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Canada: Crown acquits medical marijuana grower Stephanie Azran Gazette Vaudreuil-Soulanges Wednesday 20 Aug 2014 Ray Turmel was legally growing marijuana for medical reasons when Health Canada ordered in-home growers to destroy their crops so the government could get into the dealing game. Turmel kept his MMAR (Medical Marihuana Access Regulations) and continued to grow, but many others lost their entire crop, including Stephen Burrows and Robert Roy, whose historic cases are still in proceedings. Burrows and Roy both want their grow permits back. Roy lost his because he was three days short of the reprieve and Burrows wants to keep fighting his cancer, which so far has been cut in half through cannabis therapy. “How are they going to tell a guy he’s not going to get an exemption to finish curing his cancer when he showed them the pictures? Our whole point is that it’s not up to the judge to check pictures when the doctor authorized the use,” said Ray’s brother John. “It’s sitting on their desk and they don’t know what to do with it. If they say no, it goes straight to the Supreme Court of Canada.” Turmel’s win may give Burrows and Roy the momentum they need. Even if the cases are different, the acquittal proves that the courts can’t keep ignoring the loophole in Canadian legislation created when in 2000 (R. v. Parker) an Ontario Court of Appeals judge declared the “marihuana prohibition in [section] 4 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to be invalid” and ruled that Parliament needed to change Canada’s marijuana law, which they haven’t to date. On Monday, when faced with the possibility of having to approve Turmel’s motion to quash possession charges based on the idea that the law has been dead since 2000 the Crown buckled. “They called and told me they wanted to give me a stay of proceedings,” explained Turmel. “That leaves me under their clutches for a year so I came here to object. They came back with an offer that if I elected to be tried at a lower level [Cour du Québec], they would not show evidence and I would be acquitted,” he continued. The acquittal means that Turmel will not be facing a judge and jury or the one-year mandatory minimum sentence. He’s also safe from future charges, as double jeopardy applies. He’s hopeful, though, that all this legal running around will be unnecessary in the near future. “We’ll be done with this sometime next year,” Turmel predicted. “Bye bye Harper, bring the kid in.” 1 Ray Medical marijuana user Ray Turmel with some of his crop. He’s thinking of suing to recover the value of his seized pot plants. (Gazette photo) Ray said his brother John provides what Ray calls ‘the best legal advice that money can’t buy.’ He’s still working with other medical marijuana users to get their grow permits back and to get Canada on the same track as a growing number of U.S. states who have legalized, decriminalized and even commercialized pot. What gets him in his brother’s case is that the number of plants that constituted the charge. “They counted the clones [the small ones]” he said. “Nobody can deal with 200 big plants- maybe 20-40 plants. I want people to understand when they see big numbers like that.” Both Turmels count the acquittal as a big win for the community and take it as evidence that the legal system is just not prepared to deal with the nightmare of documentation brought on them by medical marijuana users willing to self-defend. “[My kits] have been used successfully by people who are willing to do it for themselves. There are people being charged with growing and being dragged through the courts and terrorized by big lawyers’ bills and that’s the sad part of it all,” commented John. “This is something that is probably going to be legal soon anyway. It’s embarrassing but they’re still crucifying people all over the country, still abusing this law- they can get you if they want, or not- and that’s too much power.” Medical groups withdraw support Three medical groups representing a total of 80,000 Canadian doctors, have backed off a $5 million Health Canada anti-drug campaign targeted at young people tempted by marijuana and recreational use of prescription drugs. ““We did not and do not, support or endorse any political messaging or political advertising on this issue,” said the College of Family Physicians of Canada, the Canadian Medical Association and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in a joint statement. Health Canada defended the campaign, saying that it is in no way politically motivated. They cited evidence that that marijuana use is the most widely used illegal drug by Canadian youth. “The prevalence and health risks of marijuana and prescription drug use and abuse make them compelling public health issues in Canada,” the organization said. This comes after Liberal party leader Justin Trudeau criticized the Harper government for using taxpayer dollars to attack the party for their views on marijuana decriminalization. “We know that Canadian taxpayers are getting extremely frustrated with the fact this government tends to use public money for ads that do more for its partisan aims than for actual public service,” Trudeau said. http://www.gazettevaudreuilsoulanges.com/2014/08/20/crown-acquits-medical-marijuana-grower/
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