Canada’s highest court made a laudable legal decision last week, ruling unanimously that all forms of cannabis are legal for medical purposes. The decision brings edibles, concentrates, topical lotions and other forms under the legal medical marijuana umbrella.
The court ruled that patients should not be restricted to smoking marijuana for treatment, and wrote that “inhaling marihuana [sic] can present health risks and… is less effective for some conditions than administration of cannabis derivatives.” Forcing medical marijuana patients to smoke the plant when other forms of ingestion are possible, the court noted, “unjustifiably violates the guarantee of life, liberty and security of the person.”
The legal battle for non-smokable forms of marijuana began six years ago, when Owen Smith was caught with more than 200 weed cookies he had baked for the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club. In an interview with CBC News, Smith said that the Canadian government, which has opposed the normalization of marijuana, “really did lose quite poorly … because they had no evidence to support their claims.”
The decision, of course, is big news for Canadian cannabis companies. “Another market the size of California just opened up for our products,” said David Posner, CEO of Nutritional High.
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Photo Credit: Laurel L. Russwurm
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