cannabisnews.com: Battle Continues on Cannabis Battle Continues on Cannabis Posted by CN Staff on January 08, 2004 at 22:42:02 PT By Sheila Potter Source: Victoria News Philippe Lucas of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society hopes 2004 bodes better for medicinal marijuana users than the past 12 months. Just as Lucas was making a list of the top five most grievous events for medicinal cannabis users in 2003, a Supreme Court challenge arguing that criminalizing pot is unconstitutional failed at the end of December. Lucas, the longtime Victoria advocate for medical cannabis, is getting a bit jaded about what he calls the “dysfunctional medical marijuana program” and says he wasn’t surprised with the latest decision. “There were quite a few setbacks this year,” he says. Topping his worst-five list was Health Canada’s continuing failure to distribute medicinal cannabis despite an Ontario court order to do so. In contrast, the recent Supreme Court decision did not deal directly with medicinal marijuana use, challenging instead the laws against recreational use. Had it succeeded, says Lucas, the hassle of getting medicinal marijuana — which remains legal to use but not buy — would have been solved. The decade-long case involved three B.C. men who were convicted of possessing pot and had appealed their cases all the way to the Supreme Court. With help from the B.C. Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA), they argued that jailing someone for a harmless activity violates the Charter of Rights. Six of the nine judges didn’t buy that Canadians have a constitutional right to smoke pot. In the ruling, the judges acknowledged that risks of marijuana use were small for casual users but large enough for chronic users (estimated to be 50,000 in Canada), schizophrenics and pregnant women. The BCCLA was quick to note that the judges didn’t say criminalizing pot was a good idea, just that it was the government’s prerogative to make it illegal. “The court felt that our constitution does not require parliament to prove that an activity causes harm before it prohibits that conduct,” says BCCLA policy director Kirk Tousaw. Lucas agrees: “Basically what the Supreme Court decided is that the state has the right to criminalize anything that it wants to. It’s too bad, I mean they could decide to criminalize growing roses because people are stinging themselves on the thorns.” For this year, Lucas is focusing his own efforts to loosen Canada’s laws on marijuana possession in the field of research. Ironically, given that pregnant women were cited as a group of concern in the court decision, one of Lucas’s projects is looking into the effects of marijuana on extreme morning sickness. The Vancouver Island Compassion Society is working with researchers from UVic and UBC to find relief for pregnant women whose nausea is so extreme that the fetus can be damaged from the violence of vomiting. “In some cases, something like cannabis that can help with the nausea and vomiting might be a better alternative than some of the pharmaceutical alternatives that are available,” Lucas says. One encouraging sign with Prime Minister Paul Martin’s shuffling of the cabinet deck, says Lucas, is the change of federal health minister. “I hope that our new health minister (Pierre Pettigrew), is more receptive than his predecessor (Anne McLellan),” he says. Lucas says he hopes that in setting policy on the marijuana issue, Pettigrew — former minister for international cooperation and a onetime committee director for NATO in Brussels — will be influenced by his international experiences. Source: Victoria News (CN BC)Author: Sheila PotterPublished: January 7, 2004Copyright: 2004 Victoria NewsWebsite: http://www.vicnews.com/Contact: vicnews vinewsgroup.comRelated Articles & Web Site:VICShttp://www.thevics.com/First Patients Disappointed in Gov't Marijuana http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17310.shtmlThe Catch-22 of Compassionhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15592.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Post Comment