Democracy vs America

Today, Marc Emery, aka the Prince of Pot, was taken into custody in British Columbia at the request of the US Department of Justice. He faces a minimum of 10 years in jail for his actions...but this is not a problem...the problem is that Marc Emery is a Canadian citizen who operated a Canadian business on Canadian soil, on which he paid taxes to the Canadian government...now the US wants to charge him for conspiracy to make marijuana (even though he freely sells seeds and nothing more), selling marijuana seeds over the internet to Americans, and he was also charged with money laundering, even though he has paid income taxes on the money, and even filed his source of income as "marijuana seed vendor".

But now, he is facing extradition to the United States, to face their tougher laws...from DEA leader Karen Tandy, "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." and "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." (taken from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer)...these two statements clearly indicate that Marc Emery is not being sought as a drug peddler, but rather as a political activist, that he is being persecuted for his political beliefs...and according to Article 4 of the Canada-US extradition treaty (posted below), it is illegal to extradite someone for political purposes...and in fact, it is a violation of his democratic rights to punish him as a political figure (though punishing him for the crime he has committed is fine)...

The fact of the matter here is that Marc Emery is a criminal...he sells marijuana seeds which is illegal, and has mailed his catalog to MPs (he stopped upon his arrest in 2005, which also shut his business down)...he deserves to be punished for these crimes, by OUR government...but he also deserves to be free from persecution for his political ideals, including his championing for the decriminalization of marijuana...

Like him or hate him, if Marc Emery is convicted by an American court, it will set a dangerous precedent, one where you could face large penalties for what we consider small crimes, penalties against your political beliefs and not against your actions...