U.S. SHOULDN'T STONE US FOR POT USE

"Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to
an individual than the use of the drug itself. Nowhere is this more
clear than in the laws against possession of marijuana in private for
personal use."

- - Jimmy Carter, 1977

"The Yankees are coming!" Unlike Paul Revere's famous American ride to
warn of the invading British, no one is listening in Canada. Canadians
are either too stoned or they are hoping that someone will toss Marc
Emery, Canada's "Prince of Pot," in jail to rot.

Emery, the leader of the B.C. Marijuana Party, was busted on July 9 by
U.S. drug enforcement agents for selling marijuana seeds to people by
mail. Don't get me wrong. If these agents had enticed Emery over the
border (with a tray of brownies, perhaps?) he would have been fair
game, but the American government has no right to send police to
Canada to arrest one of our citizens for something that is considered
to be quasi-legal in Canada.

The B.C. Court of Appeal said in a recent decision that a two-year
sentence for growing 100 marijuana plants was too harsh and imposed
probation instead. Emery, and his two co-accused, face 10 years to
life if convicted.

If marijuana is legal for a segment of society, those people should be
able to obtain it. It seems that there is a bit of a problem with
supplying good quality marijuana to those with prescriptions, which
has been legal in Canada since July 2001.

Marijuana is difficult to obtain through your local pharmacy. It has
been widely reported that in the past, when people called Health
Canada to complain about this lack, they were directed to Emery's web
site (Can you say hypocritical?).

While the majority of Canadians are ambivilant about pot smokers, some
in this area have strong feelings about smoking pot.

Erika Kubassek, Cambridge's outspoken morality squad commander, said
during an interview with The Kitchener Record on October 9, 1998 that
people who advocate such things as marijuana for medicinal purposes
"want to have free killing, free drugs, free sex, free everything, and
then you have total hell on Earth."

On the other hand, The Church of the Universe (who were once based in
Cambridge), claim that marijuana is a holy sacrament. They further
push zealotic buttons by saying that Christ was a pothead.

They "prove" this by pointing to the ancient recipe for anointing oil
for priests, recorded in the Old Testament book of Exodus (30: 22-23),
which included over nine pounds of flowering cannabis tops, Hebrew
"kaneh-bosm."

I spoke to Reverand Tucker from the Church about Emery.

"A travesty," Tucker told me.

"This is a weather vane. It could be the defining issue for Canada's
future."

Whether the roads to heaven or hell are paved in pot can't be easily
answered, but one thing is for certain.

We can't allow the Americans to walk in and threaten our sovereignty
by dictating what our laws should be. What's next, our same sex
marriage laws or (gasp!) our female bare breast laws?

Where's Carolyn Parrish, the Bush bashing M.P. when we need her?