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Where the weed is at in court
Smoke you in court

Charlie McKenzie hour.ca

Emery defends the weed

Ottawa, Ontario Sept 1, 2005 -- Canadian judges are once again being asked to go where politicians obviously can't - to the bottom of the marijuana issue. In the process, a triumvirate of the hardest of Canada's hardcore marijuana militants is taking - and being taken - to the courts.

Vancouver seed salesman Marc Emery, who compares himself to Gandhi and Martin Luther King, is the enfant terrible of the marijuana movement. U.S. authorities want him extradited to face a possible life sentence for selling marijuana seeds to Americans, which apparently is not a crime in this country. (While there is some talk of mounting a major public awareness campaign on his behalf, last week the ever ostentatious Emery further endeared himself to would-be supporters by calling Justice Minister Irwin Cotler "a Nazi-Jew.")

Meanwhile, well-known cannabis crusader Grant Krieger, of Calgary, is going to the Supreme Court. An MS sufferer, Krieger was convicted of trafficking in 2003 after admitting he supplied marijuana to the terminally ill. The judge instructed the jury to convict, but Krieger's lawyer, John Hooker, says the jury should have reached a conclusion on its own, ergo the conviction should be overturned. "Maybe this will be the start of the change," Krieger says. "That's the only reason I'm in court. The laws have to change to help the sick."

Last week, a Montreal judge found federal Marijuana Party founder and current card-carrying Liberal Marc Boris St-Maurice guilty of simple pot possession. He was arrested and charged last year at Chez Marijane, a members-only café operated by the Bloc Pot. Undercover narcs joined the Bloc to gather evidence, which defence counsel Julius Grey contends is both unacceptable practice and outright infringement of constitutional rights.

This is his fourth marijuana conviction, but instead of receiving a $300 fine, St-Maurice says this time he should've gone straight to jail. "Clearly," he says, "I'm an incorrigible recidivist with no chance of rehabilitation. The law does not act as a deterrent for me, so what else is left but to remove me from society?"

"If anything,' he adds, "this further exemplifies how important it is to change our marijuana legislation."

All three cases will keep lawyers busy for years, while Canadian taxpayers foot the bulk of the bill.