Charges stayed in medical marijuana case
Last Updated: Thursday, December 19, 2002 | 10:06 PM ET
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Ivan Slobod reports for CBC Radio
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- Anna Dirksen reports for CBC TV (Runs: 1:45)
- CBC Newsworld's David Gray speaks with Dr. Dana Hanson about the softening legal stance against marijuana (Runs: 6:06)
- Newsworld's Nancy Wilson talks with Marc-Boris St-Maurice, director of the Compassion Club of Montreal, leader of the Marijuana Party of Canada and one of those arrested for trafficing. (Runs: 4:05)
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He stopped the drug trafficking trial of two men who had distributed pot through an organization known as the Compassion Club.
A "stay of proceedings" was ordered, which lawyers said was tantamount to the charges being dismissed. The decision means the trial will not go ahead.
Marc-Boris Saint-Maurice and Alexandre Neron were charged with possession and trafficking the drug in 2000 after police raided the Compassion Club and found 66 grams of marijuana. Saint-Maurice was the organization's director, and Neron and employee.
Marc-Boris Saint-Maurice
People who favour relaxing the laws on marijuana as well as people in law enforcement watched the case closely.
Quebec court Judge Gilles Cadieux postponed his decision several times before ruling that people who use the drug as medicine need a safe and legal place to acquire it. Otherwise, these Canadians lose basic rights to life and liberty.
Although the judge stopped the trafficking trial, he stopped short of ruling on the constitutionality of marijuana laws.
The Crown didn't said if it will appeal the decision.
"We've been vindicated," Saint-Maurice told CBC Newsworld after the judgment was released.
Montreal's Compassion Club, which was shut down, reopened three weeks ago.
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