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Canadian Pot-Product Merchants Court Disaster By Going International
And then, suddenly, after a decade or so of relative calm, the war was on again.
The drug war, that is. Rumours had been circulating in official marijuana circles for over a month that something funny was up when the series of Web sites controlled by Montreal-based seed provider Heaven's Stairway abruptly shut down earlier this year. Last week, the most ominous of the rumours were confirmed when the RCMP announced that it had indeed busted the Cartierville operation in late January and that owner Richard Baghdadlian, his wife and five employees faced serious charges and possibly lengthy jail terms. Seized in the raid were some 200,000 marijuana seeds, prompting the RCMP to describe Heaven's Stairway as "a criminal organization involved in the trafficking, importation and exportation of cannabis seeds, as well as in conspiring for the purpose of cannabis cultivation via the Internet."
New Sheriff In Town?
The concern among some civil libertarians and pro-marijuana advocates is that this latest bust is a sign of things to come under the new Conservative government.
"I feel it's certainly possible this is the pendulum swinging backwards and yeah, it concerns me," says Marc-Boris St-Maurice, executive director of the National Organization of Reform of Marijuana Laws in Canada. "I mean, funny enough, the last time we saw a war on drugs/zero tolerance mentality in this country was back in '88, when Mulroney got re-elected, and now we're seeing another possible return of the wave with the new Conservative government coming to power. It's some very stormy weather we're seeing now. What will it be like when the dust settles? It's hard to tell. But I guarantee you the Conservatives are not keen on Canada being known as a seed-selling country."
RCMP spokesperson Sylvain Leroux points out that the Heaven's Stairway investigation began in 2004, long before anyone dreamed the impossible dream of the Conservatives taking control of Parliament. "First of all, this bust is not from out of nowhere," he says. "There had been complaints from different levels of government, and from foreign governments as well."
When prodded, Leroux acknowledged that most-if not all-of that pressure had come from our clean-living neighbours to the south. Something that comes as no surprise to St-Maurice.
"My guess, if you look at the Marc Emery case in B.C. with the U.S. seeking to extradite him, is that at the same time they probably expressed interest in busting other Canadian seed sellers as well, and instead of letting the U.S. in to come and do it, like with Emery, the RCMP said, 'Oh no, we're gonna take care of it ourselves,'" says St-Maurice. "I think the Heaven's Stairway arrest is an attempt to show our neighours that we're actually doing something about it."
Stay Local
St-Maurice, however, doesn't feel the crackdown on seed suppliers is necessarily the worst thing Canadian legalization advocates could ever hope for. In fact, he indirectly supports the RCMP on the issue.
"Look," says St-Maurice, "they went after Heaven's Stairway because of the international shipping aspect. And I think we should prevent people from exporting cannabis products from Canada. It's one thing to turn a blind eye to selling seeds domestically, but when those seeds are being shipped to the United States, where it's clearly illegal, well, the RCMP has a responsibility to prevent our citizens from breaking laws in other countries, even if they're doing it from here. It's complicated because it becomes an international issue. One of the key arguments against legalizing pot in Canada is that it will unleash a flood of pot into the U.S., and, well, something like this sort of helps to justify these arguments.
"My angle," continues the long-time anti-prohibition warrior, "is that if Canada wants to be credible about legalizing pot, we've got to at least show we can prevent it from being exported to places where it's illegal. Otherwise we'll never be able to do it. My goal, our goal, is to legalize pot in Canada, not anywhere else and not be an inconvenience to any neighbours for doing so. By letting people operate with this international seed shipping stuff, it doesn't bode well for that. So, in a way, it's possible there's sort of an upside to all of this."
Tell that to Baghdadlian and his crew, who face possible 10 year prison sentences if found guilty.
Source: Mirror (CN QU)
Copyright: 2006 Communications Gratte-Ciel Ltee
Contact: letters@mtl-mirror.com
Website: The Montreal Mirror : News, Arts, Film, Music
And then, suddenly, after a decade or so of relative calm, the war was on again.
The drug war, that is. Rumours had been circulating in official marijuana circles for over a month that something funny was up when the series of Web sites controlled by Montreal-based seed provider Heaven's Stairway abruptly shut down earlier this year. Last week, the most ominous of the rumours were confirmed when the RCMP announced that it had indeed busted the Cartierville operation in late January and that owner Richard Baghdadlian, his wife and five employees faced serious charges and possibly lengthy jail terms. Seized in the raid were some 200,000 marijuana seeds, prompting the RCMP to describe Heaven's Stairway as "a criminal organization involved in the trafficking, importation and exportation of cannabis seeds, as well as in conspiring for the purpose of cannabis cultivation via the Internet."
New Sheriff In Town?
The concern among some civil libertarians and pro-marijuana advocates is that this latest bust is a sign of things to come under the new Conservative government.
"I feel it's certainly possible this is the pendulum swinging backwards and yeah, it concerns me," says Marc-Boris St-Maurice, executive director of the National Organization of Reform of Marijuana Laws in Canada. "I mean, funny enough, the last time we saw a war on drugs/zero tolerance mentality in this country was back in '88, when Mulroney got re-elected, and now we're seeing another possible return of the wave with the new Conservative government coming to power. It's some very stormy weather we're seeing now. What will it be like when the dust settles? It's hard to tell. But I guarantee you the Conservatives are not keen on Canada being known as a seed-selling country."
RCMP spokesperson Sylvain Leroux points out that the Heaven's Stairway investigation began in 2004, long before anyone dreamed the impossible dream of the Conservatives taking control of Parliament. "First of all, this bust is not from out of nowhere," he says. "There had been complaints from different levels of government, and from foreign governments as well."
When prodded, Leroux acknowledged that most-if not all-of that pressure had come from our clean-living neighbours to the south. Something that comes as no surprise to St-Maurice.
"My guess, if you look at the Marc Emery case in B.C. with the U.S. seeking to extradite him, is that at the same time they probably expressed interest in busting other Canadian seed sellers as well, and instead of letting the U.S. in to come and do it, like with Emery, the RCMP said, 'Oh no, we're gonna take care of it ourselves,'" says St-Maurice. "I think the Heaven's Stairway arrest is an attempt to show our neighours that we're actually doing something about it."
Stay Local
St-Maurice, however, doesn't feel the crackdown on seed suppliers is necessarily the worst thing Canadian legalization advocates could ever hope for. In fact, he indirectly supports the RCMP on the issue.
"Look," says St-Maurice, "they went after Heaven's Stairway because of the international shipping aspect. And I think we should prevent people from exporting cannabis products from Canada. It's one thing to turn a blind eye to selling seeds domestically, but when those seeds are being shipped to the United States, where it's clearly illegal, well, the RCMP has a responsibility to prevent our citizens from breaking laws in other countries, even if they're doing it from here. It's complicated because it becomes an international issue. One of the key arguments against legalizing pot in Canada is that it will unleash a flood of pot into the U.S., and, well, something like this sort of helps to justify these arguments.
"My angle," continues the long-time anti-prohibition warrior, "is that if Canada wants to be credible about legalizing pot, we've got to at least show we can prevent it from being exported to places where it's illegal. Otherwise we'll never be able to do it. My goal, our goal, is to legalize pot in Canada, not anywhere else and not be an inconvenience to any neighbours for doing so. By letting people operate with this international seed shipping stuff, it doesn't bode well for that. So, in a way, it's possible there's sort of an upside to all of this."
Tell that to Baghdadlian and his crew, who face possible 10 year prison sentences if found guilty.
Source: Mirror (CN QU)
Copyright: 2006 Communications Gratte-Ciel Ltee
Contact: letters@mtl-mirror.com
Website: The Montreal Mirror : News, Arts, Film, Music
