(Reuters) – The Canadian Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that Quebec’s provincial ban on cannabis grown in private homes is constitutional, in a blow to cannabis advocates who said it was at odds with a federal law allowing a small number of plants to be grown for personal use.
The country’s top court sided with the Quebecois provincial government, who banned cannabis plants grown at home after Canada legalized weed federally in 2018.
The ban was first challenged by Janick Murray-Hall in 2019. He won in Quebec’s Supreme Court, but that ruling was overturned by the province’s court of appeals, bringing it to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Other provinces, including British Columbia and Ontario, have intervened in the case to support Quebec, given that the issue could impact whether provincial or federal legislation is given precedent in the eyes of the court.
(Reporting by Moira Warburton in Washington; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
