Agents of the US government work around the clock to destroy an unbelievable amount of human potential by prosecuting a vast number of people for so-called “crimes” that have no victims then subjecting them to draconian punishments.
The most outstanding example is the US’s policy of drug prohibition. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people are arrested for drug “crimes.” Many of them are forced to spend years, decades, even life wasting away in the US’s brutal prison system. Those who make it out are labeled “felons” and lose many of their basic legal rights including the right to vote and the right to own firearms.
Unfortunately, US officials are not content to only subject US citizens to such misery. When a good opportunity presents itself, they are happy to export it to other countries as well. That’s why US government officials convinced Canadian officials to extradite Marc Emery, a freedom activist and resident of Canada, to the US so that they could sentence him to five years in a federal prison for the “crime” of selling cannabis seeds.
After the extradition, the DEA put out a press release in which it openly bragged about the political motivation for prosecuting Emery:
Today’s DEA arrest of Marc 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.
His marijuana trade and propagandist marijuana magazine have generated nearly $5 million a year in profits that bolstered his trafficking efforts, but those have gone up in smoke today.
Emery and his organization had been designated as one of the Attorney General’s most wanted international drug trafficking organizational targets — one of only 46 in the world and the only one from Canada.
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.
It takes a special sort of person to kidnap a man and lock him in a cage for years because of his political beliefs or the fact that he runs a successful business. Unfortunately, it seems to be the sort of person likely to be employed by federal police agencies like the DEA.
Cop Block blogger Pete Eyre, who is acquainted with Marc Emery and his wife, recently put out a video about Emery for Liberty On Tour. In the video, he interviews Peter “Jaws” Jaworski, a friend and supporter of Emery, about Emery’s situation and offers some personal comments. The video also includes some information about things you can do to help out Marc Emery. Make sure you check it out.
Free Marc Emery!
by Pete Eyre on 11. Aug, 2010 in Activism
PHILADELPHIA, PA – Last Saturday when on the Foundation for Economic Education property my bud Peter “Jaws” Jaworski – one smart, hardcore dude who’s the editor of the Western Standard (Canada’s online source for libertarian news and analysis) – took a few minutes to give an overview Marc Emery’s situation. Emery, an outspoken, entrepreneurial longtime pro-freedom activist, is being threatened with five years in a cage because he engaged in activities that some bureaucrats deem “illicit”.
As I pointed out near the end of the video, there is no victim for the actions he’s accused of doing. And where there’s no victim, there’s no crime.
Check out Emery’s CannabisCulture.com and NoExtradition.net and please help get the word out using whatever peaceful method you deem most appropriate. Thanks in advance.
Thanks for the great write-up Dr. Q. As you indicated, drug prohibition is probably the most glaring example of the disconnect between “the people” and the government agents who purport to work for them. Despite decades of misinformation and blatant propaganda almost no one today believes the drug war is a good thing. It’s clearly a policy benefiting the few – politicians who get elected by sounding tough on crime, prison guard unions which are often neck-and-neck with teachers unions as being the most harm-causing organizations in each state, police departments who get new toys via asset forfeiture, military contractors who spray crops abroad, etc.
Drug prohibition at its core violates the principle of self-ownership. Marc Emery is but one of the millions of victims of these draconian policies, including CopBlock.org’s own Adam Mueller. Emery’s situation and the attention it’s garnered will only further erode the authority others grant to the violent institution of the State. It couldn’t happen sooner…
I love the fact that government employees are complaining about “propoganda”. If the gov is going to exist, then the job of the civil servants is to implement the policy that the politicians, voted in the by the populace, wants.
If the officials change the laws, then the civil servants should turn on a dime to implement the new policy.
The fact that they are taking a stance on the laws, and calling lobbying “propaganda” is proof that they are not doing their jobs and serving the citizens, but are in fact trying to rule and create laws.
Here is a letter I wrote for the New Hampshire Free Press.
It is in the August/September issue of their paper at:
http://www.newhampshirefreepress.com
What a shame that a hero like Marc Emery was taken as a political prisoner and is being held in jail because he sent cannabis seeds to Americans.
In a year when the BP oil catastrophe destroys so much and no one is to blame except the company, why do the authorities go after Marc who has destroyed nothing?
The Pan Am Flight 103 (Lockerbie, Scotland) Bomber is free now, but Marc Emery is in jail.
In an age where celebrities get preferred treatment in jail while Mr. Emery gets solitary for something trivial, we all need to take a stand.
After all, justice is not just.
The scales do not balance.
The system is wrong.
Activists know this and most people are waking up to it.
In Los Angeles, the police were told to turn their backs on pot smokers.
That is significant because Marc may be transferred to the very state where L.A. is located.
Marc Emery sent cannabis seeds by mail, but people can smoke pot out in the open there.
Something is wrong with this picture.
Paid for votes talk.
Wealth talks, but freedom and the right to live free seems to be illegal in many circumstances.
We sure have “come a long way, baby”, but in the other direction.
The wrong direction.
Our forefathers founded a nation based on freedom.
Abraham Lincoln even said … “That government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
What this means is that the government is owned by the people.
The problem today is that most people do not know this.
They have been led for decades by a corrupt government that has bullied its way with lies and arrests of innocent people like Marc Emery.
It is based on greed and power.
The fact is that the U.S. Government is threatened by those who want to take freedom back.
This government has done far worse than Marc.
Sending cannabis seeds does not compare to the crimes of our so-called leaders in Washington, the FBI, the CIA, the IRS and other government criminals.
Thomas Jefferson once said … “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.”
Take a stand.
Free Marc Emery.
George Vreeland Hill
Today the judge will throw out the plea deal. Canada gets plausible deniability when it comes to selling a citizen to the DEA. DEA gets a show trial – maybe coinciding with california’s ballot initiative, along with other states.
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