{"id":5047,"date":"2018-04-12T13:43:33","date_gmt":"2018-04-12T17:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/Life-Insurance-Blog\/?guid=ba82d064eafe2469822549dcc40328e7"},"modified":"2018-09-08T13:34:13","modified_gmt":"2018-09-08T17:34:13","slug":"courts-strike-down-human-rights-decision-on-medical-marijuana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2018\/04\/12\/courts-strike-down-human-rights-decision-on-medical-marijuana\/","title":{"rendered":"Courts strike down human rights decision on medical marijuana"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/Life-Insurance-Blog\/education-the-best-defense-against-pots-medical-hazards-says-expert-247498-aspx\/istock-pot-testing-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11777\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-11777\" src=\"http:\/\/lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/Life-Insurance-Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/istock-Pot-testing-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Medical Marijuana not covered as a prescription drugs by Health Canada\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a>HALIFAX \u2014 The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal has struck down a provincial human rights board decision that said an injured man\u2019s prescribed medical marijuana must be covered by his employee insurance plan.<\/p>\n<p>Gordon \u201cWayne\u201d Skinner of Head of Chezzetcook, N.S., who suffers from chronic pain caused by an on-the-job vehicle accident, had argued he faced discrimination when he was denied coverage under the Canadian Elevator Industry Welfare Trust Plan.<\/p>\n<p>Representatives for the plan had argued there was no coverage for prescription drugs not approved by Health Canada.<\/p>\n<p>In February 2017, a human rights board of inquiry agreed with Skinner, saying medical marijuana didn\u2019t fall within the exclusions of the plan because it requires a prescription by law.<\/p>\n<p>However, Nova Scotia\u2019s highest court has rejected that position, saying in a decision released today that the board erred in finding the lack of coverage discriminated against Skinner based on his disability.<\/p>\n<p>The court says the plan did not cover medical marijuana because it was not approved by Health Canada, which the court said was a reasonable limit on benefits.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt could not be automatically discriminatory for the trustees (of the plan) to impose reasonable limits on reimbursable benefits,\u201d the court\u2019s decision said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr. Skinner has access to all the medications available to any other eligible plan member. Mr. Skinner experienced an adverse impact because those medications were not effective for him personally \u2014 not because he fell within a protected group described in the Human Rights Act.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If you believe that medical marijuana should be approved by Health Canada there is an online petition seeking to increase funding for research into cannabis and seizure disorders.<\/p>\n<p>You can check it out here:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbdoilroom.com\/research-petition\/\">http:\/\/www.cbdoilroom.com\/research-petition\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HALIFAX &mdash; The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal has struck down a provincial human rights board decision that said an injured man&rsquo;s prescribed medical marijuana must be covered by his employee insurance plan. Gordon &ldquo;Wayne&rdquo; Skinner of Head of Chezzetcook, N.S., who suffers from chronic pain caused by an on-the-job vehicle accident, had argued he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":578,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5047"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/578"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5047"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11829,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5047\/revisions\/11829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}