Toke 'n' mirrors

[Patriots Game]

*The bar owner was a team sponsor for my under 35 soccer team. Very popular bar in Burlington and the owner is a great guy. *

Public marijuana use in Canada has guidelines, but no rules

By BRYN WEESE, SUN MEDIA


There's outrage in Ted Kindos' voice.

Nearly three years ago, a customer stepped outside his Gator Teds Tap and Grill in Burlington to light up a legal medicinal marijuana joint.

Kindos, not sure what the rules were and having asked the regular customer repeatedly to stop, confronted him because he didn't want to force customers -- including families and kids -- to walk through a plume of pot smoke to get inside.

He certainly didn't want to jeopardize his liquor licence, which he said could be revoked if drugs are used on the premises.

It might have been better if he'd kept his mouth shut.

There are guidelines but no rules in Canadian law that regulate where medical marijuana users can smoke their legal pot -- a loophole critics say needs to be closed.

ARTHRITIS, CANCER

With an aging Baby Boom generation, Canadians in growing numbers, tens if not hundreds of thousands, will turn to medical marijuana over the next few years to cope with everything from arthritis to cancer.

The confrontation between Kindos and his customer three years ago may be the catalyst to change national laws, or it could ruin him.

Kindos has already spent nearly $20,000 of his own cash, and estimates he could spend upwards of $150,000 more fighting an Ontario Human Rights Commission complaint launched by Steve Gibson, who is licensed to smoke marijuana by the feds to manage the chronic pain of a neck injury that has kept him out of work since 1989.

Fighting the case, which will be heard by the province's Human Rights Tribunal in May, could send Kindos' business into bankruptcy and is playing hell with his health, he said.

"If this thing goes to the tribunal, that's it, we're done. Our restaurant is done," he said. "We've already been told we can't win.

"I had a heart attack at 38. I've already had a quadruple bypass. The business pretty well killed my dad (who died of a heart attack at 48 in 1991) and now, with all this stuff going on, it's killing me ... I'm under so much stress right now."

Opposition critics say Kindos' case exposes the current medical pot policy, the Marihuana (sic) Medical Access Regulations, as flawed and are calling for change.

"I contacted the minister of health and told him these regulations have got a giant loophole in them, I mean you could drive a truck through it, so maybe it's something we ought to deal with," Halton MP Garth Turner told the Sunday Sun.

Turner, whose riding includes Burlington, said restrictions should be placed on where licensed marij uana users can light up.

"It's evident to me the law is very flawed," he said. "They (medicinal marijuana users) should be allowed to do it, but they shouldn't be allowed to infringe on the rights of other people."

Federal NDP drug policy critic Libby Davies said the reluctance of governments, both the previous Liberals and now the Conservatives, to clear up the "botched" legislation that the Liberals brought in 2001 "kicking and screaming" has resulted in problems not just for the public but also for users themselves.

"The law says they (medicinal pot smokers) are allowed to do what they're doing, and yet there are so many barriers that make it almost impossible for them to be able to use medical marijuana," she said from her constituency office in Vancouver's east end.

"In effect, this government has abdicated its responsibility here ... They don't want to touch this (the medical marijuana file)," Davies said. "They think somehow they're going to be tainted by this and it's going to taint their ideology about drugs."

Federal Health Minister Tony Clement declined to comment, but a spokesman for his office did e-mail the Sun stating where licensed pot smokers can light up is provincial jurisdiction.

However, Margarett Best, the province's minister of health promotion, rejected the federal suggestion that it's Ontario's job to police where medical marijuana users can smoke.

The province's smoke-free Ontario legislation deals exclusively with tobacco smoke, Best said.

Not surprisingly since marijuana is a federally controlled substance and that only a federal exemption can allow people to access it, restrictions on the use of marijuana would be "under Health Canada's jurisdiction," she said.

The only explicit guidance merely recommends discretion and comes from a Health Canada form used by applicants for medical marijuana.

"Given the nature of marihuana (sic) and the fact that the provision of marihuana is for your personal treatment needs, Health Canada recommends not consuming this controlled substance in a public place," the application form states.

"Please take note that persons in charge of public or private establishments (e.g., bars and restaurants) can request that you not smoke marihuana on their premises, even if you have authority to possess marihuana for medical purposes. There may also be municipal bylaws that prevent smoking. In addition, others should not be exposed to second-hand marihuana smoke," it states.

The vagueness of Health Canada's guidelines, with words like "recommends" and "should," indicate for some at least it is possible federal laws could be tightened to restrict where the rapidly growing number of medical marijuana smokers in this country can light up.

[HAMILROCK]

Love there wings!!!