Autumn 2005
O'Shaughnessy's
Journal of the California Cannabis Research Medical
Group
|
What's the Matter with Canada
By Richard Cowan
In late July, Canadian police, acting on behalf of the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration, arrested Vancouver seed merchant Marc Emery, 46, and
two of his associates —Michelle Rainey, 34, and Greg Williams,
50. The DEA is seeking to extradite them to stand trial in the states,
where they could face life sentences for selling cannabis seeds to
Americans.
Emery’s successful mail-order seed business has enabled him
in recent years to underwrite the B.C. Marijuana Party, Cannabis Culture
magazine, Pot TV, and non-stop political campaigning. His arrest
wrecked
the Canadian seed business, which was also the backdoor into the
American market for Dutch seed breeders (who would not sell directly
to America).
Emery’s lawyer, John Conroy, has learned that government agents
scanned mail to and from Emery’s seed business in the weeks
prior to his arrest.
Ian Hillman at the U.S. Consulate in Vancouver says the Emery probe “nearly
involves every state... I understand it involves dozens of people on
both sides of the border.” In other words, Canada’s
collaboration with the DEA may have put a number of American patients
in danger
of being arrested under U.S. marijuana laws. I think that it would
be
very unwise for anyone in the US to buy seeds by mail from Canada,
or perhaps even the UK.
DEA Director Karen Tandy issued a press release boasting, “Today’s
arrest of Mark (sic) Scott Emery, publisher of Cannabis Culture magazine
and the founder of a marijuana legalization group, is a significant
blow not only to the marijuana trafficking trade in the U.S. and Canada,
but also to the marijuana legalization movement. Hundreds of thousands
of dollars of Emery’s illicit profits are known to have been
channeled to marijuana legalization groups active in the United
States and Canada. Drug legalization lobbyists now have one less
pot of
money to rely on.”
Marc’s money could never buy the kind of publicity that this
case has received in Canada. Even some prohibitionists have denounced
the collaboration of the Canadian police with the DEA. The prevailing
attitude can be summed up: “If what they were doing was illegal
in Canada, they should have been charged under Canadian laws; and
if it is not illegal in Canada, they cannot be deported to the
U.S.”
Michelle Rainey, the Vice President of the BC Marijuana Party,
has Crohn’s disease. Before discovering that cannabis could control
her severe symptoms, Rainey had two major surgeries to remove sections
of her intestines. She had to live with the debilitating side-effects
of the standard pharmaceutical treatments, especially steroids. When
the program was set up, Health Canada required that Crohn’s patients
get their family doctor and two specialists to approve their application —and
discouraged doctors from doing so.
Under court order, Health Canada has dropped the requirement for two
specialists and Michelle is hopeful of getting her exemption soon,
which could complicate her extradition case even more.
Ironically, it was a Seattle Grand Jury that issued the indictments.
Washington State’s Medical Quality Assurance Commission voted
in 1999 to add Crohn’s Disease to the list of illnesses that
can be treated with marijuana.
In early October, expatriate Steve Tuck was forcibly returned to the
U.S. after being taken from a Vancouver hospital bed. Tuck, a disabled
vet who has undergone multiple back surgeries, was arrested for cultivation
in Humboldt County in 2002 and fled because he feared being denied
necessary medication in prison. Canada refused to grant him refugee
status.