Pubdate: Thu, 07 Aug 2014
Source: View Magazine (Hamilton, CN ON)
Copyright: 2014 View Magazine
Contact:  http://www.viewmag.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2393
Author: Willy Noiles
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?196 (Emery, Marc)

EMERY SEEKS 'POLITICAL REVENGE'

British Columbia marijuana activist Marc Emery is vowing "political 
revenge" on the federal Conservative government for allowing him to 
be extradited to the U.S. where he's just finished serving almost 
five years for selling marijuana seeds by mail. Emory - who will soon 
be returning to Canada from the Louisiana prison where he was most 
recently incarcerated - is coming home at a time when even the 
Conservatives' only polling shows the vast majority of Canadians 
favour legalization or decriminalization of marijuana.

"The whole thing is nonsense," he told CBC News last week. "I should 
never have been turned over to the U.S. government. My own government 
betrayed me and I'm going to wreak an appropriate amount of political 
revenge when I get home and campaign against the Conservative 
government." While it's not clear how much of an impact his personal 
mission will have, if a recent poll commissioned by the Department of 
Justice is any indication, a majority of Canadians are on his side on 
the issue.

The so-called "Prince of Pot" was sentenced to five years in American 
prison in 2010 after being found guilty of conspiracy to manufacture 
marijuana by selling seeds through a mail order business in which he 
sent seeds across the border. He tried to appeal that sentence in 
Canada but the Conservative government allowed him to be extradited.

In an Ipsos-Reid poll conducted in January and February and only 
released in mid-July after the Toronto Star filed a freedom of 
information request, 70 per cent of Canadians favour legalization or 
decriminalization of marijuana. The poll, which the Star noted had 
been "kept secret by the Conservatives for months," 37.3 per cent of 
Canadians believe marijuana should be legalized - a position taken by 
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau - while 33.4 per cent said it should be 
decriminalized - a position currently held by the NDP under Thomas 
Mulcair. Only 13.7 per cent said that the country's pot laws should 
remain the same. A slightly smaller percentage, 12 per cent, believe 
Canada's pot laws should be strengthened.

The poll, which also included questions about the public's position 
on prostitution, cost taxpayers $175,000. Details from the 
prostitution questions were publicly released in June, prior to 
Justice Minister Peter MacKay's tabling of new legislation on the 
matter. But the marijuana aspect of the poll was only posted online 
last Wednesday, although the Star published the results when they 
obtained them a couple weeks ago.

Although the government tried their best to keep Canadians in the 
dark about how out of touch they are when it comes to the issue of 
pot laws, the poll results aren't all that different from ones 
released in 2013 and 2012. A 2012 survey by Ipsos-Reid found 66 
percent of Canadians approved of decriminalization. And a Forum 
Research poll conducted last summer found just under 70 per cent 
favour legalization or decriminalization with 36 per cent supporting 
legalization and taxation and 34 per cent in favour or 
decriminalization. Only 15 per cent (or one in seven) wanted the laws 
left as they are. The Forum Research poll also found support for 
legalization or decriminalization is highest amount the youngest (75 
percent) and the Boomers (55 to 64 years - 72 percent), the upper 
middle-class ($60,000 to $100,000 - 74 percent). Those least likely 
to support decriminalization or legalization include Generation X (35 
to 44 years - 63 percent), lower income earners (le! ss than $20,000 
- - 57 percent), Bloc voters (56 percent), the least educated (57 
percent), Protestant Christians (61 percent) and those who describe 
their ethnicity as Canadian (64 percent) and Francophone (65 
percent). Liberal supporters are more likely to be in the pro-pot 
camp (76 percent) than are New Democrats (72 percent) or especially 
Conservatives (61 percent). (A separate poll found that Libertarian 
supporters who have voted Conservative in recent elections are 
turning away from the party over its hard line on pot. It's not 
really known how many Libertarians have voted Conservative in recent 
years but this columnist's guess is that in those tight races where 
the Conservatives got lucky in 2011 - there were enough of those 
victories in tight races to form a majority - the Liberals or New 
Democrats could come out on top next election.) The Forum poll 
results run contrary to the commonly held assumptions that pot 
supporters tend to be from lower economic c! lasses and aren't as 
educated; in fact, the exact opposite ap! pears to be the case.

