The insane 'war on drugs' continues

The Canadian government allowed US intrusion in order to have Marc Emery arrested, even though they gave tacit approval of his activities for over a decade

Drug policy in Canada, particularly as it pertains to marijuana, is stuck in a sort of legal no-man's-land. Politicians want to appear tough on crime, but at the same time are loath to make criminals out of the hundreds of thousands of Canadians—perhaps as many one or two million—who are casual tokers. They tiptoe up to the precipice of decriminalization, always to scurry back at the last minute for fear of offending the United States, or the many domestic voters who oppose more liberal marijuana laws.

At best, our leaders can only ever summon the courage for a de facto decriminalization: Keep personal pot possession nominally illegal, but instruct Crown prosecutors not to prosecute most offenders. The irony is: This gutless approach undermines the rule of law more assuredly than decriminalization or full legalization ever could. Nowhere has this truth been more evident than in the two-year-long efforts by American drug police to extradite Marc Emery, entrepreneur, leader of the B.C. Marijuana Party and the West Coast's self-styled "Prince of Pot." For years, the government has looked the other way as Mr. Emery has become a millionaire many times over. But even as he has remained a free man in Canada, Ottawa has felt pressured by Washington to crack down on Mr. Emery for alleged breach of U.S. drug laws (Americans complain that his mail-order business has sold seeds to U.S. buyers.) The result of this application of War on Drugs heavy-handedness by remote control has been a diminution of our national sovereignty and a blow to Canada's own rule of law.

On Monday it was announced Mr. Emery had struck a deal with U.S. prosecutors. To avoid extradition, he will serve a five-year sentence for selling marijuana seeds by mail. He will do his time here, rather than stateside, but will be ineligible for the early release to which all other Canadian criminals generally are entitled. He will have to do his full time behind bars, no parole, no halfway houses, no statutory release. As Mr. Emery told the Vancouver Sun, "I'm going to do more time than many violent, repeat offenders." And indeed he is. In a report on Canada's federal prisons, sent to Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day last month, it was revealed that most offenders—even those convicted of assault, armed robbery and rape—spend less than three years behind bars.

This is a travesty for a man who, as he correctly states, "has no victims." But it is also a travesty for Canadian justice. We arrested Mr. Emery, a Canadian citizen, for crimes he allegedly committed in the United States, even though he had not been in the United States, was not fleeing American authorities, has not inflicted any action upon an American to which the latter did not consent, and Canada refused to prosecute him for the very same crimes here. If Ottawa felt strongly enough about the pot-seed catalogue saleman's misdeeds, it should have prosecuted him itself. Otherwise, it should have refused American requests to cooperate with the extradition application.

By no less an authority than the Supreme Court of Canada, our government will not extradite Canadians suspected of committing murder in the United States, unless American prosecutors promise in advance not to seek the death penalty, which is banned here, but not there. Why then would we even consider arresting a Canadian and prosecute him at the behest of U.S. authorities for a crime we routinely ignore here? The last time Mr. Emery was convicted of selling seeds here was a decade ago, at which time he received a $2,000 fine. Since then, Canadian prosecutors have refused to lay charges against him. Indeed, when it failed on its own to grow medical marijuana for terminal patients, Health Canada even directed Canadians with permits to Mr. Emery's mail order business.

Permitting Marc Emery to cut a deal with U.S. prosecutors is one of those cowardly half-measure that have come to symbolize Canadian drug policy. If Ottawa wants Canadians to respect the law, it either has to enforce it as written or—as we would prefer—change what is written to conform to the prevailing social norms. Our current neither-fish-nor-fowl stand makes a mockery of our criminal justice system.

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REASON MAGAZINE

The Prince of Pot

Makes a Pitch to Conservatives

Jacob Sullum

February 22, 2008

Libertarian activist Marc Emery, who faces extradition to the United States for selling marijuana seeds to Americans, makes his case to Canadian conservatives in a three-part video posted on the Western Standard's blog. Emery explains how, inspired by Ayn Rand and Ludwig von Mises, he embarked on campaigns of civil disobedience against unjust laws, including bans on Sunday retailing, "obscene" recordings such as 2 Live Crew's As Nasty As They Wanna Be, and drug-oriented publications. His most conspicuous effort was his marijuana seed business, aimed at "overgrowing the government" and raising money for the worldwide marijuana legalization movement. It proved a little too conspicuous.

Emery's operation, which shipped seeds to the U.S. and other countries, was one of hundreds such vendors in Canada, and he operated openly for more than a decade with little trouble from the government, which happily accepted the taxes generated by his business. But his financial support for drug policy reform groups, his political activism as founder of the B.C. Marijuana Party, and his advocacy of legalization in forums such as his Pot TV website and his magazine Cannabis Culture irritated both Vancouver police and American drug warriors, who conspired to arrest him and ship him to the U.S. for trial on drug trafficking, conspiracy, and money laundering charges that could send him to prison for the rest of his life. In Canada, by contrast, the worst penalty he was apt to face for selling marijuana seeds to growers was a fine, and in practice the government not only turned a blind eye but referred medical marijuana patients to him.

By Emery's account, the effort to arrest and extradite him began after he heckled John Walters during the U.S. drug czar's visit to Vancouver in November 2002. "That's really what this is all about," he says. "Three days later, his friends at the Vancouver Police Department opened an investigation of me." This is not as far-fetched as it might sound, since the day of Emery's arrest in July 2005 DEA head Karen Tandy admitted it was politically motivated, implying that Emery was being punished for his activism and philanthropy:

Today's arrest of Mark [sic] Scott Emery, publisher of Cannabis Culture magazine and the founder of a marijuana legalization group, is a significant blow not only to the marijuana trafficking trade in the U.S. and Canada, but also to the marijuana legalization movement. Hundreds of thousands of dollars of Emery's illicit profits are known to have been channeled to marijuana legalization groups active in the United States and Canada. Drug legalization lobbyists now have one less pot of money to rely on.

As I noted last month, Emery has tentatively accepted a Justice Department deal under which he would serve five years and his two co-defendants (one of whom uses marijuana to relieve the symptoms of Crohn's disease) would be released. Emery, who wants to serve all or at least most of his sentence in Canada, says he is still negotiating the details of that arrangement. He proposes another way out: If the Canadian authorities charged him with illegally selling marijuana seeds, he says, there would be no reason to extradite him; he could instead be tried in a Canadian court under Canadian laws and face the penalties Canadians consider appropriate.

Part of Emery's pitch to conservatives is that the U.S. government's prosecution of him impinges on Canadian sovereignty. He likens his situation to that of a Canadian charged with sending Falun Gong literature to China, selling alcohol to Saudis, or running a gambling website used by Americans, and asks whether the Canadian government would agree to extradition in those cases. "I've always defended peaceful, honest lifestyle choices," he concludes. "I paid all my taxes, never hurt anybody, only violated unjust laws transparently and openly, and that is something every conservative and libertarian should be able to get behind."

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WIKI

Major hemp producing countries

Typical Japanese Shinto shrine with paper streamers & rope made out of unprocessed hemp fiber.

From the 1950's to the 1980's the Soviet Union was the world's largest producer (3,000 km² in 1970). The main production areas were in Ukraine, the Kursk and Orel regions of Russia, and near the Polish border. Since its inception in 1931, the Hemp Breeding Department at the Institute of Bast Crops in Hlukhiv (Glukhov), Ukraine, has been one of the world's largest centers for developing new hemp varieties, focusing on improving fiber quality, per-hectare yields, and low THC content.

Other important producing countries were China, North Korea, Hungary, the former Yugoslavia, Romania, Poland, France and Italy.

In Japan, hemp was historically used as paper and a fiber crop; it was restricted as a narcotic drug in 1948. The ban on marijuana imposed by the US authorities was alien to Japanese culture, as the drug had never been widely used in Japan before. There is archaeological evidence that cannabis was used for clothing and the seeds were eaten in Japan right back to the Jomon period (10,000 to 300 BCE). Many Kimono designs portray hemp, or "Asa" as a beautiful plant.

Canada (2,500 hectares in 2004) , the United Kingdom, and Germany all resumed commercial production in the 1990's. British production is mostly used as bedding for horses; other uses are under development. The largest outlet for German fiber is composite automotive panels. Companies in Canada, UK, US and Germany among many others process hemp seed into a growing range of food products and cosmetics; many traditional growing countries still continue to produce textile grade fibre.

Hemp is illegal to freely grow in the US and several other countries because the plant is related to marijuana. In such countries, hemp is imported from China and the Philippines. The US is the only industrialized country where hemp is illegal to grow.

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HIGH TIMES MAGAZINE

420 Campaign

Top Ten Reasons Marijuana Should Be Legal

2007-03-13

The readers of HIGH TIMES want marijuana legalized, nationwide, and now. The 420 Campaign is a plan to bring legalization before the US Congress and the public. We want to use April 20th as a focal point every year to concentrate pressure on Congress to legalize marijuana until we get the job done.

Here are our top ten reasons marijuana should be legalized:

10. Prohibition has failed to control the use and domestic production of marijuana.

The government has tried to use criminal penalties to prevent marijuana use for over 75 years and yet: marijuana is now used by over 25 million people annually, cannabis is currently the largest cash crop in the United States, and marijuana is grown all over the planet. Claims that marijuana prohibition is a successful policy are ludicrous and unsupported by the facts, and the idea that marijuana will soon be eliminated from America and the rest of the world is a ridiculous fantasy.

9. Arrests for marijuana possession disproportionately affect blacks and Hispanics and reinforce the perception that law enforcement is biased and prejudiced against minorities.

