Cannabis Study House - NORML Weekly News in Audio 2008.1.3

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Weekly News in Audio

January 3, 2008

Seattle Marijuana Policy Review Panel Concludes I-75 Working As Intended

Anti-Extradition Campaign Underway In Canada For Country’s Most Famous Marijuana Law Reform Advocate

Seattle, Washington:
Seattle Marijuana Policy Review Panel Concludes I-75 Working As Intended

Initiative 75, passed by the Seattle, WA voters in September of 2003, requires that "the Seattle Police Department and City Attorney’s Office shall make the investigation, arrest and prosecution of marijuana offenses, when the marijuana was intended for adult personal use, the city’s lowest law enforcement priority." The ordinance subsequently adopted by the Seattle City Council to implement the new policy included provisions for the president of the city council to appoint an eleven-member Marijuana Policy Review Panel to assess and report on the effects of this ordinance.

Today, following more than three years of meetings and reviews, the Marijuana Policy Review Panel issued their final report, including the following conclusions and findings:

I. I-75 was implemented and following its implementation there were reductions both in the number of Seattle Police Department marijuana incident referrals and in the number of Seattle City Attorney filings of marijuana charges, although it is impossible to say whether these reductions were the result of I-75;

II. There is no evidence of any adverse effect of the implementation of I-75, including specifically

1. no evident increase in marijuana use among youth and young adults:

2. no evident increase in crime; and

3. no adverse impact on public health.

III. There is some evidence of arguably positive effects from I-75in the following substantive areas examined:

1. Fewer adults experiencing the consequences of involvement in the criminal justice system due to their personal use of marijuana; and,

2. A small reduction in the amount of public safety resources dedicated to marijuana possession cases and a corresponding slight increase in availability of these resources for other public safety priorities.

The panel then recommended that the City Council (1) keep the current ordinance in effect; (2) require the City Attorney’s Office to provide the city council with an annual report describing the disposition of each case in which an individual was referred for misdemeanor marijuana charges, tracking the disposition of the charges, including an analysis of the racial and gender breakdown of those referred for prosecution; and (3) disband the Marijuana Policy Review Panel.

NORML Board member Dominic Holden, a Seattle resident who led the successful effort to pass I-75 and is one of the 11-members appointed by the City Council President to serve on the review panel, stated:

"The panel’s report is the first of its kind in the US to show that de-prioritizing marijuana enforcement has no negative impact on society. In contrast, this report shows that the measure freed up limited law enforcement resources to focus on violent and dangerous crime. This is the result that initiative backers and endorsers, including the League of Women Voters, promised voters when I-75 was on the ballot.

Toronto, Canada:
Anti-Extradition Campaign Underway In Canada For Country’s Most Famous Marijuana Law Reform Advocate

National Post columnist and lawyer Karen Selick penned a New Year’s Eve column calling attention to the upcoming January 21 extradition hearing for Cannabis Culture publisher, and former cannabis seed vendor, Marc Emery. The extradition hearing could lead to Emery having to stand trial in the United States on federal charges relating to selling cannabis seeds over the Internet.

In an open letter to Rob Nicholson, Canada’s Minister of Justice, Selick acknowledges that Emery will likely be compelled by Canadian courts to surrender to U.S. authorities, and pending such a determination, asks Nicholson’s intervention on behalf of Emery. Selick exhorts, "[Marc’s] conduct would have been grounds for criminal charges here, although Canadian authorities never chose to charge him. But that’s enough under the Act to make it mandatory for the judge to commit him for surrender to U.S. authorities.

That’s where you come in, Mr. Justice Minister. Once the court has ruled, the Extradition Act gives you discretion to refuse to surrender Marc if it "would be unjust or oppressive having regard to all the relevant circumstances." From 1999 until he was arrested in 2005, Marc declared his income tax return that his occupation was ‘marijuana seed vendor.’ He paid $578,000 in income taxes into federal and BC government coffers….Canada Revenue Agency…graciously accepted his money without ever taking any action to put a stop to all this criminal activity."

Nicholson is reminded by Selick that an Internet search today of the term ‘marijuana seeds’ still finds numerous seed-selling businesses still operating widely in Canada, making the arrest of only Emery (along with his co-defendants Michelle Rainey and Greg Williams) apparently a selective law enforcement action. Further, when Canada was compelled in 2000 to make medical marijuana available by the Ontario Court of Appeals, confusion reigned and that Health Canada (Canada’s health bureaucracy) referred qualified medical patients to purchase seeds online from Marc Emery’s company.

Selick concludes, "It would be the height of hypocrisy and injustice for this country to now hand over its benefactor to a foreign government for a prosecution it declined to pursue itself. The Extradition Act requires you, Mr. Justice Minister, to refuse to surrender a person if the request for extradition is ‘made for the purpose of prosecuting or punishing the person by reason of their…political opinion.’ Please consider Marc’s long history of idealistic activism and tell the U.S. government that you won’t let them haul this politically motivated Canadian hero off to one of their jails."

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