Smoking marijuana has been known to spawn forgetful potheads, but it was the federal government who lacked short-term memory last Thursday, as a judge ruled their marijuana law ineffective and therefore invalid.
Paving the way for potential decriminalization of the “sweet leaf,” or at least an exemption, Ontario judge Douglas Phillips ruled in favour of a 16-year-old Windsor toker who argued there is no law in Canada governing the use of marijuana for recreational purposes, or the possession of 30 grams or less of the drug. The boy was arrested carrying five grams.
The ruling comes as a result of an earlier case in which it was determined that denying marijuana to chronic pain sufferers who benefit from the drug was unconstitutional. Instead of simply erasing the possession law that was on the books, the judge in that case gave the federal government one year to create a better one to be passed through Parliament. The new federal guidelines were instead handed down through cabinet, and therefore deemed inadequate by Phillips in his ruling. The 16-year-old was arrested a day after the one-year moratorium had lapsed.
“I think it’s also satisfying to know that this particular law has been declared invalid, particularly given how burdensome it is in terms of criminalizing the behaviour that hundreds of thousands of Canadians engage in,” the teen’s lawyer, Brian McAllister, told the CBC.
To celebrate the ruling, marijuana activists in Toronto planned to hold a “smoke-in” at Nathan Phillips Square on Friday, complete with ice skating and a snowman smoking a joint.
Not surprisingly, the federal Justice Department has announced it will appeal the ruling. The feds don’t exactly have a united front on the issue, however. Last year, federal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon raised the possibility of complete decriminalization of marijuana, causing many advocates to entertain the idea of blazing more than just legal trails.
