by Kim Lunman   

Ottawa - Ottawa is making it a green Christmas for 4,000 people -
it plans to stay thousands of charges of pot  possession as a result
of legal battles over medicinal marijuana.

The decision will apply to every person in Canada charged with
possession of marijuana between July 31, 2001, and 
Oct. 7, 2003, Justice Department spokeswoman Pascale 
Boulay said yesterday.

The Justice Department intends to cease prosecutions on the cases
because of an Ontario court ruling in 2000 that found medicinal-
marijuana users had the right to possess less than 30 grams of pot. 
The judge delayed that ruling's effect for one year in the hope the 
federal government would introduce a medicinal-marijuana law.

But the government did not. Instead, the cabinet issued regulations for
access to medicinal marijuana one day before the yearlong grace period
ended 2001.The Ontario ruling created a legal loophole,
effectively invalidating Canada's marijuana possession law 
as unconstitutional because it failed to provide an exemption for medical use.

"We estimate there are about 4,000 pending files," Ms. Boulay said. 
However, she said that criminal charges of marijuana possession will 
still be prosecuted today as a result of the government's announcement 
yesterday that it will not appeal the medicinal-marijuana case to the 
Supreme Court.

"It still constitutes an offence and [anyone caught with marijuana] would 
face charges." The federal government recently introduced legislation to 
decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana. Possession of 
marijuana now carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a fine 
of up to $1,000.

The decision not to proceed with 4,000 possession prosecutions 
follows Health Canada's announcement yesterday that it would not
appeal an Ontario Court of Appeal ruling in October that allows ill 
people to grow their own marijuana supply or to obtain it from 
designated growers. Some police forces had virtually stopped 
enforcing the possessionlaw after the initial ruling threw its 
constitutionality into question.

Last January, a Windsor judge cleared a 16-year-old on the 
grounds the federal pot-possession laws were no longer valid.

Yesterday, Health Minister Anne McLellan said the government would
amend the Marijuana Medical Access Regulations to provide reasonable
access to a legal source of marijuana for medical purposes. "The amendments 
announced today will ensure that Canadians whosuffer from serious medical 
conditions for whom conventional therapies have not been successful will have
 reasonable access to alegal source of marijuana," she said.

But the people at the centre of the court case are upset the government 
will continue to strictly limit local growing operations, forcing patients to 
obtain government pot, which they consider inferior and overpriced.

"I've got mixed feelings about it," said Jari Dvorak, a 62-year-old 
medicinal-marijuana user in Toronto who uses the drug to alleviate 
symptoms of HIV. "They seem to be half-hearted about the program."

Mr. Dvorak is among 697 patients in Canada authorized by the 
government to use medicinal marijuana. He is also among 11 patients
to take Ottawa to court over the program's lack of access.

The lawyer representing the patients in the case, Alan Young, also
had concerns about whether the government would ensure access 
to medicinal marijuana. "All I've seen is crisis public-policy management," 
he said. Under the new rules, it will be acceptable for a patient to pay his 
or her supplier, and the price is left for them to negotiate. But the rules will 
continue to prevent a grower from supplying more than a single patient, 
and to prevent more than three patients from cultivating together.

The new regulation contains some minor changes in the procedure for 
obtaining approval for marijuana access. One class of patients, which had 
previously required signatures from two medical specialists, will now 
require only one signature. Currently there is little scientific evidence that 
pot has therapeutic benefits, but many patients say it helps them deal with 
nausea, pain and lack of appetite.