Marc Emery Prosecutor Now Says Legalize Marijuana

[MedicalNeed]

(Update: On Saturday, September 18, Emery supporters are organizing Free Marc Emery rallies worldwide. Read the listings and other information here. Supporters are also calling on the Canadian government to repatriate Emery into the Canadian justice system, a right they have under treaty.)

In a Seattle Times op-ed Saturday, former US Attorney for the Western District of Washington John McKay defected to the other side. As the federal prosecutor in Seattle, McKay oversaw the indictment and prosecution of Canadian marijuana seed seller and pot advocate Marc Emery, who now sits in an American federal detention facility awaiting the formal handing down of a five-year prison sentence later this month.

But while he thinks Emery and most pot-smokers are "idiots," McKay has come to see the futility of continuing to enforce marijuana prohibition. "As Emery's prosecutor and a former federal law-enforcement official, however, I'm not afraid to say out loud what most of my former colleagues know is true: Our marijuana policy is dangerous and wrong and should be changed through the legislative process to better protect the public safety," he wrote.

Marijuana prohibition "has utterly failed," McKay concluded. "The demand for marijuana in this country has for decades outpaced the ability of law enforcement to eliminate it," he declared, ready to throw in the towel.

"Brave agents and cops continue to risk their lives in a futile attempt to enforce misguided laws that do not match the realities of our society," he wrote. "These same agents and cops, along with prosecutors, judges and jailers, know we can't win by arresting all those involved in the massive importation, growth or distribution of marijuana, nor by locking up all the pot smokers."

Pot prohibition fills the pockets of "Mexican and other international drug cartels and gangs," even though marijuana is nowhere nearly as harmful to users as other illegal drugs, McKay wrote.

"So the policy is wrong, the law has failed, the public is endangered, no one in law enforcement is talking about it and precious few policymakers will honestly face the soft-on-crime sound bite in their next elections. What should be done?" McKay asks.

t is a rhetorical question, of course, and McKay has answers: Recognize that the real public safety danger to Americans is not from marijuana but from prohibition, build policy on "sound science, not myth," and... drum roll please... "We should give serious consideration to heavy regulation and taxation of the marijuana industry (an industry that is very real and dangerously underground). We should limit pot's content of the active ingredient THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), regulate its sale to adults who are dumb enough to want it and maintain criminal penalties for sales, possession or use by minors, drivers and boaters."

Not to worry, though, McKay assures his erstwhile partners in the prohibition racket. There will be years to come of extirpating criminality from the former black market, and that means job security: "DEA and its law-enforcement partners must therefore remain well equipped and staffed to accomplish this task: to protect our families from truly dangerous drugs and to drive drug cartels, gangs and dope dealers from our society."

Still, a remarkably candid confession from a man who made a living prosecuting marijuana offenders. Too bad he didn't find himself on the road to Damascus when he still had the prosecutors' powers.

Seattle, WA
United States


NewsHawk: MedicalNeed: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: StoptheDrugWar.org | raising awareness of the consequences of prohibition
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Website:Marc Emery Prosecutor Now Says Legalize Marijuana | StoptheDrugWar.org

 

[vaping]

WOW!! someone saw the light!
as a non-user of marijuana i was recently arrested and locked up, my name smeared all over the newspaper in this small community, just because i didn't know that one guy we have living on my property (he and my hubby are both on medical marijuana and permitted by our state) grew way too many plants in the bushes and trees. i am 74 years old and my far vision is not what it used to be. i just didn't know how many plants were here. until the raid. now they threaten to take away my home. this has had a bad impact on my health. my bloodpressure is going through the roof and i cannot sleep. i have flashbacks of my hours in jail. at my age this might kill me.
this just goes to show you that it is not the marijuana but the stupid laws which hurt even innocent people who got nothing to do with it. this affects the public and what respect there is left for the law and establishment in general. it creates rebels. the trust is gone. it is replaced with paranoia and legalism, not with doing what is right.
i hired a lwayer but i have been warned that if i get after the police, they would get "even" and that they did this before. and that i can "count my blessings that i don't have to serve 5 years in prison". this sound like mafia tactics to me.

 

[Oddnonsmoker]

For reference purposes, here's what McKay actually wrote in to The Seattle Times:

I DON'T smoke pot. And I pretty much think people who do are idiots.

This certainly includes Marc Emery, the self-styled "Prince of Pot" from Canada whom I indicted in 2005 for peddling marijuana seeds to every man, woman and child with an envelope and a stamp. Emery recently pleaded guilty and will be sentenced this month in Seattle, where he faces five years in federal prison. If changing U.S. marijuana policy was ever Emery's goal, the best that can be said is that he took the wrong path.

As Emery's prosecutor and a former federal law-enforcement official, however, I'm not afraid to say out loud what most of my former colleagues know is true: Our marijuana policy is dangerous and wrong and should be changed through the legislative process to better protect the public safety.

Congress has failed to recognize what many already know about our policy of criminal prohibition of marijuana – it has utterly failed. Listed by the U.S. government as a "Schedule One" drug alongside heroin, the demand for marijuana in this country for decades has outpaced the ability of law enforcement to eliminate it. Perhaps this is because millions of Americans smoke pot regularly and international drug cartels, violent gangs and street pushers work hard to reap the profits.

Law-enforcement agencies are simply not capable of interdicting all of this pot and despite some successes have not succeeded in thwarting criminals who traffic and sell marijuana. Brave agents and cops continue to risk their lives in a futile attempt to enforce misguided laws that do not match the realities of our society.

These same agents and cops, along with prosecutors, judges and jailers, know we can't win by arresting all those involved in the massive importation, growth or distribution of marijuana, nor by locking up all the pot smokers. While many have argued the policy is unjust, few have addressed the dangerously potent black market the policy itself has created for exploitation by Mexican and other international drug cartels and gangs. With the proceeds from the U.S. marijuana black market, these criminals distribute dangerous drugs and kill each other (too often along with innocent bystanders) with American-purchased guns.

Our wrongheaded policy on marijuana has also failed to address the true health threat posed by its use. While I suspect nothing good can come to anyone from the chronic ingestion of marijuana smoke, its addictive quality and health risk pale in comparison with other banned drugs such as heroin, cocaine or meth. Informed adult choice, albeit a bad one, may well be preferable to the legal and policy meltdown we have long been suffering over marijuana.

Not only does our policy directly threaten our public safety and rest upon false medical assumptions, but our national laws are now in direct and irreconcilable conflict with state laws, including Washington state. So called "medical" marijuana reaches precious few patients and backdoor potheads mock legitimate medical use by glaucoma and chemotherapy patients. State laws are trumped by federal laws that recognize no such thing as "medicinal" or "personal" use and are no defense to arrests by federal agents and prosecution in federal courts.

So the policy is wrong, the law has failed, the public is endangered, no one in law enforcement is talking about it and precious few policymakers will honestly face the soft-on-crime sound bite in their next elections. What should be done?

- First, we need to honestly and courageously examine the true public-safety danger posed by criminalizing a drug used by millions and millions of Americans who ignore the law. Marijuana prohibition has failed – it's time for a new policy crafted by informed policymakers with the help of those in law enforcement who have risked their lives battling pot-purveying drug cartels and gangs.

- Second, let's talk about marijuana policy responsibly and with an eye toward sound science, not myth. We can start by acknowledging that our 1930s-era marijuana prohibition was overkill from the beginning and should be decoupled from any debate about "legalizing drugs." We should study and disclose the findings of the real health risks of prolonged use, including its influence and effect on juveniles.

- Third, we should give serious consideration to heavy regulation and taxation of the marijuana industry (an industry that is very real and dangerously underground). We should limit pot's content of the active ingredient THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), regulate its sale to adults who are dumb enough to want it and maintain criminal penalties for sales, possession or use by minors, drivers and boaters.

Federal criminal law should give way to regulation, while prohibiting interstate violation of federal laws consistent with this approach. In short, policymakers should strive for a regulatory and criminal scheme like the one guarding that other commodity that failed miserably at prohibition, alcohol.

As my law-enforcement colleagues know well from chasing bootleggers and mobsters, this new regulatory and criminal approach will still require many years of intensive investigation and enforcement before organized criminal elements are driven from the vast marijuana market. DEA and its law-enforcement partners must therefore remain well equipped and staffed to accomplish this task: to protect our families from truly dangerous drugs and to drive drug cartels, gangs and dope dealers from our society.

John McKay is a law professor at Seattle University and the former United States attorney in Seattle.

 

[randi2u]

Dear, hoping for a more compassionate world, (since I have no other way to address you), I'm sorry to hear of the position you are in now, and I hope it turns out good for you.

We hear in California have a bill coming up in November to legalize Marijuana, because despite the fact that California was the first state to make Medical Marijuana legal, it has never been truely legal here. While the State passed the law to make it legal many people have been arrested coming out of a dispensary, and charged with the Federal law, and still had to do time in prison.

Please tell anyone you know in California to Vote yes on this bill to legalize and tax Marijuana.

I hope your problems are cleard up and you are able to live the rest of your life in peace, without worrying about the police knocking on your door.

 

[Ozzz]

Although these statements by this ex raper of pot users for years are encouraging, you have to ask yourself 'why now?' Why not when he could have saved, not killed people. Because if he had taken this obvious stance of the sane then, he would have had to get a real job. Warehousing human beings in prison is a thriving business.

Finally he ruins anything good he says here with this; "We should limit pot's content of the active ingredient THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), regulate its sale to adults who are dumb enough to want it and maintain criminal penalties for sales, possession or use by minors, drivers and boaters."

Same ole crap by the same ole cops. If we regulated, limited the content of Cannabis then the black market would still be just as strong providing the unregulated strengths that are out there now. Regulated is regulated.

Ciao!

 

[zigzagburning]

What I have a hard time to understand. Is where are they getting there Ideas at. They prosecuted someone from Canada yet they have states in the US that before long it will be legal. How can they do this. This is very unjust and people from the states apologize but yet they still elect the government that did it ,with warning they were going to do that.
That is like me holding a bat and telling you I won't hit you I am not vilant then right after it comes out of my mouth I beat you to death with it.
Our dollar gets better compared to theres and notice what happens ,they try to knock us every way they can. Pretty much most of the pot that is on the streets in the US comes from us they say. Now I get ,they are scared we would rake in the most from it . So they are allowed to have it and we are not ,I would say for this reason.

 

[free2blaze]

Although these statements by this ex raper of pot users for years are encouraging, you have to ask yourself 'why now?' Why not when he could have saved, not killed people.

I ask myself this question almost everyday, I hear of this person or that person coming out to say they support ending prohibition, after they are no longer a federal/state official or judge or POLICE OFFICER, when there voice could have made a bigger difference they said nothing but lock em up, my guess is because lock em up is what gave them there money, I wish more of these people would think more of there fellow Americans than there greed, in the end none of em are any better than the rest of us.

 

[greengo840]

I ask myself this question almost everyday, I hear of this person or that person coming out to say they support ending prohibition, after they are no longer a federal/state official or judge or POLICE OFFICER, when there voice could have made a bigger difference they said nothing but lock em up, my guess is because lock em up is what gave them there money, I wish more of these people would think more of there fellow Americans than there greed, in the end none of em are any better than the rest of us.

The retired old fart looks back on his life and see what he's caused; then he realizes that the very people he'd been fighting and locking up are now the one's that he needs to make his retirement safe as well as the society that his offspring exists in.

Those that fed the beast now fear the repercussions. Why not speak up when your voice mattered indeed.

Even in the end, McKay calls me the idiot while acknowledging the dangerous and immoral acts that he has committed against his own society. Hope that those damaged by your oppression are more courageous and merciful than you.

 

[Ms. chump stain]

He's a know it all jerk, just like 90% of the police, and government. At least he's saying mostly the right things now.

Yeah, we're all idiots, because we don't want what big pharm is selling us. Yeah, we're all idiots because we want to live pain free, without being hooked on opiates.
Ask your doctor if this middle finger is right for you.

We're dumb for voting idiots like him into office.

And these people like him that think cannabis is somehow more dangerous with higher potency are stupid. Doesn't any of these elected idiots know that higher potency equals less harmful smoke inhaled? You can't overdose, moron.

Obama's Drug Czar said an equally stupid comment. I keep hearing these people who are against ending prohibition, bringing up the potency of current cannabis as an argument against legalizaton.