Canada Surrenders Marc Emery To Hypocrisy

Canadian marijuana activist and Libertarian Marc Emery has surrendered to the authorities and will be extradited to the US. He has agreed to a tentative plea bargain that will keep his two Canadian employees out of US prison. Emery faces a minimum sentence in the US of five years. His crime - selling marijuana seeds by mail order into the United States.

Emery has been selling seeds since 1995. He's received slaps on the wrist from Canadian authorities in the past, but when the Americans decided they wanted him in jail, Canada handed him over.

Ian Mulgrew writes in today's Vancouver Sun:

It is a legal tragedy that in my opinion marks the capitulation of our sovereignty and underscores the hypocrisy around cannabis.

Emery challenged a law he disagrees with using exactly the non-violent, democratic processes we urge our children to embrace and of which we are so proud.

"The same seeds I sold are being sold right in America," Emery complained. "The people in California are doing it the same way I did so there's a terrible hypocrisy at work here."

He's right.

And this:

Emery is facing more jail time than corporate criminals who defraud widows and orphans and longer incarceration than violent offenders who leave their victims dead or in wheelchairs.

Whatever else you may think of him -- and I know he rankles many -- what is happening to him today mocks our independence and our ideal of justice.

Excellent Wikipedia entry on Marc Emery here.