cannabisnews.com: Pot Laws Unfair To Sick, Court Told 





Pot Laws Unfair To Sick, Court Told 
Posted by FoM on October 09, 1999 at 08:43:42 PT
Drug's value outweighs harm, critics claim 
Source: Toronto Star
It's unfair for Ottawa to deprive sick and dying Canadians of access to medical marijuana because of fear of long-term harm, Ontario's top court has been told. 
``Do we really tell a terminally ill AIDS patient that he can't use this to alleviate his symptoms because there is a chance he might get bronchitis in 30 years?'' University of Toronto law professor Ed Morgan asked yesterday. Morgan was representing the Epilepsy Association of Toronto, which is intervening in an appeal by Torontonian Terry Parker, one of two men before the Ontario Court of Appeal hoping to reform Canada's marijuana laws. Activist Christopher Clay, 28, wants the drug decriminalized for recreational and other uses while Parker, 42, an epileptic, is fighting for medical consumption. The federal government, in arguing to uphold the 76-year-old criminal law ban on marijuana, pointed this week to studies showing the potential for lung damage from smoking the drug. Justice department lawyer Kevin Wilson added yesterday that mechanisms now exist for chronically ill Canadians to apply to Health Minister Allan Rock for a legal exemption allowing them to use marijuana without being charged. But Richard Macklin, one of Parker's lawyers, said the process is far from solid and the federal government only seems to grant exemptions on the eve of court cases where the marijuana ban is under attack. ``Who reviews the applications? What are the criteria? Do you have to be at death's door? And are these exemptions handed out on court dates only?'' he asked. Macklin argued the exemption process wasn't even up and running in 1996 when police raided Parker's home, charged him and confiscated marijuana plants he was growing for a drug supply to control his seizures. Although a judge stayed charges in 1997, the federal justice department is appealing the decision, arguing Parker can get the same benefits as marijuana by taking a pill such as Marinol, which contains a synthetic form of the psychoactive ingredient THC. Parker's lawyer Aaron Harnett said it isn't THC, but CBD, another substance found only in smoked marijuana, that appears to control seizures. Moreover, no doctor has ever prescribed Marinol for his client, he said. In fact, the only advice given to Parker has been to increase the dosage of his conventional medicine, which carries side effects including liver damage, or to undergo further brain surgery, Harnett added. Parker had frontal lobectomy operations when he was 14 and 16 in a bid to control his seizures, which started to appear after he was struck in the head by a swing at age 4, the court was told. October 9, 1999 By Tracey Tyler Toronto Star Legal Affairs ReporterThe Compassion Clubhttp://www.thecompassionclub.org/Ottawa Asks Ontario Court To Overturn MJ Ruling - 10/08/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3201.shtmlLawyers Argue To Legalize Marijuana - 10/07/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3182.shtml
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