Boyd's Town

WITH MARC EMERY WITHIN THEIR GRASP, WHO'S NEXT ON THE YANKEE HIT LIST?

Jonathan Winters is a frequent guest on Eastern Canada comedy festivals.

Apparently we love him because he amuses us, flatters us and leaves us
wondering if he really means that last line.

That's when he says, "I love Canada. Beautiful people, great old buildings,
superb escargot. I hope we can take you without force. The gale of laughter
that always follows that punchline might be a bit thinner this week.

My God, did they send Jonathon to check our border for holes.

Well, certainly not. Winters is sweetness itself.

But a bit of rising paranoia might be registered this week at the
heavy-handed arrest and planned extradition of that Vancouver pest,
marijuana sidewalk huckster Marc Emery, at the request of American law 'n'
order officials.

We're used to him. To the majority of Vancouverites, Emery has been an
over-publicized nuisance. To a lesser number, he's Moses in a rolling paper.

To some, he will be seen as a martyr, to others, a goddam cowboy causing a
fuss just when the Canadian government, after years of failed initiatives,
might be on the verge of legalizing (and taxing) the $7 billion a year pot
market.

And there is underlying fear that another cowboy, President Bush, might be
thinking that if he can get away with this border-jumping pinch, he might
be tempted to send in Republican lawmakers and, if necessary, armed soldier
boys, to save us from our own bad habits, just as he is trying to save
Iraqis from their spiritual beliefs.

Emery is just one Canadian citizen, which doesn't signal a border war.

But Canadian pot has become the most marketable in the world, 10 times as
potent as the stuff heads used to ingest along Fourth Avenue 25 years ago.

Around that time, actor-comedian Tommy Chong used to live on Marine Drive.
I used to see him buying organic vegetables in Dundarave.

Chong met another comic actor Cheech Martin and the two made a series of
movies, blatantly about the pot culture.

In 2003, during a massive DEA crackdown on the sales of smoking
paraphernalia, Chong was arrested and charged for selling customized glass
bongs. The comic actor served nine months, was fined $20,000 and forfeited
$120,000 in assets.

They've got Emery on selling marijuana seeds across the border through a
website.

With the tonnage of high-octane pot that slips through the
Vancouver-Seattle border every year, a bust for seeds seems picayune.

But they sent Tommy Chong away for peddling the works of glass-blowers.