Feds File Appeal Over Struck-Down Pot Laws

An Ontario judge's decision that Canada's medical marijuana framework has failed the sick will face a new round of scrutiny.

This ought to kill some buzzes today: The federal government has launched a leave to appeal a recent Ontario court decision that struck down the laws against the possession and cultivation of marijuana. The Public Prosecution Office of Canada said there were critical flaws in Justice Donald Taliano's ruling that found the country's cumbersome medical marijuana system had forced patients to purchase the drug illegally, essentially turning the ill into criminals. That ruling gave the government three months to respond or face a de facto legalization of marijuana. With the prosecution office filing its rebuttal this week, the fate of the country's pot laws is now in the hands of the Ontario Court of Appeal.