NOMINATE EMERY FOR ORDER OF CANADA?

A letter to the editor published in the Ottawa Citizen a week ago
suggested that Marc Emery should be nominated to the Order of Canada
"because of his stand against dumb laws prohibiting the free use of
marijuana."

The letter was in response to the controversy over the long overdue
appointment of Henry Morgentaler to the OC.

The writer went further, and recommended that there should be a law
against making dumb laws, which I thought was kind of funny. However,
the impression I get from Question Period is that they take themselves
pretty seriously.

Marc Emery is in trouble for selling marijuana seeds through the mail
to clients in the U.S. However, if it is illegal, why are there stores
where you can buy seeds? Why are so many Internet sites promising top
quality ganga? How are they able to keep operating? Are the police
turning a blind eye because they're out chasing the real criminals?

Perhaps it's not against the law to possess marijuana seeds in Canada.
Perhaps seeds are just potential marijuana. As long as you don't have
the intention to turn your house into a gigantic greenhouse and sell
dope to all the neighbourhood kids in the playground, maybe it's legal.

I looked up the city's police website, thinking I could just send an
anonymous e-mail asking for information on whether it's legal to
possess seeds or not, but they only list an address and a phone
number. There's no way I'm phoning them.

I can just imagine the conversation. "Uh, is it illegal to possess
marijuana seeds? It isn't. Even for personal use? What kind of
personal use? Uh, I thought I'd put the sprouts on a tomato sandwich.
What is my name?"

So there's no way I'm phoning them about this 'hypothetical'
situation. They'd trace the call, monitor my power use, and probably
create a file on me at CSIS.

Next thing you know you're on a plane to Singapore. They hate drugs
there.

And it appears that the members of the RCMP Marihuana Grow Operations
Enforcement Team hate drugs too. In a 2006 report they discuss busting
a criminal organization in Montreal involved in the trafficking of
cannabis seeds on the Internet.

The men who they arrested are liable to 10 years imprisonment if found
guilty.

They also say that since the possession of cannabis seeds is illegal
under Schedule II of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, clients
of the network could receive a visit from the police.

Not a good thing. Try to avoid visits from people with
guns.

This new drug enforcement team is one of seven teams established to,
quote "combat the scourge of marihuana." The scourge of marijuana? Who
talks like that?

I felt like I was reading The Black Candle by Emily Murphy, writing as
Janey Canuck in 1922, when she said "Persons using this narcotic,
smoke the dried leaves of the plant, which has the effect of driving
them completely insane."

Giddy perhaps, but insane?

Furthermore, "Addicts to this drug "| are immune to pain "| they
become raving maniacs and are liable to kill or indulge in any form of
violence to other persons, using the most savage methods of cruelty
"| they are dispossessed of their natural and normal will power, and
their mentality is that of idiots. If this drug is indulged in to any
great extent, it ends in the untimely death of its addict."

Okay, I guess she wouldn't accept decriminalization for personal
use.

But would she recommend Emery for the Order of Canada? I doubt
it.

Unlike Henry, Marc has not changed the law, merely challenged it. He
has not tried to fight discrimination or the unfortunate result of
poverty or sexism.

In a country where 45 per cent of Canadians have used marijuana at
least once in their lifetime, and the probability of going insane or
being caught are pretty low, at best he has exposed stupidity or
hypocrisy, perhaps.

But there's no law against that.