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Medical marijuana patients in Canada won a major victory today, as a Federal Court judge ruled they’re once again legally allowed to grow their own medicine.
Judge Michael Phelan’s ruling on Wednesday struck down the federal regulations introduced by Stephen Harper’s former Conservative government that restricted medical marijuana patients from growing their own cannabis. Phelan found the regulations failed to improve public safety, according to CBC Vancouver reporter Jason Proctor.
You can read the full decision here.
The federal government now has six months to come up with new rules. Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has promised to regulate and legalize recreational marijuana, though that promise has yet to materialize.
Previous regulations introduced in 2013 required patients to buy their cannabis from licensed producers. Letting patients grow their own medical marijuana is a cheaper, more humane option, according to some, than being forced to buy it from government or corporate sources.
In a related development, last week HRM Regional Council voted for a staff report to investigate the impact of the smell of medical marijuana facilities. The request was born out of complaints made by Timberlea-Beechville-Clayton Park residents to area councillor Reg Rankin.
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This article appears in Feb 18-24, 2016.
Yet another “fuck you” to Harper trying to make his corporate buddies rich on the backs of sick Canadians.
It’s sad that we have to employ the smokescreen that is medical marijuana in order to rescind its prohibition.
I don’t question the viability of pot as a medicine but let’s be honest folks, we got it wrong. We blindly followed the US and jumped aboard the Reefer Madness truck. We got it wrong (as did the US but we’ll politely let them come to that conclusion on their own).
But we’re grown up now; and we can create public policy as good as the best of them. So let’s do that. No more studies or consultations; there’s an excellent model in the Netherlands which has been in force for over 20 years.
Combine their control methods and our pot farm supplies that will serve the patient and the pothead alike.
Look, all I want to do us be able to smoke a goddamn joint without having to worry about being charged with a felony…