High Cost of Toking

[Medical Marijuana]

A human rights settlement between a medical marijuana user and the owner of a Burlington sports pub has left behind a cloud of controversy.

Afroze Edwards of the Ontario Human Rights Commission said people who partake of marijuana for medical reasons have a right to reasonable accommodation of their disabilities.

Steve Gibson took a Burlington pub and restaurant owner to the human rights tribunal after he was banned from smoking medical marijuana in front of the establishment. The commission said that he should be treated like any other smoker.

"(The case) does at least give an indication of how the commission would look at any similar complaints that came forward in the future," Edwards said.

TOBACCO LEGISLATION

Most everyone agrees that medical marijuana should not be smoked where tobacco use is prohibited, but beyond that things get fuzzy.

Ontario Health Promotion Minister Margarett Best said the province's tobacco legislation was never intended to act as a guideline for medical marijuana use.

"The Smoke Free Ontario Act deals specifically with tobacco smoking," Best said. "With respect to medical marijuana ... the cases are very isolated ... I don't see people smoking medical marijuana anywhere around generally so I don't believe that's an issue that I would have to address."

Health Canada has authorized 994 Ontarians with debilitating illnesses such as AIDS, cancer and epilepsy to possess marijuana.

According to the agency, medical marijuana users must abide by all other "applicable" federal, provincial and municipal legislation, such as laws restricting smoking in public places.

The agency does not specify where an authorized person can use marijuana, but advises in an information package not to consume controlled substances in a public space and not to expose others to effects related to inhalation of second-hand smoke.

Lawyer Alan Young said that because the Burlington pub dispute never made it to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, but was instead resolved through a settlement, there is no legal precedent to guide people when lighting up.

"You end up with a certain grey area," he said.

For Gater Teds Tap and Grill owner Ted Kindos, that grey area has settled around the front door of his establishment. The restaurant and pub owner was taken to the tribunal after he refused to allow a customer to smoke medical marijuana in front of his establishment.

Kindos said he fully intended to argue his case at the tribunal, but couldn't afford the steep legal costs he would have incurred at the eight-day hearing.

"I was forced into a settlement," Kindos said. "I was forced to cut my losses because I didn't have another $60,000 to fight this."

Kindos said he is unable to discuss the details of the settlement he reached with Gibson this week.

Gibson, licensed to smoke medical marijuana to manage chronic pain stemming from a neck injury that has kept him out of work since 1989, could not be reached for comment.

Kindos said that the human rights commission's position in this case means that all businesses in Ontario will be required to accommodate medical marijuana users as they would regular smokers, including permitting them to light up on restaurant and bar patios where tobacco is allowed.

Conservative Interim Leader Bob Runciman said the commission's finding that medical marijuana and tobacco use are comparable is ridiculous.

"We think the ruling of the human rights commission is mind-boggling -- it's just nuts," Runciman said. "The individual who's been accused is sort of left out there to twist in the wind. I guess we're going to have to amend the Smoke Free Ontario Act to include marijuana toke smokers as well."

Neev, of Cannabis As Living Medicine (C.A.L.M.), who asked to be identified by the single name, said the brochure provided by Health Canada to medical marijuana users also makes recommendations of etiquette and health concerns, such as not smoking in front of children.

"Essentially, you are allowed to smoke wherever tobacco is smoked," he said.

The brochure seems completely unenforceable, so people who use medical marijuana just rely on their own good judgment, Neev said.

Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2008 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: editor@tor.sunpub.com
Website: TorontoSun.com > home