places a person at risk of imprisonme­nt when they wouldn’t face the same threat if they possessed dried marijuana buds.

It also exposes people with a legitimate need for marijuana to other potential medical ailments, it stated.

“It subjects the person to the risk of cancer and bronchial infections associated with smoking dry marijuana and precludes the possibilit­y of choosing a more effective treatment.”

The decision was the latest in a series of rulings by the high court against the Harper government on a variety of issues, including unanimousl­y rejecting the ban on providing doctor-assisted death to mentally competent patients.

Health Minister Rona Ambrose said she was “outraged” by the marijuana decision.

“The big issue here is the message about normalizat­ion,” she said. “The message that judges, not medical experts, judges have decided something is a medicine.”

Ambrose noted that marijuana has never faced a regulatory approval process through Heath Canada.

“This not a drug,” she said. “This is not a medicine. There’s very harmful effects of marijuana, especially on our youth.”

“I think across the country there will be a lot more smiles and a lot less pain.” OWEN SMITH VICTORIA CANNIBIS BUYERS CLUB

 ?? DARRYL DYCK/THE CANADIAN PRESS ?? The Supreme Court decided Thursday that cannabis-infused cookies consumed for medical purposes is legal.
DARRYL DYCK/THE CANADIAN PRESS The Supreme Court decided Thursday that cannabis-infused cookies consumed for medical purposes is legal.

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