| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Mystic Power
admin THC-Ministry YahooGroup
Joined: 23 Aug 2004
Posts: 3605
Location: Key West
|
 Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 2:48 pm Post subject: U.S. Drug Czar Admits Emery Takedown was Political!! |
 |
|
From Loretta Nall of the U.S. Marijuana Party:
| Quote: |
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/connelly/235421_joel05.html
By JOEL CONNELLY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST
In their search for proof that Bigfoot exists, researchers ought to take
hair samples from the Washington, D.C., offices of Drug Enforcement
Administration boss Karen Tandy.
Tandy has left giant footprints on the drug prosecution of Vancouver,
B.C., mail-order pot entrepreneur, and B.C. Marijuana Party founder,
Marc Emery.
With an ill-advised statement politicizing the case that also misspelled
Emery's first name, the DEA boss may help transform a publicity seeker
into a Canadian martyr.
Seeking to stop his extradition to the United States -- where he faces
charges of trafficking in marijuana seeds -- Emery's legal team could
use Tandy's words to telling effect: Their client is being prosecuted
for his beliefs.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle brought charges against Emery last
week, based on investigative work by the local DEA office.
The feds allege that Emery has peddled his wares south of the border. An
acquaintance, in the growing business here, yesterday joked that he
received "prompt, efficient, courteous service" recently while buying
seeds at Emery's Vancouver store. He politely declined a request to
sample the resulting product.
But extraditing Emery, through Canadian courts and eventually the
Justice Ministry, will be sensitive.
Nor is conviction in Seattle a given. The city voted in 2003 to put pot
possession at the bottom of law enforcement priorities.
Authorities in this Washington astutely adopted a Just-the-Facts
approach, turning the Emery case into a bombast-free zone.
"The focus of this case is on the drug trafficking of Marc Emery. It is
not about his political activities, nor his campaigns for office. Nor is
it focused on his magazine," said assistant U.S. attorney Todd Greenberg.
Consider the contrasting bluster of Tandy's statement from the DEA home
office in the other Washington.
"Today's arrest of Mark (sic) Scott Emery, publisher of Cannabis Culture
magazine and the founder of a marijuana legalization group, is a
significant blow not only to the marijuana trafficking trade in the U.S.
and Canada, but also to the marijuana legalization movement."
Why? Tandy gives us a handy dose of innuendo.
"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."
As the old Wendy's TV spot used to ask, Where's the beef?
Tandy cites no supporting evidence. Anyone who has witnessed Seattle Hempfest -- the nation's largest marijuana-related festival -- is likely to scoff.
"Marc Emery has never given a penny to Seattle Hempfest or Sensible
Seattle (sponsor of a 2003 initiative)," said Dominic Holden, longtime
Hempfest organizer.
"If he did, us American advocates might be driving new cars and live in
nice homes like the activists in Canada," he added.
The statement by Tandy will send nationalists-of-the-north up in smoke.
"The big fuss here seems to be the notion that we're knuckling under to
American law enforcement," said Rafe Mair, a lawyer and Vancouver's
best-known radio talk-show host.
Canada is moving toward decriminalizing marijuana possession. It still
has on the books a law against sale of pot seeds, but police have not
pursued Emery's seed selling by catalog or out of his Vancouver store.
The heavy hand is nothing new. U.S. drug policy chief John Walters
visited Vancouver in 2002. He warned Mayor Philip Owen that crossing the
border would get tougher if the city adopted a drug policy based upon
tolerance and treatment.
"It was the most unsatisfactory meeting of my life," Owen said. "The
pressure was intense."
Owen was succeeded by current Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell. A former coroner and drug squad cop, Campbell wants to legalize -- and tax -- marijuana.
"Drug czars are the most ill-informed people in government ... They are still living in an era of 'Reefer Madness,' " Campbell said in a recent interview, referring to the much-lampooned 1930s movie. He was named this week to the Canadian Senate.
Vancouver has adopted a "Four Pillars" approach to drug use: Treatment,
harm reduction, prevention and enforcement.
By contrast, Karen Tandy is a Justice Department hard-liner who, in the
words of Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, "doesn't seem amenable to
listening."
She is a career federal prosecutor who has gone after mail-order 
sellers and been involved in thwarting California's voter-approved
medical marijuana program.
The DEA boss's record is marked by accusations of excessive
prosecutorial zealotry, according to a 2003 investigation by The Nation
magazine.
She once waited until three days before trial to turn over 60,000 pages
of documents to defense attorneys.
In the current case, she is giving Emery a larger stage to strut his stuff.
"It would seem, from her statements, this prosecution is about Mr.
Emery's political efforts to legalize marijuana as much as it is about
his business," said Murray Mollard, director of the B.C. Civil Liberties
Union.
And that is exactly what U.S. prosecutors must avoid if they want Emery,
rather than their case, to go south.
P-I columnist Joel Connelly can be reached at 206-448-8160 or
joelconnelly@seattlepi.com--------------------------------
Dear Ms. Tandy,
Just so you know, nothing short of a bullet will stop my work in US drug
policy reform. I will fight you and your evil henchmen until I draw my
dying breath.
--
Posted by Loretta Nall to US Marijuana Party
<http://usmjparty.blogspot.com/2005/08/tandy-admits-emery-takedown-was.html>
at 8/05/2005 04:26:00 AM |
Not only is this the most corrupt administration in U.S. history, it's also the most inept.
Bliss,
Ben
_________________
"We are the Ones we have been waiting for."
~Hopi Elder ~
"In Lak'ech"
~ Ancient Mayan: "I am another YOU." ~ |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Fyrefly1
Cannabis Sacrament Minister
Joined: 07 Sep 2004
Posts: 2209
|
| Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 11:36 pm Post subject: |
|
|
"with great corruption comes great ineptitude..."
Who said that??
Me
_________________
Fyrefly1
"All truth passes through three stages: first it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, 19th Century Philosopher |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mystic Power
admin THC-Ministry YahooGroup
Joined: 23 Aug 2004
Posts: 3605
Location: Key West
|
| Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 2:25 am Post subject: |
|
|
That'd make a great sig-tag!
or...
GOOFY TIMES CALL FOR GOOFY MEASURES.
One of my faves.
Bliss,
Ben
_________________
"We are the Ones we have been waiting for."
~Hopi Elder ~
"In Lak'ech"
~ Ancient Mayan: "I am another YOU." ~ |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Fyrefly1
Cannabis Sacrament Minister
Joined: 07 Sep 2004
Posts: 2209
|
| Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 6:21 am Post subject: |
|
|
_________________
Fyrefly1
"All truth passes through three stages: first it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, 19th Century Philosopher |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
indicaspice
Cannabis Sacrament Minister
Joined: 16 Nov 2003
Posts: 1491
Location: somewhere on earth
|
| Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2005 2:18 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: |
"It would seem, from her statements, this prosecution is about Mr.
Emery's political efforts to legalize marijuana as much as it is about
his business," said Murray Mollard, director of the B.C. Civil Liberties
Union. |
Canada has been wishy washy about legalization for many years. Why now?
_________________
What worries you masters you.
Haddon W. Robinson |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mystic Power
admin THC-Ministry YahooGroup
Joined: 23 Aug 2004
Posts: 3605
Location: Key West
|
| Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2005 4:24 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Archive of LTE's and Editorial Comments re: the DEA in Canada:
_________________
"We are the Ones we have been waiting for."
~Hopi Elder ~
"In Lak'ech"
~ Ancient Mayan: "I am another YOU." ~ |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
Public Forum
Members only forum
Members Group
| 
