Dumb and politically insane
A tentative deal between Marc Emery and the U.S. government over money laundering and drug charges has been nixed by Ottawa, the marijuana crusader said Thursday.Mr. Emery says the federal Conservatives have refused to go along with a proposal that would have seen him spend five years behind bars for selling marijuana seeds through the mail.
Under the defunct pact, Mr. Emery was to plead guilty on both sides of the border and accept a sentence of 10 years imprisonment on the understanding he would serve half, mostly in Canada. national post
It is absurd that Mark Emery was charged at all. It is criminal that he faces 10 to 20 years in an American penitentiary if convicted in the United States. It is asinine that, to avoid that and to spare his co-accused he had to cut a deal which would see him serving five years in a Canadian prison.
But it is simply stupid for the CPC to nix that deal.
I am entirely indifferent to pot - it makes me sleepy - but I have no doubt that decriminalization, first de facto and then de jure makes economic and political sense. In BC - with the exception of grow ops - possession is effectively no longer a criminal offence. Selling seeds is, effectively, no longer a criminal offence. For a significant percentage of the population recreational pot smoking is completely normal. And I am not talking about the kids here; I am talking about people in the forties, fifties and sixties.
For the Canadian government to kow tow to the Americans’ anti drug fetish is a huge surrender of sovereignty. The right thing - though not, unfortunately the strictly legal, thing - to do is to refuse to extradite Emery. Failing that, approving this draconian deal is the best of a bad set of choices.
The stoner vote - while a little short on turnout - is not insignificant. Nor is the libertarian vote which, apparently, Harper and the CPC are willing to toss under the bus in their quest for another minority government.
Written by jay on March 28th, 2008 with
3 comments.
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KevinG
#1. March 28th, 2008, at 8:23 PM.
Geeze, this is like Dumb and Dumber. Had to say which government is which.
Unfortunately, as PJ O’Rourke has said, the only way the so-called “War on Drugs” will end is if liberals will allow the US to carpet bomb Columbia and Peru, or for conservatives to allow for drugs to be legalized. Neither is going to happen.
Sad to see the US, in the middle (or the start anyway) of a war on true terror, spend resources on sending a guy to jail for selling seeds (or a comedian such as Tommy Chong for selling a pipe).
Priorities, people.