B.C. court ruling makes the case for edible forms of medicinal marijuana

In what could be the first step toward a wider world of medicinal marijuana products, a British Columbia court has declared it unconstitutional to ban pot brownies and other forms of edibles.

The B.C. Appeal Court announced on Thursday that federal health laws that currently allow only dried marijuana to be used as pain relief medicine should be expanded to allow access to oils, teas and other edible forms.

Many in the medicinal marijuana industry have long held the belief that patients should have access to various forms of marijuana products, which would allow more personalization to their prescriptions.

It is not clear whether this will a step toward the nationwide approval of medicinal marijuana in alternative forms, but there appears to be a desire for it. Advocates have estimated that more than half of those currently using marijuana as a legal treatment would prefer to use methods other than smoking.

The Canadian Press reports that the B.C. court ruled in a 2-1 decision that limiting medicinal marijuana access infringed on charter rights. The case stems from the 2009 trial of a marijuana activist, and baker for the Cannabis Buyers' Club of Canada, who was charged with possessing and trafficking THC - the active compound in marijuana.

Owen Smith argued that those who take medicinal marijuana as a prescription should be able to choose what mode of ingestion works best for them.

"How many people out there really think that a critically and chronically ill member of their family shouldn't be entitled to eat a medical marijuana cookie if that relieves their pain?" his lawyer, Kirk Tousaw told the Canadian Press.

"We're talking about the right of patients to find some relief from their very serious symptoms and conditions. It's about time our government stop wasting our money trying to prevent people from doing that."

The issue of edible marijuana options has been top of mind in Canada recently. Several cases of seemingly-hopeless cases being helped by marijuana oils have been recently reported, including an eight-year-old Alberta girl who treats her seizures with the substance. In such cases, smoking dried marijuana may add an additional hurdle.

A six-year-old Ottawa boy who suffers from Dravet syndrome also finds solace in cannabis oil treatment, though the National Post reports that Health Canada's Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations requires that his parents obtain dried marijuana and go through the extensive process of making it into oil.

Quebec's Sherbrooke University Hospital Centre also recently changed its official policy to allow the use of medicinal marijuana in hospital facilities, though anti-smoking policies currently limit that use to vaporizors. Access to oils and other edible forms of marijuana would improve that access.

Canada's medicinal marijuana laws underwent a significant revision earlier this year when the federal government stopped those with marijuana prescriptions from growing pot themselves, or finding someone else to do it, and began licencing it out to large companies.

Those companies do not currently offer alternative forms of marijuana, because they are not currently legal in Canada. Though several companies do appear poised to join that market should it be allowed.

Bill Chaaban, the head of a company that has reportedly applied for, but not received, a Canadian dispensary licence previously told Yahoo Canada News that he expects that licenced marijuana producers would be very interested in expanding the industry into other services.

"There is a need to lobby Health Canada to allow different mechanisms of delivery of the finished product. Ways other than smoking," he said.

The B.C. Appeal Court agreed with an earlier ruling by the B.C. Supreme Court that legislation should be amended to remove requirement of "dried" marijuana.

The only hiccup is that the ruling responds to Canada's previous medicinal marijuana system, not the one brought to bear earlier this year. Parliament will now how one year to decide how, or whether, to amend their regulations.