Yes, the drug war is a political war

[solarbird]

So go read this article on the imprisonment of a Canadian citizen selling pot seeds by mail order. Canada extradited him for something not illegal in Canada, which pisses me off too. (The argument would be that selling the seeds to US citizens brings US law into play, so it's not as bad as it might be. But it's sure as hell not good.)

Most importantly, read these quotes:

In a bellicose statement, [then-DEA head Karen Tandy] called the move against Emery "a significant blow not only to the marijuana trafficking trade in the U.S. and Canada, but also to the marijuana legalization movement... 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."

So the US is using the drug war to silence political opposition to that drug war. And they're admitting it. Can we get much more corrupt, here?

Comments

[oh6.livejournal.com]

Hey, I know that guy. He used to live in London, Ontario, and I think he ran a used book store and was involved in the local libertarian party, but I may be mixing him up with someone else.

My reservations about his politics aside, I don't think the DEA is helping anyone but themselves by doing this kind of thing.

My cheerful response of the day

[mojave-wolf.livejournal.com]

Yes, they could get more corrupt and heavyhanded. They could declare every group advocating pot legalization a terrorist organization or somesuch, and start hauling people off to the indefinite detention facility of choice. Just enough people to shut everyone else up about whatever they want to shut them up about. Give it 20 years the way we're going, and that won't seem so far-fetched.

Re: My cheerful response of the day

[chirik.livejournal.com]

...

That doesn't really seem that far-fetched now. :-/

Part of me is like 'it's really time to just find somewhere else to live' but it's been made clear lately that it doesn't matter where you are, citizen of the US or not, if the US doesn't like you, you are in for a world of trouble. :-(