U.S. WOMAN FIGHTS EXTRADITION ON MEDICAL POT BUST

An American woman's fight against extradition to the United States to face
drug-conspiracy charges is highlighting the two countries' differing
attitudes towards medical marijuana use.

Renee Boje has claimed refugee status in Canada, claiming she's a political
pawn in the U.S. government's war on drugs. The U.S. Justice Department is
seeking Boje's extradition to Los Angeles to face charges of conspiracy to
manufacture and possession of marijuana for the purposes of distribution.

Boje, 30, was arrested in 1997 outside the Bel Air mansion of Todd
McCormick, where police said she and another woman were seen watering and
moving some of the 4,000 pot plants being cultivated there. Boje, a New
York artist who says she was hired by McCormick to do illustrations for a
book, has not admitted handling the plants.

Still, her supporters say McCormick was entitled to grow marijuana under a
California law allowing pot possession and cultivation for so-called
compassionate uses.

McCormick, who has cancer, had two doctors' prescriptions for medical pot,
said Maury Mason, a spokesman for Boje's legal defence fund.

The plants were ostensibly for research into breeding the best strains for
medical use.

However, the U.S. government is ignoring the California law, as well as
those passed recently by other states and is pursuing people growing pot
for medical purposes, said John Conroy, Boje's Canadian lawyer.

"The U.S. federal government takes the position that it's not legal," he
said Monday.

"So there's a political dispute going on between the federal government in
the U.S. and California."

While medical marijuana is still illegal in Canada, federal Health Minister
Allan Rock has issued several ministerial permits to grow it and his
department is studying its use.

"In Canada it's an offence to cultivate without a licence but doctors can
prescribe marijuana for a medical condition," said Conroy.

Boje, who lives in the coastal town of Gibson's, near Vancouver, made a
court appearance Monday dressed in a peasant skirt and wearing sparkling
makeup.

She said she came to Canada on the advice of her American lawyer after
charges against her were initially dropped. They were reinstated after she
got here.

"He advised me to leave the country because he didn't feel that he could
save me and I faced a mandatory minimum of 10 years to life," she said.

"He didn't think I should have to go through with all that." Boje spent
three days in custody after her 1997 arrest.

"I was strip-searched in front of male guards who watched me and made
comments and lewd gestures at me," she said. "I was afraid to be in there,
obviously."

Boje said she believes the U.S. district attorney wants her back to force
her to testify against McCormick in a trial scheduled to start Nov. 16.

"I would never cut a deal with the DA but people that do cut deals with the
DA, they don't even get off," she said. "They have to spend lots of time in
prison."

Conroy said the case has become a cause celebre in California, where
McCormick is getting financial backing from supporters of medical
marijuana, including actor Woody Harrelson.

Boje said she is relying on legal aid and donations.

Conroy has gone to bat for others charged with marijuana possession. He
believes laws against possession for personal use are unconstitutional
because it does not harm others or society as a whole.

"I say we shouldn't be threatening people's liberty in using the big stick
of the criminal law in order to threaten people with imprisonment, fines or
whatever for conduct which is essentially benign," said Conroy.

In the upcoming extradition hearing, Conroy said he will argue Boje's
statements to police regarding the California law weren't voluntary.

"We'll also be arguing that the court has to hear the evidence of the
political character of the offence," he said.

The legal wrangling over Boje's extradition could be lengthy.

The judge's ruling is subject to court appeal and also to a review by
Justice Minister Anne McLellan.

The minister's decision could be subject to appeal as far as the Supreme
Court of Canada. McLellan could also decide to refuse a court-ordered
extradition if she believes the U.S. charges are unjust or political in
nature.

Boje's refugee claim could be a separate issue, depending on whether she is
covered by 1999 changes to extradition laws. The amendments forfeit a
person's right to a separate refugee hearing if similar charges in Canada
carry maximum prison terms of more than 10 years.