EMERY A HACK

Dear editor,

I went to go see Marc Emery speak at Concordia and I was very
disappointed with what I heard. I support the decriminalization of
marijuana so when I heard Emery's arguments in defence of this cause
I couldn't help but cringe. I mean, come on, citing Genesis to make a
case for marijuana is just silly. So the Bible doesn't explicitly
prohibit the use of any plants. So what? What about poppies or coca
shrubs? Should we apply Emery's logic to these cases and
decriminalize opiates and cocaine for theological reasons? Clearly not!

Emery spent his time bringing up bad points like these instead of
focusing on more salient issues. For example, private individuals
owning seeds enables them to grow their own pot and thus cut the
intermediary of organized crime out. This deprives drug traffickers
of vital income. Emery started strong with this point, but then
proceeded to tell the audience about how marijuana helped alleviate
his anxiety the first time he performed cunnilingus. At that point, I
started to question Emery's commitment to staying out of jail.

Another argument he brought forth that really pissed me off was when
he said that marijuana users are "the most oppressed people in the
world." I'd like to call the standards by which Emery identifies
oppressed people into question. I'm sure we can all think of numerous
groups that qualify as more oppressed than pot smokers do. How about
homeless people, the mentally ill, aboriginal peoples in the
Americas, homosexuals, women, Palestinians--I think all these groups
have a more legitimate claim to being an oppressed people than a
bunch of stoners who have the luxury of smoking pot and tuning out
for a few hours.

As discouraging to the marijuana cause as I found Emery's discourse
to be, I still support his being tried in Canada. This is not due to
any affinity I have for Emery as an individual but rather because his
case raises many nationalist concerns. He is a Canadian citizen that
was engaging in illegal activities in our country. I see the U.S.'s
request that we extradite him for trial in their country as an attack
on our sovereignty. These crimes were committed here, which begs the
question, just whose country is this anyways? Where does our
government get its mandate from, the Canadian electorate or the U.S.
ambassador?

Nick Metaxas,

Hounours Religion