When Owen Smith, an employee of a medicinal marijuana retailer, was arrested in Victoria British Columbia in 2009 for having more than 200 marijuana-laced cookies in his apartment, he probably wouldn’t have thought that day would lead to the legalization throughout Canada of marijuana edibles, concentrates, topical lotions and other forms of cannabis that go beyond its dried form. Today the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that those forms of the plant were legal to sell and use in Canada medicinally.
In a unanimous decision, the court said medical marijuana patients should not be limited to smoking the plant, writing that “inhaling marihuana can present health risks and that it is less effective for some conditions than administration of cannabis derivatives,” To limit the form the medicine can take they said, "unjustifiably violates the guarantee of life, liberty and security of the person.”
Marijuana business owners are as happy as marijuana users about the decision. “This is monumental,” said David Posner, CEO of Nutritional High a Canadian company that has been testing marijuana-infused candy and drinks for sale in the United States later this year, “Another market the size of California just opened up for our products.”
Credit: MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images
