Pubdate: Wed, 16 Jan 2008 Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB) Copyright: 2008 Canoe Limited Partnership. Contact: http://www.edmontonsun.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/135 Author: Mindelle Jacobs Alert: Marc Emery Needs Your Support http://www.mapinc.org/alert/0359.html 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. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake