Letter to the Editor – Saturday December 12, 2009 – Marc Emery – Brian Johnson

Dear Editor

This is truly an unjust world when you can go to prison for life, for sending seeds to another country; but if you send troops, you get a Noble Peace Prize.

Do we really need a foreign government stepping in and disciplining one of our citizens, for something as trivial as selling seeds on the internet?

As a nation we should be ashamed of the way we have treated Marc Emery. The man has paid his taxes, given to charity, and helped untold thousands of medical marijuana users.

It disgusts me the lack of attention the media is giving this issue. The US is trying to take one of our citizens! He broke no Canadian laws! Marc Emery is facing a life sentence in a US facility, hopefully not Guantanamo Bay.

Honestly, has handing people over to foreign powers really been working for us lately?

Please take the time to contact the Justice Minister of Canada, Rob Nicholson at NichoR@parl.gc.ca and Prime Minister Harper atHarpeS@parl.gc.ca and let then know it is wrong to allow the US to extradite Marc Emery.
We must stop this extradition! Who’s next?

Brian Johnson
Wingham, ON
webmaster@6797.com

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7 Comments

  1. To all those that recognize this injustice and unfairness in Canadian law and enforcement, I have sent a copy of the following observation (previously submitted to the Cornwall Free News), along with a request that the Canadian government stay extradition and/or associated proceedings, and desist from similarly unequal and arbitrary measures against Canadian citizens (and the communication bearing my real name).

    ——————————————————————–
    ——————————————————————–
    On the 20th of April, at 4:20 in the afternoon, a cloud of marijuana smoke rose from the lawn of Parliament Hill, hovered and built for a few moments, then rolled lazily down Wellington Street. No deaths, property damage, or injuries were reported, and the resulting carnage was confined to pizza and sausages – purchased at food establishments on nearby streets shortly afterward.

    The annual event which played out under the watch of RCMP and Ottawa Police saw no arrests made. This is not to say however that police don’t enforce marijuana laws in other places, or that lives aren’t ruined at the whim of law enforcement at other times. What it does say, is that the enforcement of law has become arbitrary.

    Our nation and culture stand on the “rule of law”, and even the textbooks in our schools explain that when a law becomes unenforceable or society’s values change, then the law must change.

    Sadly, given our Justice and Safety Ministers’ views of Charter Rights, and their blustering compatriots’ support for unequal and arbitrary application of the law, it is more likely that we will see the textbooks change.

    From 2008:
    http://www.video4viet.com/watchvideo.html?id=idBT9So1ngQ&title=420%20On%20Parliament%20Hill%20(international%20Weed%20Smoking%20Day)

    from 2009:
    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k8jGqGkEEM

  2. The one fundamental thing we must NEVER forget is that when you break the law IN ANOTHER COUNTRY you are subject to their present laws at that time! If he sold illegal things into the USA then he must face the consequences, THEIR CONSEQUENCES!
    He may be Canadian but he’s just another money-grubbing DRUG DEALER!

  3. You know whats even dumber about the whole situation, here the USA is relaxing their laws because they realize their 30+ year war on drugs was a completely failed initiative. And now we have the Harperites trying to adopt regressive laws like Bill C-15. Of which even the USA advised against doing. But stupid is as stupid does.

    These laws are only going to drive things more underground. In many aspects they will only fuel black market crime even more. People who shouldn’t be in jail will end up in jail, and then most likely become hardened criminals when they were probably peace loving hippies to begin with or something.

    And now on top of it all, Marc Emery is getting sent off. I think honestly its more a political thing and Harper is just trying to get rid of a potential future political adversary. Shame on the government for showing it has no backbone for our citizens. But what do you want to say about a government that knowingly transfers prisoners, whom they know will most likely get tortured.

    As was mentioned, someone sends seeds and they get deported, our government sends in troops somewhere and get a Nobel peace prize for it. Just shows the way the world is going today.

  4. Ignorance is key here. And fear. And maybe politics. And um, there’s probably brewers or distillers that wouldn’t want competition. Yeah that’s it, and there was something else but whatever. (And what’s with calling a guy that sells seeds a “drug dealer” …this guy’s putting dealers out of business).

    But back to ignornace… marijuana is regularly referred to as a gateway drug. It should more appropriately be recognized that it’s the dealer that is the gateway to danger. If that dealer is a drug addict, or biker, or pimp, there’s going to be some pressure put on the buyer to move up or super size. Government and corporations are equally untrustworthy, but surely a little backyard plot of our own would be OK.

    But, where do we get the seeds if you’re locking agriculturists up? …you see the problem here.

    Perhaps it’s government, organized crime, and corporations, and a conspiratorial (or at least opportunistic) police that exacerbate the marijuana “problem”.

    Maybe if the laws get changed we can all have a little “victory” garden and put organized immoral criminality out to pasture.

  5. If you follow the money, you can usually figure out why governments like Canada do what they do. States like California are looking at legalization and government control of marijuana production and sales. Why? Because the state is bankrupt and they recognize a cash cow when they see one.

    It makes a total farce of the U.S. marijuana laws for the past 40 years since it was never about the so-called dangers of the substance, it was about the huge profits from trafficking. And don’t forget that the CIA uses drug profits for its operations(off the books) for years. I have written about some of this at http://realitycheck.typepad.com/commentary_news/drugs/

    So why wouldn’t Canada legalize marijuana and reap the tax dollars? Especially since studies have proved it to be less harmful than alcohol or tobacco.(and no one has ever died from a marijuana ‘overdose’) If they did legalize it and everyone started growing their backyard plot of pot, where’s the tax dollars in that?

    I think that’s the real problem. If Monsanto thought they could control the seed production it might be different. But right now if people could grow it legally, the price would fall to the basement and marijuana would be the same price as any other herb.

  6. Grimalot, your ice-holes suckin’ wind again!

  7. I would NEVER want seeds from Monsanto. We get enough genetically modified crap as it is. Don’t need them getting their dirty hands on it all.

    And yes, some may grow their own, but I’m pretty sure not all are into doing it on their own. But it will be better regulated anyways if it was decriminalized or legalized, and taxed afterwards.

    I mean, you could say the same thing about tobacco. Right now the government probably isn’t collecting a whole hell of a lot on that with all the smuggling going on. If they dropped the taxes, then they’d take in more, but right now they’re perpetuating the exact smuggling problem they are so trying to fight against. And also, some people grow their own tobacco, you don’t see that being a huge issue here.

    But fact is, that right now the whole revenue from it is going to the black market. Of which the government is collecting a whole “NOTHING” off of it. Something is better than nothing in my books, and if they eradicate the black market, this will lead to many other good things. As Trent Tulip said, pot isn’t the gateway, the dealer is, so less people going to a dealer ultimately means less they may possibly get addicted to in the future, thereby eliminating more black market and making it harder for those dealers to bring in any revenue.

    As for controls and possible grow ops and such, look at the Netherlands, they are allowed to grow what, I think its one plant, if they so choose to do so. Also, it can only be done in certain areas. So, they can impose limits like that here. If someone wants to grow, then they can grow, say 1, or 5 plants, whatever, with no penalty. If they grow more, then they either have to pay for a license or some other setup.

    The burden would be pulled off our incarceration system too. Because we all know that pot smokers should not be put in jail for that. Henceforth leaving place for real criminals to be processed. Like murder cases that take 2 or 3 years to get tried, why do you think that is? Probably because all of the useless pot cases that the judges have to go through before being able to get to the real cases.

    The other argument from the government, is that pot gets traded for weapons from the USA. Well guess what, if the US is currently decriminalizing/legalizing, and if Canada follows suit, well then pot will lose its value and therefore, wont be traded for weapons and such. Nor will it be traded for other hard stuff as what goes on right now. This in turn will leave the criminal black market less options to try to trade, perhaps hard stuff for weapons, meaning it will streamline the busts the authorities will make, and ultimately will get them far greater busts on weapons and hard stuff, rather than useless busts on weed.

    And again, something is better than the “NOTHING” the government is making off it at this time. So yes it is a cash cow, if properly managed. I just don’t believe our government could properly manage it even if they wanted to, because they’ll most likely get greedy and mess something else up. Food for thought.

    Ontarian, you stick to your convictions, Ill stick to mine. But happy to see a few words from you on this debate. Have a great day.

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