That poll also looked at Trudeau's admission that he had smoked 
marijuana as an MP and his stance it should be legalized. It found 
only 21 percent were less likely to vote Liberal because of Trudeau's 
stance while 14 percent say it would make them more likely to vote 
Liberal. Conservative supporters were most likely to say they'll be 
less likely to vote Liberal (47 percent) while Liberal and New 
Democrat supporters were less likely to state this (7 and 14 percent 
respectively.) Those who support full legalization say this would 
make them more likely to vote Liberal (22 percent). "Justin Trudeau 
is ahead of the zeitgeist on this issue, and the government's 
disapproval of his position is a strength he can play to in the 
coming months," Forum President Lorne Bozinoff stated in August 2013. 
"Decriminalization or legalization has majority support right across 
the country, even among Conservative voters, and there appears to be 
little downside to this issue for hi! m."

"Most of Canada and most of the United States favours legalization 
and this is going to come to pass," Emery told CBC. Despite these 
results, the Conservative government remains steadfast in their 
opposition to loosening pot laws. And they've made Trudeau's stance a 
focus of their political attacks, trying to spin it as a desire to 
feed drugs to children. In a recent Conservative print ad, they 
state, "Trudeau's agenda would make it easier for kids to get and 
spoke marijuana. The Liberals want to make smoking marijuana a normal 
everyday activity for Canadians. The Conservative Government wants to 
stop kids from using marijuana. That's why we enacted tough new laws 
against selling marijuana near our schools and moved to end grow-ops 
in residential neighbourhoods." And when the Ottawa Citizen asked 
MacKay about the poll, his spokesman tried to change the channel by 
saying Trudeau would "fully legalize recreational marijuana, which 
would make it easier for kids! to buy and smoke in their 
neighbourhoods, like cigarettes today."

There's something almost laughable about the Conservatives' attacks 
on Trudeau. It's almost in the same category as the provincial 
Conservatives' attempts to paint former provincial Liberal Leader 
Dalton McGuinty as a "reptilian kitten" killer in 2003. The Liberals, 
for their part, have said that legalizing pot would give the 
government more control over who is obtaining it, much like alcohol, 
or even cigarettes. Not mentioned is how much the federal treasury 
could bring in in taxation, much as happened in Washington and Oregon.

Even the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police formally asked the 
federal government in 2013 to allow officers the option of ticketing 
for marijuana possession, rather than ignoring the offender or 
dragging them into the court system. "It must be recognized... that 
under the current legislation the only enforcement option for police, 
when confronted with simple possession of cannabis, is either to turn 
a blind eye or lay charges. The latter ensures a lengthy and 
difficult process which, if proven guilty, results in a criminal 
conviction and criminal record," Association President Chief Const. 
Jim Chu said at the time. The Globe and Mail found the number of 
charges being laid against drug dealers is decreasing in Canada as 
forces struggle with a seeming lack of zeal in cracking down. And 
while there were more people found in possession of marijuana last 
year over the previous year, the Globe reports there were fewer 
charges. "Police are less enthusiastic abo! ut (enforcing the 
controlled substances legislation) now than they were 10 years ago," 
Simon Fraser University criminologist Rob Gordon told that newspaper. 
"It is particularly true in the case of what may be defined as soft-end drugs."

While the government's drive to shift production of medical marijuana 
from the patient to larger companies has been stayed by the courts 
pending a full hearing - likely in the new year - those few companies 
who've already been granted permits to grow are investing in 
improving the level of acceptance of marijuana as a health aid by 
offering extensive information packets to doctors capable of 
prescribing marijuana as a medicine and even lobbying doctors 
directly. In June, a Quebec hospital became the first in Canada to 
officially allow the use of cannabis inside its institution.

And although medicinal use of marijuana is a separate issue from the 
recreational use of it, it has definitely softened the public's 
perception of the plant. How can pot be so terrible when it's already 
being used as a medical aid, they wonder. Unless the Conservatives 
start to soften their position on marijuana, Emery could very well 
get his wish of "political revenge."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom