Emery round-up

Marc gets some support on the editorial pages in the Canadian newspapers. The Quesnel Observer says that Emery was providing an important public service and our US prohibitionists should leave him alone. The Langley Times posts a letter that notes the only thing Emery is really guilty of is telling the truth about prohibition. The Sault Star interviews a MMJ provider who notes that the case is not about drugs, it's about human rights. He says, “Marijuana smokers, marijuana growers, we’re not terrorists. To put us in such a light is ludicrous.” Simon Poole reports that even Canadian prohibition supporter, Vic Toews, has softened his initial stance on Emery's arrest saying "he's not so sure extraditing under these circumstances is fair. He even admits that the mandatory minimum of 10 years Emery faces in the US could contravene his Charter rights."

Meanwhile, Marc replies to his critics in a letter to the National Post. I can't find a link so here's the text.

Zev Singer quotes me accurately, though not necessarily completely. For example, I said and had written that "a Nazi is a person who inflicts pain, punishment, torture, incarceration or death on another human being who is acting peacefully and honestly." But Mr. Singer forgot the next line from my statement: "And who believes in an ideology that morally justifies inflicting pain, punishment, torture, incarceration or death for the good of the state." Otherwise, I appreciate Mr. Singer's initiative in bringing up the topic. It's a discussion that we ought to have. Is the roundup of the cannabis culture worldwide a holocaust?

Remember, most of the world refused to believe the Jews of Europe were being placed in concentration camps, or that there were vicious pogroms against them, until it was far too late. There were thousands of Jews in concentration camps during the 1936 Berlin Olympics, yet no one boycotted those Olympics. The world did not believe there was a holocaust in Cambodia and the world did not act. The world did not believe or act on the holocaust in Rwanda.

Twenty-four million people worldwide have been arrested for their belief in cannabis since 1955 and many millions of them have spent substantial time in jail. Much of the world does not want to believe there is a cultural genocide going on against the 164,000,000 people who, according to the UN last year, cherish marijuana in their lives. Yet everywhere on Earth today in 2005 we are hunted down, humiliated, arrested, jailed or even executed.

The perpetrators are "Nazis," even though they may call themselves something else. They want to destroy our people and have given the state sanction to do it.

Personally, I'm not so sure keeping this Nazi meme alive is useful but there's no way a reasonable person could construe his remarks as anti-semitic and he's got a point. The war on cannabis consumers is not that different from the Holocaust. It's an attempt by the government to purge society of a class of people they don't approve of.

[hat tip to Tim Meehan]