The leader of the B.C. Marijuana Party has been sentenced to jail time in Saskatchewan for possession. What a surprise.

Marc Emery leads the Vancouver based (yet another surprise) B.C. Marijuana Party and runs regularly in federal, provincial and municipal elections.

Embarking on a national protest, Emery was traveling across the country smoking (toking?) up in every province. His point was, as always, pot should be legal.

Emery is now expressing outrage at his arrest, and condemning the Saskatchewan legal system for sentencing him. The real question is: does Emery seriously think that he shouldn’t be sentenced? This man has repeatedly broken the law knowingly and shoudl be prepared to serve the appropriate sentence. If he were arrested crossing the border, would he expect the Canadian government to assist his case on humanitarian grounds?

It’s a slippery slope when individuals who disagree with laws expect to be able to not have them applied. Robert Latimer killed his daughter and argued that it was compassionate because of her mental and physical retardation; he’s now serving a life sentence for the crime. Although some people (mostly German, in my observation) agree with what Latimer did, murder is murder and Latimer should have been ready to serve his sentence in full.

Democracy is a wonderful thing: citizens have a right to protest laws they feel are unjust and Emery is doing this. Many people have a tremendous amount of admiration for the man and his goal of compassionate use of marijuana (I am not one of them) but any citizen of a democracy who chooses to exercise this right of protest should be willing to serve his sentence. 3 months is a small price to pay, and if Emery truly believed in the nobility of his cause he would serve it without the kicking and screaming that he exhibited today.

Posted by skooter at 10:14 PM This entry is filed under Politics.