DRUG POLICY WIMPS

Marc Emery, Canada's mouthy Prince of Pot, isn't entirely a
sympathetic character. He brought the wrath of the U.S. down on his
own head by deliberately selling marijuana seeds over the Internet.

It seems he yearns to be a martyr for the cause - he insists he'd
willingly spend the rest of his life in jail for poking Uncle Sam in the eye.

"I'm really pleased and proud of what I've done," he said this week.
"I wish I could have done more to piss the U.S. government off, actually."

In the eyes of the U.S. authorities, Emery is getting a huge break.
Rather than spending 20 or 30 years in an American jail, he's
reportedly agreed to a five-year jail term without parole, to be
served mostly in Canada. In exchange, the charges against his two
co-accused will be dropped.

Emery could have spent the rest of his life happily selling marijuana
seeds in this country and the Canadian authorities would likely have
continued to look the other way. He hasn't exactly kept his business a secret.

As he explained to listeners on As it Happens Monday night, he sends
his marijuana seed catalogues to MPs and has paid hundreds of
thousands of dollars in taxes over the years. But he started selling
seeds to Americans, deliberately provoking the U.S. authorities.

The Canadian government largely ignored his illegal activities (his
last trafficking conviction was a decade ago), accepted his tax money
and then blithely sat back while Uncle Sam launched extradition proceedings.

What a bunch of hypocrites our politicians are. Pot is illegal in
this country but Ottawa couldn't muster up the effort to close down
our most infamous marijuana activist.

It's essentially an admission that our pot laws are ridiculous but we
don't have the guts to reform them, despite repeated pleas by various
bodies over the years.

By turning a blind eye to Emery's activities, Ottawa has implicitly
acknowledged that marijuana use is not a big deal. It's no wonder
that, as the Senate Committee on Illegal Drugs noted in 2002, the gap
between the law and public compliance has widened.

After all, if Ottawa can't be bothered prosecuting a big fish like
Emery, why should ordinary Canadians respect the law?

Moral Panic

Sadly, this makes us look like wimps. We're not ballsy enough to
uphold the law and too cowardly to change it to reflect contemporary
Canadian attitudes.

Emery, the victim of our cowardice, now faces the prospect of more
time in jail than people convicted of serious assaults or, in some
cases, even manslaughter.

Canada's early drug legislation was based on "moral panic" instead of
facts, the Senate Committee pointed out in its 2002 report on pot.

More than 80 years after pot was banned in Canada, it seems we still
don't want to face facts.

Billions of dollars have been spent on enforcement but marijuana is
more widely available than ever, the Senate committee observed,
recommending that pot be legalized and regulated.

Similarly, the war on drugs in the U.S. has created a more efficient
drug trade and a hugely profitable drug market, notes the Criminal
Justice Policy Foundation.

Almost 500,000 people are in U.S. jails for drug offences, more than
all the prisoners in the European Union, it adds.

While overall arrests decreased in the U.S. in the 1990s, pot arrests
jumped 113%, according to the Sentencing Project, a group which
promotes sentencing reform.

Maybe the next generation will get it right. We've blown it, Emery's
taking the fall and Justice Minister Rob Nicholson is missing in action.