Dear Editor:
Re: 'Medical' pot smoker wins dispute with bar
As a Federal Medical Marijuana Licence Holder who's also married to one, I find it deeply disturbing to still see quotation marks on the word, medical, when talking about marijuana. The medical efficacy of cannabis is long-known, well-documented and easily found online.
Admittedly, the general public is still in the dark about the issues that face medical marijuana users, but when reporters or news editors put quotes on the word or phrase, it casts unnecessary doubts on something that's already proven valid. It suggests that, maybe, these medical pot smokers are still “getting away with something naughty,” rather than trying to improve their health, which is the reality.
Also, I feel bad for both Gibson and Gator Ted, but what they should have done was got together and complained against the Ontario Liquor Board. They still could, in fact. It’s Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario regulations that failed to accommodate licenced medical users, thus forcing Gator Ted to do the only thing he could do.
The Ontario Liquor Licence Act states: "The licence holder shall not permit a person to hold, offer for sale, sell, distribute or consume a controlled substance as defined in the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (Canada) on the premises or in the adjacent washrooms, liquor and food preparation areas and storage areas under the exclusive control of the licence holder.”
If you want to get technical about it, licenced medical pot users are forbidden from entering any place with a liquor licence because they are, by their licence holding, either holding some pot, or they are “on” pot at any given time. The Act has not been amended to accommodate us, and can't be until Ottawa enacts the Medical Marijuana Access Regulations into actual law.
Confused? Try living with it.