Canada: edibles regulations to be challenged in court

Lawyer John Conroy, known in Canada for suing the Canadian state in 2016 and ease of access medical cannabis, announced that it will challenge federal government regulations on cannabis-infused products, extracts, and topicals which will be legalized next October.

According to Mr. Conroy, the 10 mg THC limit for edibles is far too low for people who consume cannabis for medical purposes and do not have access to products other than those on the recreational market.

Canadian regulations have provided different supply chains for medical and recreational products. The products are the same and sold at the same price, but currently more readily available for medical use, for example, through pharmacies or with inter-provincial shipping. Regarding the edibles, Health Canada, however, deemed that they were intended for adult use only.

Cannabis-infused products, however, are among the most effective delivery method to relieve the pain of medical patients.

So, while the edibles will be sold for recreational purposes, the medical system will not provide any equivalent or higher-dose version. John Conroy will challenge this ban by invoking Article 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which states that «Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person» and therefore that patients undergoing treatment with medicinal cannabis cannot be arbitrarily deprived of their right to security.

John Conroy has already appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada in 2015 to defend the right to prepare space cakes For a compassion club, under medical consumer law, to access cannabis. The Court ruled that 'by forcing a person to choose between a legal but inadequate treatment and an illegal but more effective treatment, the law has also infringed upon the person’s safety.»