Pubdate: Wed, 04 Aug 2004
Source: Outlook, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2004 The Outlook
Contact:  http://www.northshoreoutlook.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1433
Author: Denny Boyd
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

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.
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