Ruling opens the door to legalize marijuana in Canada

Pot lovers are dreaming of July 10, the day Canada’s dope laws go up in smoke.

An Ontario judge has struck down key aspects of Canada’s marijuana laws, triggering a 90-day countdown when growing, possessing or smoking pot will become legal.

The April 11 court ruling gives the federal government three months to either reform the laws or appeal the ruling to a higher court.

At issue is a 2001 law that allows seriously ill Canadians to access marijuana for medicinal purposes. But Justice Donald Taliano found that the vast majority of doctors refuse to prescribe the drug. Patients are therefore forced to break the law, either by growing their own or buying it on the black market.

“Seriously ill persons who need marihuana to treat their symptoms are forced to choose between their health and their liberty,” Taliano, of the Ontario Superior Court, wrote in his ruling.

“If they choose their health, they must go to significant lengths to obtain the marihuana they need, including lengthy trips to purchase the drug, resort to the black market and living with the constant stress that at any time they could be subject to criminal prosecution,” the judge added.

These barriers to legal access, Taliano ruled, violate the constitutional right of seriously ill people to use marijuana if it helps relieve their symptoms. He therefore struck down the 2001 Marihuana Medical Access Regulations.

He also struck down sections of another law that prohibit the possession or growing of marijuana, since they could be used to prosecute patients forced to break the law to relieve their symptoms. The result is that anyone — whether seriously ill or not — will be free to smoke and grow pot in 90 days, which is the amount of time Taliano gave the government to fix the laws.

The landmark ruling resulted from an action brought by Matthew Mernagh, 37, who lives in the southern Ontario town of St. Catharines. He suffers from fibromyalgia, scoliosis, seizures and depression.