FREAKIN' OUTRAGE OVER EMERY BUST

Talk about a freak-out. The arrest of "Prince of Pot" Marc Emery on a
U.S. warrant for selling marijuana seeds over the Internet has
triggered a midsummer avalanche of protests from Sun readers.

Dripping with scorn toward the Bush administration and contempt for
the Canadian government for allowing the extradition case to proceed,
readers have mounted the most vocal offensive we've seen in recent
memory in the ongoing "war on a herb."

Chuck Beyer of Port Alberni, B.C., is typical in his vitriol.

"The present U.S. administration is one of the biggest criminal
syndicates of all time," he writes. "Causing the arrest of Mr. Emery
is just another diversion from their high crimes and misdemeanors. I
am concerned not only for Canadian sovereignty -- but for the future
of what was once a republic next door. Mr. Emery is Mother Teresa
compared to this bunch and should not be extradited."

More sedately, R. Mckie of Brighton, Ont., writes: "If Marc Emery has
broken a law in Canada let our authorities carry out their job. If
what Mr. Emery has done is illegal in the U.S.A. then I guess he had
better be careful when entering the States and make sure he does not
have any pot seeds on him. To have our own courts complicit in having
him extradited for an offence which he did not commit in the U.S.A.
is ridiculous."

Writes Wayne Pitts ("& Family") of London, Ont.: "Mark Emery is the
leader of a legitimate political party, and the Canadian government
has knowingly collected taxes from his U.S. seed sales for a decade,
and Mr. Emery has operated openly without interference from Canadian
police since 1998. Canada should not be sending political activists
to jail in foreign countries, especially when their actions are not
even considered to be an 'arrestable offence' in Canada."

American readers are also rushing to Emery's defence -- and some
clearly believe he has God on his side.

"A very large percentage of Americans do not support North America's
discredited cannabis laws or attacking Marc Emery over any
cannabis-related issues," writes Stan White of Dillon, Colo. "It is
regrettable to witness the United States persist in this
anti-Christian activity, attempting to prohibit, persecute and
exterminate cannabis and the cannabis culture. Caging humans for
selling plant seeds is hideous and uncivilized and must not be allowed."

Colleen Minter (aka Bonnie Colleen McCool) of Stephenville, Tex.,
writes: "Support for the federal war on drugs is inconsistent with
support for individual freedom, constitutional government and the
teachings of Jesus."

She adds: "Our present system causes more violence, pain, suffering
and death than the drugs themselves and is destroying all that
America once stood for. Leaders responsible for promoting our present
nonsensical policy will answer to a higher power for their crimes
against humanity."

For reader after reader, the "criminals" in this story are the
authorities prosecuting Emery -- which raises an interesting point.

Say what you want about them, but pot activists like Emery -- and
Winnipeg's Chris Buors, who was sent to jail for six months last
winter for running a medicinal grow-op -- are fighting to wrestle the
lucrative cannabis trade away from organized crime. That's the rich
irony of the situation.

In the 1920s, prohibitionists meant well. They wanted to wipe out the
scourge of alcohol addiction and save millions of women and children
from the abuse of drunken, violent men. What cause could be more noble?

What they succeeded in doing during their decade-long booze ban,
though, was outfit organized crime in America with the means to climb
from the streets to the boardroom.

Today it's no different. The anti-drug crusaders going after the
likes of Emery are organized crime's best friend. And none of that
will change up here in Canada with the Liberals' boneheaded
decriminalization law.

Responding to the Emery bust, Ontarian Jack Jordan predicts, "What
the U.S. government is attempting to do here will only unite
Canadians to forward the legalization of marijuana, just out of
spite. It will ... backfire on the U.S."

In light of how eagerly Canadian authorities rolled over to serve the
U.S. extradition order on Emery, that sounds like a pipe dream to us, Jack.