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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Canada: Charter Allows Use Of Pot, Civil Suit Says
ccguide Sunday 26 May 2002 Pubdate: Fri, 24 May 2002 Source: Globe and Mail (Canada) Page: A8 Copyright: 2002, The Globe and Mail Company Contact: Website: http://www.globeandmail.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168 Author: Vernon Clement Jones Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada) CHARTER ALLOWS USE OF POT, CIVIL SUIT SAYS A group of medical-marijuana users is preparing to take the federal government to court, charging that marijuana regulations deprive them of the drug and their constitutional rights. At a Queen's Park news conference yesterday, the eight applicants said the civil suit is to be filed in federal court on Tuesday. The suit argues that the federal government's marijuana regulations are fundamentally unconstitutional, depriving the applicants of "life and liberty," guaranteed under Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Regulations make it nearly impossible for the seriously ill to obtain medical marijuana through legal means, the applicants charge. But the court action could be cancelled if Health Canada agrees to release the estimated 150 kilograms of marijuana it has cultivated in an underground laboratory in Manitoba. The group's lawyer, Osgoode Hall Prof. Alan Young, said the crop should go to the approximately 1,000 chronically ill Canadians eligible to use the drug legally. "There are 200 kilograms of medical marijuana sitting in storage," Prof. Young said. "Most of that will probably be incinerated." That's a shame, he added, given the marijuana's relative purity and, hence, its potency. But the federal government did not intend the crop to be distributed, said Health Canada spokesman Andrew Swift. It is earmarked for research in clinical studies in Montreal and Toronto, he said. The eight applicants also call for Canada to change its new marijuana medical-access regulations to ensure more seriously ill people are exempted from prosecution for using the drug. Three of the eight are without that exemption, although as many as seven suffer from chronic diseases such as multiple sclerosis and hepatitis C. The regulations, introduced last July, allow only doctors to extend that immunity, and only when a patient is sufficiently ill to warrant use of the drug. Prof. Young said the regulations are "a hoax" perpetrated on the seriously ill, most of whom use marijuana as a painkiller. As well, the drug is used by many AIDS patients to restore appetite. "Before marijuana, my condition meant constant nausea and partial paralysis," applicant Catherine Devries said. Ms. Devries said the nerve-degenerative disease arachnoiditis keeps her virtually confined to her Western Ontario home. Smoking marijuana has restored her appetite and increased her mobility, she said. But insurance companies and some provincial medical associations direct doctors not to provide patients such as Ms. Devries with exemptions, Prof. Young said, because of concerns with liability issues and inconsistencies in dos- ages. Health Canada shares the medical associations' concerns, Mr. Swift said. Marijuana's medicinal properties remain largely anecdotal, he added. "Marijuana is not an approved medical product, as yet. The research being conducted in Canada now will provide more science-based evidence." - --- MAP posted-by: Beth
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