Pubdate: Fri, 05 Aug 2005
Source: Victoria News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 Victoria News
Contact:  http://www.vicnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1267
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?196 (Emery, Marc)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

JUST SAY NO TO EXTRADITION

Let's hope the U.S. government's efforts to extradite Marc Emery, Canada's 
self-professed Prince of Pot, forces our government to legalize and 
regulate marijuana in the way that alcohol is regulated.

The war on pot has been a colossal waste of time, money, energy and lives. 
Pot has its dangers - such as memory loss and lung disease - but they pale 
beside the perils of alcohol and tobacco.

Adults should be free to choose their own poisons.

But let's not be Puritanical here. Booze and pot afford users pleasure and 
if taken in moderation they do little harm. It can even be argued that they 
enhance health and smooth out the rough edges of hectic modern life.

It would be great if certain segments of the population didn't use these 
substances to excess. Yet of all the methods to control vices, out-and-out 
prohibition has proven to be the least effective. It didn't work for 
alcohol early in the last century and it's not working for pot in this one.

Booze prohibition created a marketing vacuum that organized crime filled 
with deadly effect. The same is happening with Canada's underground pot 
industry, where the illegal nature of the lucrative trade is turning 
grow-ops into armed fortresses.

Under the law, Marc Emery, who openly sells pot seeds by the millions over 
the Internet, is a criminal. He's no Al Capone, but the law has made him 
out to be one. Yet like the rum runners of the 1920s, Emery is a criminal 
all the same.

After prohibition was abolished, the rum runners became respected 
businessmen, selling a legal and regulated product. Problems with booze 
still abound, but at least blood isn't spilled over it on the streets of 
Chicago.

The prevailing sentiment in Canada is to legalize and regulate pot so that 
the trade is removed from the hands of criminals. Pot needs similar 
controls to alcohol to keep it away from children and people who are 
driving. It also makes sense to prohibit pot smoking in public places as is 
the trend with tobacco. All of this makes more sense than the hysterical 
war of marijuana.

If legalizing and controlling pot turns Emery into a legitimate 
businessman, then so be it.

We suspect that the Canadian government has stalled on pot legalization 
over fears of U.S. government retaliation. For a nation that professes to 
stand for individual liberty, it's odd it would make such a huge crime out 
of smoking, possessing and selling a herb that most of its citizens over a 
certain age have experimented with at least once. Aside from being 
paternalistic, that's just insane. And legislators on both sides of this 
border know it.

The court can help the Canadian government find the courage to stand up to 
Uncle Sam by denying the U.S. request to extradite Emery to stand trial.

Our courts have blocked efforts to extradite murderers who would face the 
death penalty. Emery won't be executed, but he faces a long prison sentence 
that is out of proportion to a crime that shouldn't even exist in the 21st 
Century.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom