Greater Sudbury Police Service arrived in at least half a dozen cruisers at the Sudbury Courthouse about 11 a.m. and apprehended Jamy McKenzie, who lit a marijuana joint during a break in a sentencing hearing on a guilty plea for marijuana production. Photo supplied by Mike Beauchamp

SUDBURY, Ont. — A 27-year-old man with metabolic myopathy, liver failure and cystic fibrosis says police roughed him up Friday outside the courthouse for smoking a joint.

Cruisers arrived at the courthouse at about 11 a.m. Jamy MacKenzie and about 40 other supporters were outside during a break in Dave Sylvestre's sentencing hearing for marijuana production.

McKenzie says he has a licence to consume 35 grams of marijuana a day for medical purposes, but didn't have it with him when a police officer saw him lighting up, so he produced his driver's licence.

McKenzie and several witnesses said police tried to take him away and that one officer threw him against a wall.

Family friend Sue Johnson said police “were all over him and I asked them to let him go so he could spasm.”

Police called paramedics who loaded a shaken McKenzie into an ambulance, but he refused to go to hospital.

Johnson called the confrontation “disgusting."

"It appalls me and I just can't believe it. I really can't. The fact that this man is so sick and it's so obvious.”

Phone calls to police have yet to be returned.

Carol.mulligan@sunmedia.ca

Twitter @Carol_Mulligan