June 11th, 2015 – Today the Supreme Court of Canada released its decision on edibes, saying Canadian medical marijuana patients have a right to pot cookies and other extracted cannabis products. The court said the government’s medical pot program was constitutionally flawed and breached patients’ rights.

The remedy the Supreme Court offered was to strike Sections 4 & 5 of the CSDA so that patients with a medical authorization who are in possession of edibles can now not be charged with possession, possession for the purposes of trafficking or trafficking.

Speaking at the 2015 Marihuana for Medical Purposes Summit in Toronto, B.C. based criminal lawyer active in the medical marijuana space Jennifer Thorne responded to the decision:

“The essence of the decision is that medical patients can now possess extracts and edibles – unfortunately no one can legally produce them”

She further noted: “The Supreme Court chose to respond to the sections of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) that were implicated in the challenge, sections 4 and 5 that relate to possession and trafficking, while ignoring section 7, relating to production. Unfortunately this decision still leaves patients with a medical authorization in a precarious position” she said “as they will be vulnerable to prosecution if they choose to produce their own extracts or edibles”

As The Hemp News previously reported, this Supreme Court challenge came about when Own Smith, the former head baker of the Victoria Cannabis Buyers’ Club Smith was arrested in 2009 and charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking THC after police found pot cookies and other cannabis-infused foodstuffs on his premises.

Since it is unlikely the Conservative government will move to fix the precarious situation created by this decision, patients will now have to hope for relief from a positive decision in the Allard Supreme Court challenge decision later this year.

To read the Supreme Court decision, click here.