Canadian medical pot monopoly overturned

Published: Oct. 28, 2008 at 7:39 AM

TORONTO, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- A Canadian federal appeals court has overturned the government's monopoly of saying where medical marijuana users can buy their legal supply.

A three-judge panel in Toronto took just half a day to strike down the government's policy of one marijuana grower per legal user, Sun Media reported.

The judges said they weren't persuaded by government arguments that growers supplying more than one patient would lead to an unregulated industry, the Canwest News Service reported.

Authorized users who can't grow their own marijuana previously had to designate a grower, or obtain government-issued marijuana supplied by Prairie Plant Systems in Manitoba, who grows the plants in an abandoned mine.

There are about 2,000 people in Canada who are allowed to smoke, brew and eat marijuana to alleviate pain from various diseases. Government statistics show 20 percent buy it from the Manitoba supplier, the report said.

Alison Myrden, a former corrections officer who legally smokes, said the Manitoba marijuana is substandard.

"It's absolutely disgusting, it's sticks and seeds and stems, I can't believe they'd make us smoke that as medicine," she told the Sun.

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Order reprints



Additional News Stories
Shooting victim refusing to press charges (2 min)
Kurt Warner earns NFC Player honor (5 min)
'Stripper-mobile' rounds Las Vegas Strip (6 min)
'Made in China' becomes less likely (10 min)
IBM power adapters recalled (17 min)
BPA may increase male sexual dysfunction (18 min)
Study shows seizure drug curbs cocaine use (29 min)
fark
The coolest photo of Devils Tower you've seen since your routine training flight went missing in...
Find yourself recently single and with no clue how to proceed? You are in luck. Come on out to the...
Remember when New London took those homes and the Supreme Court said it was OK because they had...
The deep-sea crab that eats trees....who knew you can grow trees at the bottom of the ocean
Photoshop these masks
New Jersey judge allows quadriplegic man to buy guns. "He plans to mount the gun on his wheelchair...