Good news and bad news for marijuana users in Canada today. The Ontario Court of Appeal has strengthened the rights of medical marijuana patients and growers, while reinstituting a ban on recreational use of small amounts of the drug.

As to medical marijuana, the Court struck down provisions of the existing law that:

...restricted licensed growers of medical marijuana from receiving compensation for their product, from growing the drug for more than one qualified patient and from pooling resources with other licensed producers.

The ruling agreed with a lower court ruling in January that found the regulations were unfair because they forced those who qualified under the program to either grow their own pot or buy it on the black market.

"Many of these individuals are not only seriously ill, they are also significantly physically handicapped and therefore cannot possibly grow their own marijuana," the synopsis said. "A scheme that authorizes possession of marijuana by seriously ill individuals but which drives some of them to the black market ... undermines the rule of law and fails to create a constitutionally valid medical exemption to the criminal prohibition against marijuana."

As to recreational users, tough luck. The ruling:

...reinstates the pot-possession laws that were effectively suspended in Ontario late last year. "This narrow remedy would create a constitutionally valid medical exemption, making marijuana prohibition ... immediately constitutionally valid and of full force and effect and removing any uncertainty concerning the validity of the prohibition," said a synopsis of the ruling issued by the court.

Drug War Rant has some analysis of the ruling. Here's some more news.