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These limits are arbitrary, the court found, and actually work counter to the stated purpose of protecting health and safety.

The government’s response? Health Minister Rona Ambrose said she was “outraged by the Supreme Court and the court ruling 10 years ago which now means that we have again this message that normalizes a drug where there is no clear clinical evidence that it is quote-unquote a medicine.”

Why is it not “quote-unquote a medicine”? Because Health Canada has not made it one.

Ambrose acts as if there are only two choices: either a substance is “an approved medicine by Health Canada”, or you should go to jail for possessing it.

The government simply doesn’t want anybody – not even people trying to deal with the brutal effects of cancer or AIDS – using any sort of cannabis and never has, and will therefore fight to the death over irrational distinctions just to make its point and remind Canadians, as Ambrose carefully did, that “the larger issue here is that come October 19, during our election, we are going to have a choice.” It’s all about ideology and politics – compassion be damned.

Ambrose’s argument flies in the face of the facts that have been presented in these court cases. Indeed, the Supreme Court noted that “even the Health Canada materials filed by the Crown’s expert witness indicated that oral ingestion of cannabis may be appropriate or beneficial for certain conditions.”

Yes, the government is allowed to regulate potentially harmful substances. It can’t, though, use that power as a cover to prop up its own irrational prejudices, to the detriment of sick people.