African-Americans account for approximately 13% of the population of the United States and about 13.5% of annual marijuana users, however, blacks also account for 26% of all marijuana arrests. Recent studies have demonstrated that blacks and Hispanics account for the majority of marijuana possession arrests in New York City, primarily for smoking marijuana in public view. Law enforcement has failed to demonstrate that marijuana laws can be enforced fairly without regard to race; far too often minorities are arrested for marijuana use while white/non-Hispanic Americans face a much lower risk of arrest.

8. A regulated, legal market in marijuana would reduce marijuana sales and use among teenagers, as well as reduce their exposure to other drugs in the illegal market.

The illegality of marijuana makes it more valuable than if it were legal, providing opportunities for teenagers to make easy money selling it to their friends. If the excessive profits for marijuana sales were ended through legalization there would be less incentive for teens to sell it to one another. Teenage use of alcohol and tobacco remain serious public health problems even though those drugs are legal for adults, however, the availability of alcohol and tobacco is not made even more widespread by providing kids with economic incentives to sell either one to their friends and peers.

7. Legalized marijuana would reduce the flow of money from the American economy to international criminal gangs.

Marijuana’s illegality makes foreign cultivation and smuggling to the United States extremely profitable, sending billions of dollars overseas in an underground economy while diverting funds from productive economic development.

6. Marijuana’s legalization would simplify the development of hemp as a valuable and diverse agricultural crop in the United States, including its development as a new bio-fuel to reduce carbon emissions.

Canada and European countries have managed to support legal hemp cultivation without legalizing marijuana, but in the United States opposition to legal marijuana remains the biggest obstacle to development of industrial hemp as a valuable agricultural commodity. As US energy policy continues to embrace and promote the development of bio-fuels as an alternative to oil dependency and a way to reduce carbon emissions, it is all the more important to develop industrial hemp as a bio-fuel source – especially since use of hemp stalks as a fuel source will not increase demand and prices for food, such as corn. Legalization of marijuana will greatly simplify the regulatory burden on prospective hemp cultivation in the United States.

5. Prohibition is based on lies and disinformation.

Justification of marijuana’s illegality increasingly requires distortions and selective uses of the scientific record, causing harm to the credibility of teachers, law enforcement officials, and scientists throughout the country. The dangers of marijuana use have been exaggerated for almost a century and the modern scientific record does not support the reefer madness predictions of the past and present. Many claims of marijuana’s danger are based on old 20th century prejudices that originated in a time when science was uncertain how marijuana produced its characteristic effects. Since the cannabinoid receptor system was discovered in the late 1980s these hysterical concerns about marijuana’s dangerousness have not been confirmed with modern research. Everyone agrees that marijuana, or any other drug use such as alcohol or tobacco use, is not for children. Nonetheless, adults have demonstrated over the last several decades that marijuana can be used moderately without harmful impacts to the individual or society.

4. Marijuana is not a lethal drug and is safer than alcohol.

It is established scientific fact that marijuana is not toxic to humans; marijuana overdoses are nearly impossible, and marijuana is not nearly as addictive as alcohol or tobacco. It is unfair and unjust to treat marijuana users more harshly under the law than the users of alcohol or tobacco.

3. Marijuana is too expensive for our justice system and should instead be taxed to support beneficial government programs.

Law enforcement has more important responsibilities than arresting 750,000 individuals a year for marijuana possession, especially given the additional justice costs of disposing of each of these cases. Marijuana arrests make justice more expensive and less efficient in the United States, wasting jail space, clogging up court systems, and diverting time of police, attorneys, judges, and corrections officials away from violent crime, the sexual abuse of children, and terrorism. Furthermore, taxation of marijuana can provide needed and generous funding of many important criminal justice and social programs.

2. Marijuana use has positive attributes, such as its medical value and use as a recreational drug with relatively mild side effects.

Many people use marijuana because they have made an informed decision that it is good for them, especially Americans suffering from a variety of serious ailments. Marijuana provides relief from pain, nausea, spasticity, and other symptoms for many individuals who have not been treated successfully with conventional medications. Many American adults prefer marijuana to the use of alcohol as a mild and moderate way to relax. Americans use marijuana because they choose to, and one of the reasons for that choice is their personal observation that the drug has a relatively low dependence liability and easy-to-manage side effects. Most marijuana users develop tolerance to many of marijuana’s side effects, and those who do not, choose to stop using the drug. Marijuana use is the result of informed consent in which individuals have decided that the benefits of use outweigh the risks, especially since, for most Americans, the greatest risk of using marijuana is the relatively low risk of arrest.

1. Marijuana users are determined to stand up to the injustice of marijuana probation and accomplish legalization, no matter how long or what it takes to succeed.

Despite the threat of arrests and a variety of other punishments and sanctions marijuana users have persisted in their support for legalization for over a generation. They refuse to give up their long quest for justice because they believe in the fundamental values of American society. Prohibition has failed to silence marijuana users despite its best attempts over the last generation. The issue of marijuana’s legalization is a persistent issue that, like marijuana, will simply not go away. Marijuana will be legalized because marijuana users will continue to fight for it until they succeed.

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