The Rants of Issachar

So a guy who sells marijuana seeds gets arrested. Last I checked, selling marijuana seeds was still illegal in Canada, but that's one of the laws we apparently don't enforce anymore. However, the bulk of his seeds were sold to Americans and the US authorities cared slightly more than the Canadian ones. (And they don't like their postal system being used to sell illegal drugs). The conducted a sting operation, gathered the necessary evidence then asked us to arrest the guy under the terms of our treaty on the matter.

End of a mildly interesting story as far as I care, but some see this a serious assault on Canadian sovereignty. (More serious than the Danes trying to steal our island?!?) In their perspective, since we don't enforce our marijuana laws, we shouldn't extradite the guy to the Americans. Alternately, if we do extradite him, we should first extract promises that limit possible sentences he might face in the US.

That's just silly. The man knowingly violated American law when he ran a business exporting illegal substances into the US. Therefore he should face the American legal system.

Consider the following scenario. An American named Bob runs a nice business out of Seattle shipping handguns into Canada by mail. There's nothing wrong with selling hand guns in the US, but we don't like them being shipped to Canada. I think it would perfectly reasonable for us to demand that Bob be extradited to Canada to face our legal system. It would be most unreasonable for the Americans to try to dictate to us the sentences that our legal system might impose on Bob. He broke our laws, it's our business.

Same deal with the guy selling weed seeds to Americans by mail.

Posted by:  Major John

There you go trying use dispassionate logic...What you have pointed out is the fact that some people are so wrapped up in their pet cause/issue (in this case, legal or defacto-legal cannabis) that they cannot see the larger principle behind what happened. Good on you for pointing it out.

Posted by:  Sarah

I can't really understand why the Canadians are not enforcing their marijuana laws. If the laws are there, and somebody is openly defying them, then the law should either be enforced or overturned, surely.

Posted by:  issachar

Good question...

I've got a posting on that simmering, but I fear being labelled a bigot.

Posted by:  Marco

No you don't. You've never feared the word "bigot" in your life.

Actually, you probably have. But for that to stand in the way of you expressing your opinions... I don't know that side of you, man.

Posted by:  zannebee

You're too much of a bigot to fear the word "bigot".

THAT WAS A JOKE!!!

So.... don't be mad. :oD

Posted by:  issachar

Here you go Marco... One fearless posting.