Master Grower Ryan Douglas waters marijuana plants in a growing room at Tweed Marijuana Inc in Smith's Falls, Ontario, in this file photo from February 20, 2014. U.S. investors in Canada's medical marijuana industry are betting they won't fall under the scrutiny of U.S. law enforcement officers - but it's a risky bet. Picture taken February 20, 2014. To match Exclusive CANADA-MARIJUANA/INVESTORS REUTERS/Blair Gable/Files (CANADA - Tags: HEALTH DRUGS SOCIETY BUSINESS AGRICULTURE)

The Conservative government’s effort to rein in the shambolic medicinal marijuana market is facing potential derailment as two high-level court cases seek to reduce Ottawa’s ability to regulate who produces cannabis and in what form.

A Federal Court hearing is underway in Vancouver on a constitutional challenge to the Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR), that were supposed to be fully in place last April 1.

Instead, a group of medical marijuana users is opposing the rules, which would force them to give up growing their own pot and instead permit them only to buy from large-scale federally licensed commercial growers.

They argue they’ll be forced to pay more and have less choice in strains of cannabis. They’ll also be limited to possessing no more than 150 grams of pot, compared with the old rules that allowed a 30-day supply.

The regulations set out in 2013 replace rules laid out more than a decade ago that gave medical marijuana users the right to grow a limited number of plants or buy from people who they designate will grow it for them.

A few days before the April 1 changeover, a Federal Court judge granted a temporary injunction allowing Canadians with medical marijuana permits to keep their current arrangements until a decision from this hearing comes down in late summer or fall.

Meanwhile, pot advocates are gearing up for a Supreme Court of Canada hearing next month in a related case involving the MMPR’s limitation of possession of medical marijuana to dried cannabis only. Plaintiff Owen Smith, also from B.C., argues that unduly restricts those who get better results with products made from cannabis extracts such as oil.

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Lawyer John Conroy, who represents the plaintiffs in the Federal Court case, told Yahoo Canada News he suggested postponing this hearing until the Supreme Court had ruled in the Smith case but said the government rejected the idea.

As the hearing opened Monday, Conroy told Federal Court Judge Michael Phelan the MMPR violates Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms protecting life, liberty and security of the person. The onus is on the government to show the new rules constitute a reasonable limitation of those rights under Section 1 of the Charter, he said.

“The government bears the burden in justifying any intrusions on a person’s liberty and security of the person,” he said.

New rules force pot growers to choose between health and jail

Conroy said medical marijuana users who can’t afford commercially available marijuana or find it isn’t as effective will be forced to choose between their health and the risk of going to jail if they continue to grow pot illegally.

Justice Department lawyer Jan Brongers said the government will show changes to the rules were necessary to address “exponential growth” in demand.

The original rules were designed for a relatively small number of users, he said. Statistics show the number of licensed growers had mushroomed from about 9,100 in 2011 to some 37,000 in January of last year.

The difficulty in monitoring so many grow-ops, whether in private homes, outdoor plots or industrial spaces, sounded alarm bells among police, fire, health and safety authorities, the government outlined in its statement of defence.

Police suspected, often with reason, some growers were exceeding their licensed quota and selling the surplus on the street. Brongers said the presence of grow-ops also raised the spectre of home invasions to steal the drugs, not to mention the risk of toxic mould, noxious fumes and electrical hazards.

There is no constitutional right to access unlimited amounts of pot from any source, he said.

There’s wide agreement on the need for some form of regulation, said Brongers. The government will call witnesses to show Canada’s approach is in line with other countries that permit medical marijuana use, including the United States, Israel and the Netherlands.

Shawn Davey, the first plaintiff to testify, embodies all the concerns medical cannabis users have about the new rules.

He was seriously hurt in a 2000 motor-vehicle accident that put him in a coma. He survived but suffers from numbness on one side of his body, poor balance, memory problems and constant pain.

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