The legal team fighting Manitoba’s ban on growing cannabis at home had their day in court Monday, May 2.

TobaGrown founder Jesse Lavoie, who has been leading the charge against the provincial ban, says he’s excited to see the case move forward and looks forward to the judge’s ruling.

“I’m extremely proud of how strong we’ve built our case with the mountains of evidence we have backing up our arguments, and now I feel we have one of the most qualified cannabis lawyers arguing our case for us,” Lavoie told StratCann late last year.

“Lookout, we’re coming for our four,” says Lavoie. 

Although federal regulations allow up to four cannabis plants to be grown in the home for non-medical use, provinces and territories are allowed to limit that number. The only two provinces to have limited that number are Quebec and Manitoba, which both placed an outright ban on cannabis home-grows. The federal government has in the past said while provinces can limit the total number of grows, they do not believe this allows provinces to limit that number to zero.

Jack Lloyd, one of the lawyers arguing the case for TobaGrown says the case is more about the intersection of provincial and federal law than simply homegrown cannabis.

This is an important issue that bears weight on a host of issues far beyond cannabis,” says Lloyd. “To allow provinces to issue blanket prohibitions on federally lawful activities will create a host of problems not just for Manitobans but also for all Canadians.”

Lloyd is also assisting with a similar case in Quebec that could be ruled on later this year as well.