Right from the courtroom to the people, attorney Kirk Tousaw talks with CinC’s Jason Wilcox about the trial as it makes its way through its first week. Mr. Tousaw is a Duncan, B.C.-based lawyer who represents several medical cannabis dispensaries. He regularly litigates Charter issues arising out of the government’s flawed medical cannabis system. He volunteers as one of the board of directors with the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and the Sensible B.C. Society. He has been working intimately and tirelessly with John Conroy, QC, on this case.
Mr. Tousaw spoke of expert testimony on indoor growing, using a bloom box, and constructing a medicinal garden in one’s home. All of this testimony is counter to the Crown’s flawed and false contention that home growing is unsafe to the public and the environment. As Mr. Tousaw summarizes: gardens can exist, “safely, effectively, and efficiently with no discharges into the surrounding environment,” and notes that the Crown failed to challenge those conclusions.
The esteemed lawyer also spoke of Dr. David Pate, a botanist, chemist, and pharmacologist, who also testified on this day. Dr. Pate’s testimony effectively outlined the extraction processes for cannabanoids, the effective use of non-dried forms of marijuana (such as oils, concentrates, and extracts).
Mr. Tousaw spoke lastly of the upcoming medical marijuana case beginning March 20th in Supreme Court of Canada, the fist such case to reach Canada’s highest court. A formidable group of community associations stand with those who oppose government prohibition of medicine in this case, and Tousaw is confident the courts will side with the people, and return medicine to them.