Sections 4 and 5 of the Controlled Drug and Substances Act prohibit possession of non-dried forms of cannabis. This means that medical marijuana users have been allowed to only smoke. Getting the marijuana in pills, oils, tea, or even brownies has been illegal.

I find this curious because smoking is drilled into us as being a very bad thing. Wouldn’t it be better to get the same medical ingredient without smoking? One person I saw interviewed about this has a seven-year-old child who would benefit from medical marijuana, but the parent understandably isn’t comfortable with the child smoking it.

So the court cases started. British Columbia courts ruled that the law went against medical marijuana users’ right to consume it in the form they chose. The Federal Government took it to the Supreme Court of Canada, and lost. According to the CBC, the court ruled unanimously that the current restriction violates the rights of medical marijuana users “in a manner that is arbitrary and hence is not in accord with the principles of fundamental justice.”

The government is not pleased. Health Minister Rona Ambrose said,

Let’s remember, there’s only one authority in Canada that has the authority and the expertise to make a drug into a medicine and that’s Health Canada. Marijuana has never gone through the regulatory approval process at Health Canada, which of course, requires a rigorous safety review and clinical trials with scientific evidence.

I’m still laughing. The idea that the Harper government would consider scientific evidence in making decisions is ridiculous. They make up their minds first, and if science backs their decision, they’ll use it. Otherwise, science is ignored.

Shame on Stephen Harper and his government.