Can't stop - living like a (reefer) refuge

The big pot persecution story of the week is about Renee Boje, a US political refugee who has been living in Canada while seeking asylum from our unjust marijuana laws. This is a big case that predates my active involvement in the reform movement, so I don't much about it.

From what I gather, she got caught up in the famous bust of medical marijuana growers Peter McWilliams and Todd McCormick. This was one of the earliest medmar busts that tested federal versus California law. They had a lot of plants, thousands of them as they were planning to provide for other patients and McCormick was writing a book on cultivation. Both men were medical users who were denied use of their medicine after the bust.

McWilliams died, having choked to death on his own vomit without the anti-nausea relief of cannabis. McCormick spent five years in jail, suffering great pain without his. Boje meanwhile, was a bit player in this set piece. She was doing illustrations for the book, and my sources tell me she at one point watered some droopy plants. She was clearly not involved in any major capacity.

The charges against her were initially dropped, but her lawyer informed her the government was about to resurrect them and advised her to flee the country, which she did. She built a life for herself in Canada, by all accounts a good citizen who married and has a Canadian son. Her refuge status has been in limbo for years but suddenly, on the heels of Raich, her deportation to the US to face these old charges is imminent.

Currently released on bail awaiting appeal of the deportation order, she is at the mercy of the prohibitionists, who if successful will condemn her to a reported ten years to life prison sentence and even worse exile from her family who wouldn't be allowed to cross the border because of the current regulations prohibiting travel to those with (or in this case associated with) marijuana violations.

The case presents a huge injustice and is a matter our government should not be wasting tax dollars to pursue. In a rational world, the US would tell Canada they had no interest in extraditing and leave Boje to live in peace. Unfortunately these are not rational times.

There's a lot of press if you wish to learn more. Starting with an interview on her pending deportation, an archive of press clippings at Media Awareness Project including an article in Glamour magazine and a pdf of the decision in her case. Current coverage also in this article from Cannabis Culture.