MARC EMERY MUST NOT BE EXTRADITED

So Marc Emery has been arrested again, and this time, it seems, it's
serious. Marc Emery, for those of you who don't know, is the president of
the British Columbia Marijuana Party. He runs a prolific marijuana seed
distribution company, or ran one I should say, as it has now been raided
and shut down. He is famous for having smoked marijuana in front of police
stations across the country in the summer of 2003 to demonstrate the
absence of valid anti-marijuana laws. And he has frequently been put
through the Canadian legal system on pot-related charges: a conviction in
2004 for "trafficking" comes to mind, when he was seen by police officers
to have passed a joint to a university student. Heaven forfend.

Ordinarily, Mr Emery's arrest wouldn't surprise me. When you openly flout
standing laws--hypocritical and asinine though they are--and are an
outspoken political activist, the attentions of law enforcement officials
are likely to be disproportionately directed towards you, regardless of
whether this should be the case in an ostensibly rational and free society.

What does trouble me about Mr Emery's arrest is that it was not initiated
by Canadian law enforcement. The investigation and subsequent arrest of Mr
Emery was a result of the attentions of the American Drug Enforcement
Administration, an agency which is now requesting his extradition. If
extradited, he will be tried on charges of conspiracy to distribute
marijuana and marijuana seeds, and conspiracy to launder money. Given his
unabashed involvement in the legalization movement and the simple existence
of a seed distribution company bearing his name, a conviction would be
assured. The maximum sentence, when convicted, is life imprisonment.

Now I understand that as a sovereign nation, the United States has the
right to create and enforce any laws which it chooses, no matter how
ludicrous. But Canada has the right--and the obligation--to protect its
citizens from persecution deemed injust or excessive. Surely we must admit
that in a country which no longer prosecutes the distribution of marijuana
seeds, which in many areas willfully neglects to prosecute the traffic of
marijuana, and which as a whole is considering its decriminalization, the
extradition of a political activist to face some of the harshest prison
sentences and conditions on the continent is inconsistent, to put it mildly.

The American War on Drugs has failed in its objectives and caused
considerable social harm. This most recent attempt to force misguided and
ineffective law enforcement methods across our border is an imposition we
must not tolerate. If Marc Emery is extradited to be prosecuted for actions
which we on the whole no longer believe to be criminal, it will be an
infringement upon our sovereignty as a nation, our rights to free
expression and behaviour as individuals, and our belief in political
freedom. Serious, indeed.