Compassion clubs and other medical marijuana distributors should have restrictions on them lifted, a B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled yesterday.
To the delight of a packed courtroom in Vancouver, Justice Marvyn Koenigsberg said federal regulations that limit people's access to medicinal cannabis are "constitutionally invalid" and gave the government a year to amend the rules.
The current rules under the federal medical marijuana program limit a supplier from providing marijuana to more than one patient and restrict growers from sharing a common space.
Koenigsberg made the ruling during the trial of Vancouver Island resident Mathew Beren.
In 2004, RCMP raided a grow-op Beren ran in Sooke and charged him with trafficking.
Koenigsberg found Beren guilty on two drug-related charges Monday but granted him an absolute discharge because he grew marijuana exclusively for the Vancouver Island Compassion Society.
The discharge means Beren may continue to grow marijuana for the VICS, a non-profit that distributes marijuana to 850 patients.
"In my view, it would be contrary to public interest for Mr. Beren to have a criminal record," Koenigsberg told the courtroom. "If ever there was a case where an absolute discharge is appropriate, it's this one."
Outside the courthouse, Beren told media he was overjoyed by the decision.
"We're talking 14 years to life for what? For helping people?" he said. "I want to make sure people that need medical marijuana can get it without the dangers of the street. It's an awesome day."
Matt Kieltyka reports for Vancouver's 24 hours.
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Bailey
3 years ago
Lies are a liar's truest truths
This obsession with marijuana has been one of the most interesting indications of the nature of the relationship between government and organized crime I know of.
From time to time I have reviewed the history of this set of laws. It begins with a campaign against liquor by the WCTU in the late 1800s. Drugs were added later, and marijuana later still, almost an afterthought.
Even then, it was quite clear that the evidence against it was being deliberately falsified, less clear why. I think it only stood because nobody much cared, and a congressman lied to congress about the position of the Surgeon General, who actually thought it harmless and couldn't see what all the fuss was about.
Since then, the elaborate and Machiavellian machinations by the authorities in trying to maintain the fictional reasons for this prohibition have been the absolute best way to map the corruption of government by organized crime and law enforcement, which gains huge budgets to enforce this unjust prohibition against the will of a clear majority and a growing body of conclusive evidence for the medicinal and therapeutic value of the ancient herb.
There was actually quite a war between J. Edgar Hoover and H. Anslinger over jurisdiction, which resulted in big new bureaucratic empires being created in Washington, the DEA and Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms being the main ones.
As well, by far most of the people in American prisons, the highest per capita proportion of any nation on Earth, are there because they self medicate, and prisons are very profitable enterprises.
I expect, on the record, that this ruling will result in a fresh spate of lies and fear mongering around the issue, and I predict that the details of the kerfuffle will be a great way to tell who exactly is in who's pocket.
Watch for it, it's always very informative.