An American woman's fight against extradition to the United States to face drug-conspiracy charges is highlighting the two countries' differing attitudes towards medical marijuana use. Renee Boje has claimed refugee status in Canada, claiming she's a political pawn in the U.S. government's war on drugs. The U.S. Justice Department is seeking Boje's extradition to Los Angeles to face charges of conspiracy to manufacture and possession of marijuana for the purposes of distribution. Boje, 30, was arrested in 1997 outside the Bel Air mansion of Todd McCormick, where police said she and another woman were seen watering and moving some of the 4,000 pot plants being cultivated there. Boje, a New York artist who says she was hired by McCormick to do illustrations for a book, has not admitted handling the plants. [continues 647 words]
By now, vomiting is second nature to Peter McWilliams. He has no shame about it. Sometimes he even sees the humor in it. McWilliams, 50, still laughs about the time he leaned over a trash can at a political convention, lost his lunch in front of strangers, then casually wiped his mouth with a cocktail napkin before continuing the conversation. The other day, at his home high in the Hollywood Hills, he simply shrugged when he returned from retching in the bathroom. [continues 1199 words]
A US Woman Seeks Political Asylum In Canada, Claiming Persecution In Marijuana Case. A US woman wanted in California for conspiring to sell marijuana is fighting extradition from Canada on the grounds that she is a political refugee - from the war on drugs. Her belief in the medicinal value of marijuana makes her in effect a member of a persecuted group, her lawyer argues. This case is more than an unprecedented legal gambit. It also illustrates the contradictory laws and enduring sensitivity of marijuana as a public issue in the United States and Canada. [continues 834 words]
(TORONTO 9-2-99) A 29-year old American woman is seeking refugee status in Canada, claiming she is a political victim of America's marijuana wars. According to U.S. prosecutors, Renee Boje has admitting moving some marijuana plants and watering others, in 1997, at the home of a wealthy California man who was growing a large amount of marijuana, allegedly for research into its medical uses. Charged under U.S. federal conspiracy laws, Boje faces a minimum 10-year prison sentence if convicted, according to her lawyer, John Conroy of Abbotsford, British Columbia. [continues 693 words]
Renee Boje stumbled on the founder of the Cannabis Castle in a Hollywood bong gallery, the trendiest type of Los Angeles coffee shop. She was sipping a latte and sketching at a table. He was smoking a joint and making no secret of it. "You're very brave," she told him. He said he had cancer and a doctor's note, which made it legal in California, and the conversation went from there. The next week, Ms. Boje pulled through the gates of Todd McCormick's Bel Air mansion, dubbed the Cannabis Castle because of the marijuana plants growing on the balcony and in tidy rows across the back yard. Mr. McCormick, an activist for the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes, was writing a book on how to best grow it. Ms. Boje, fresh out of university, would draw the pictures. That was spring of 1997, two months before a police raid shut them down. [continues 726 words]
HARTFORD - The state has taken emergency action to make GHB -- the so-called party drug blamed in the death of an East Lyme man -- a legally controlled substance. The Department of Consumer Protection took unprecedented action Wednesday, classifying gamma hydroxy butyrate and similar chemical substances as Schedule IV controlled drugs, said Commissioner James Fleming. Previously sold as dietary supplements, GHB and its chemical archetype GBL (gamma butyolactone) have gained popularity among young people because they provide the relaxed, uninhibited feeling of a few drinks but faster and cheaper. [continues 558 words]
The Spitfire Tour, a free speech forum that aims to educate, enlighten and entertain, while instigating action makes a special appearance at Woodstock on July 23-25. The tour features musicians, actors and activists speaking out on global affairs. The tour will visit 20 college campuses in the fall. Spitfire's speakers include actor Woody Harrelson, musician Perry Farrell, Indigo Girl Amy Ray, Politically Incorrect's Bill Maher, Everclear's Art Alexakis, Grateful Dead musician Mickey Hart, Nirvana's Krist Novoselic, politician & Dead Kennedy's singer Jello Biafra, designer Kenneth Cole, Spearhead's Michael Franti, X's Exene Cervenka, Bad Religion's Greg Graffin and MTV VJ Kennedy. Also on the lineup, cancer patient & medical marijuana activist Todd McCormick, Zapatista activist Cecilia Rodriguez, and world's longest tree sitter Julia Butterfly (via simulcast) [end]
It would have taken a miracle to persuade NTTF officers not to arrest the Kubbys on January 19. Officers say the home's large basement was subdivided into rooms containing sophisticated lighting, carbon dioxide and horticultural equipment. They initially overestimated the number of plants found, finally settling on an approximate figure of 256 plants, more than half of which Kubby says were seedlings. Police dismantled or seized thousands of dollars worth of grow apparatus and plants; they claimed Kubby's crop was worth almost half a million dollars. They also took almost everything else of value out of his house: computer, money, family photos, letters, cameras, even some of his clothes. [continues 3148 words]
