In a radio interview this afternoon, Calgary resident and medical cannabis grower Keith Gall said he doesn’t believe his issues with the government are over.
The interview with Gall and Tim Moen, who served as a fire expert for Gall during his Alberta Health Services tribunal, recounted the issues that the multiple sclerosis patient has gone through since obtaining his medical grow license.
Gall, who has used medical cannabis to treat his secondary progressive MS since 2010, had inspectors attempt to shut him down despite a lack of any evidence that his grow was a health risk.
Moen also read a letter from Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi to then Conservative Health Minister Rona Ambrose showing support for the shuttering of medical home grows.
Two weeks ago, the tribunal ruled that there was no health reason for Gall to shut down his operation and the inspection team was not authorized to enter his home.
While Gall hoped that would be the end of his issues, he said lawyers told him during the tribunal that they wouldn’t be dropping their case against him.
“They threatened, right in court, that they would take it to Supreme Court and they wrote an email to the tribunal, and to my lawyer, that said they would do that,” said Gall.
Moen said, even with the number of court cases in favour of cannabis patients and the approaching federal legalization of the plant, he expects challenges to continue against people like Gall.
“These are people that are on the margins, that don’t have any kind of financial means, or the will, to fight a big state with its unending resources,” said Moen. “When the so-called progressive mayor is teaming up with the conservatives to try to shut this down it tells me that there’s an authoritarian streak out there that is worried about this.”