Public Marijuana Use in Canada Has Guidelines but No Rules

Nearly three years ago, a customer stepped outside his Gator Teds Tap and Grill in Burlington to light up a legal medicinal marijuana joint.

Ted Kindos owner, not sure what the rules were and having asked the regular customer repeatedly to stop confronted him because he didn't want to force customers -- including families and kids -- to walk through a plume of pot smoke to get inside.

He certainly didn't want to jeopardize his liquor licence, which he said could be revoked if drugs are used on the premises.

It might have been better if he'd kept his mouth shut.

There are guidelines but no rules in Canadian law that regulate where medical marijuana users can smoke their legal pot -- a loophole critics say needs to be closed.

The confrontation between Kindos and his customer three years ago may be the catalyst to change national laws, or it could ruin him.

Kindos has already spent nearly $20,000 of his own cash, and estimates he could spend upwards of $150,000 more fighting an Ontario Human Rights Commission complaint launched by Steve Gibson, who is licensed to smoke marijuana by the feds to manage the chronic pain of a neck injury that has kept him out of work since 1989.

"If this thing goes to the tribunal, that's it, we're done. Our restaurant is done," he said. "We've already been told we can't win.

"I had a heart attack at 38. I've already had a quadruple bypass. The business pretty well killed my dad (who died of a heart attack at 48 in 1991) and now, with all this stuff going on, it's killing me ... I'm under so much stress right now."

For the rest of this from the TorontoSun.co go HERE