A Manitoba judge has rejected a claim that the province's ban on homegrown non-medical cannabis is unconstitutional.
The case dates back to 2018 when the federal government decriminalized cannabis possession and allowed people to grow up to four plants at home for recreational use.
The Manitoba government enacted a law to ban homegrown recreational cannabis, saying the ban is an important part of the province's approach to regulating and controlling access.
Local pharmacist and Cannabis podcaster Trevor Shewfelt was disappointed with the decision by Court of King's Bench Justice Shauna McCarthy.
"Part of the federal law is that you can grow up to four plants in your house, and why is it fair that if I move to Yorkton I can (grow four plants) but I can not in Dauphin. I also do not see the harm. One argument that comes up all of the time is what if there are little kids in the house that go over to the plant and they start eating the leaves. Won't it hurt them and won't they get high? And the answer to that is no. If you just eat the leaves off a cannabis plant, you are not getting high."
Shewfelt says you have to de-carboxylate - or heat up - the leaves in order to get high from cannabis.
He adds though that all hope is not lost among those fighting the provincial legislation.
"Jesse Lavoie and his TobaGrown group are planning on taking this to the Supreme Court of Canada if necessary. But faster is our new premier-designate Wab Kinew. He could just end this and say that they are tired of fighting Jesse, so let's allow Manitobans to be like everyone else in the country, and just end it."
"Back in 2019, he even had a Facebook post saying that he was in favour of people being allowed to grow Cannabis in their own house."
Shewfelt is joined by Jesse Lavoie on episode 67 of their podcast, which can be found online at ReeferMed.ca.
