what's the big deal-it's a PLANT, people.

A big news item locally is the looming extradition of Renee Bojee, the US citizen and marijuana refugee who has a husband and child in Vancouver(http://www.reneeboje.com). Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore and Woody Harrelson have spoken out in support of her.

She lives in my neighbourhood, I guess, and despite how the US authorities have characterised her, probably has done nothing to worsen the local drug problem. She probably goes about her business like any other mom and occasionally goes to the odd pro-hemp/marijauna rally where people publicly smoke, like a few other moms in my neighbourhood do as well. Her only real crime, as far as I am concerned, was being born American.

I guess for me the matter is that it is a plant. The product has unexploited medical and industrial potential and it's a PLANT. Like a tomato plant, which is legal to possess and use and sell the products of. I can show you a few plants that are dangerous, but perfectly legal. Why is this one picked on? Oh yeah, it has narcotic properties. Kind of like Morning Glory seeds. Hm, bust me now, I have some of that growing right near my front door where a kid could get ahold of it. Bust my mother for the beautiful Datura that has been doing so well outdoors in the Okanagan Valley. In fact, both these plants are more dangerous narcotics than pot, since the possibilities of overdosing and the deliriant effects are far more of a risk than with marijuana. Plus, I probably possess enough perfectly legal alcohol and tobacco to kill an adult by overdose right now. Pot just makes you dopey and sometimes paranoid.

I'm not even a marijuana advocate. I don't really even like the stuff. It just made sense to me during my visit to the Netherlands that the ever-pragmatic Dutch have stopped enforcing soft-drug possession laws and concentrated their efforts on the hard drugs. We should be extraditing some of our crack dealers, not this woman. Besides, Noam said so and I'll bet he never inhaled. Moore, I'm not so sure of.