The fight to keep a 29-year-old California woman from being deported to the U.S. to face marijuana-related charges began yesterday in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver. "She's a refugee from the American war on drugs," lawyer John Conroy said of Renee Boje's bid to stay in Canada. Boje, an advocate of medicinal marijuana, was caught up in a high-profile case in Los Angeles in 1997 when Todd McCormick, also a medicinal-marijuana advocate, was caught growing pot at a Bel Air mansion. He said he grew it to relieve the pain of cancer. [continues 207 words]
More than two years after California voters passed the medical marijuana initiative, Proposition 215 - now Section 11362.5 of the state's Health and Safety Code - the law still has not been implemented. Despite the desire of voters in California and elsewhere to make marijuana available to people whose doctors believe they could benefit from it, patients in California - especially if they prefer not to use the black market-face constant risk from law enforcement. People like David Herrick and Marvin Chavez in Orange County have gone to jail for trying to implement Prop. 215 in their own ad hoc fashion. [continues 2586 words]
Woody Harrelson, please call Renee Boje. The 29-year-old California woman, who considers herself a pawn in the battle over the legalization of medicinal marijuana in her home state, is counting on the movie star's support to help her win refugee status in Canada. Boje, staying with friends on the Sunshine Coast, faces life in prison if she loses an extradition hearing set for April 19 in Vancouver. The graphic artist says she believed medicinal marijuana to be legal in California when she became involved with a campaign to establish a Los Angeles counterpart to Vancouver's Compassion Club, which distributes pot to the chronically ill. [continues 453 words]
Peter McWilliams lives in a house overlooking Laurel Canyon with a view that stretches past the wooded hills all the way to the clustered towers of downtown. Frank Lloyd Wright called it the most inspirational site in Southern California, but it doesn't always feel that way to McWilliams. It has become a kind of prison for the 49yearold writerpublisher who hasn't been out of it since February. He doesn't have many guests over either, because his immune system is almost nonexistent and flu could kill him. [continues 759 words]
An American woman living on the Sunshine Coast says she fears she'll become the next victim in her country's war on drugs if she's forced back south of the border. Twenty-nine-year-old Renee Boje, who is currently keeping a low profile on the Sunshine Coast, is facing deportation to California where she's wanted on several federal charges related to the cultivation of marijuana. But she says she's an innocent pawn caught in a political game between the zero tolerance federal Drug Enforcement Agency and California state where medical pot use is legal, and she's asking for help to mount an expensive legal campaign to win her refugee status in Canada. [continues 355 words]
While sympathetic to his medical plight, a federal judge has denied Peter McWilliams' request for permission to smoke pot while awaiting trial on marijuana conspiracy charges. McWilliams, a writer and publisher who has AIDS, says that he needs marijuana to keep from vomiting the powerful antiviral drugs he must take each day. Last year, a federal magistrate forbade him to smoke pot as a condition of his bail, an order that McWilliams calls a virtual death decree. In a written opinion released Tuesday, U.S. District Judge George H. King refused to alter McWilliams' bail conditions. He said he is not empowered to grant "what amounts to a license to violate federal law." Despite California voters' passage of Proposition 215 legalizing the medical use of marijuana, federal law still makes possession and ingestion of marijuana a crime. [continues 105 words]
~~~~~~~~~~ Libertarian Party Organizations Now Committed To The Marijuana Issue. Large Number Of Plants Will Force Dealing With Difficult Questions - -- Analysis By Richard Cowan - January 22, 1999 The Kubby case is -- at the very least -- going to be very interesting. The absurd behavior of the police and prosecutors in arresting Steve and Michelle Kubby is already backfiring. Sending 12 armed police into the home of a nationally known medical marijuana user and political activist was dumb enough. [continues 2824 words]
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 25 - Todd McCormick, Peter McWilliams and others accused of growing pot for medical marijuana clubs say they have the right to do so under Proposition 215. On Sept. 7, they’ll have to defend that claim in federal court. U.S. District Judge George H. King will preside over the trial. McCormick was arrested in July 1997 after authorities discovered more than 4,000 marijuana plants growing in a rented Bel-Air mansion. McWilliams and four others were arrested nearly a year later, after authorities said they had evidence that he and McCormick were plotting to grow and sell thousands of pounds of pot to sell to buyers’ clubs. [continues 94 words]
Maybe The Judge Should Just Let Peter McWilliams Die The federal narcomaniacs decided, at some point,to move in on the California scene. Background: In 1996, a plebiscite was conducted. Proposition 215 ruled that a Californian could take marijuana if counseled to do so for reasons of health by his doctor. That would seem a reasonable decision, by a self-governing state. But it ran athwart a federal ruling. It is that marijuana is a proscribed substance and that its use under any circumstances is therefore unlawful. [continues 696 words]
