Short takes

“bullet” Nice OpEd on travel guru Rick Steves and his quest for better drug laws in the New York Times

We are left, then, with people like Rick Steves to renew the republic with common sense brought home from other shores. He‰s taken to heart these words: ‹Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness.Š They come from an earlier innocent abroad, Mark Twain.

“bullet” National Post: Marc Emery should not be extradited. In a surreal twist, it seems the plea bargain that Emery and the United States agreed to is not going to work.

The Americans insisted on guarantees against Emery being released before his five years was up, and such arrangements are forbidden in Canadian law, so no Canadian judge can order the application of such a sentence. That means Emery will have to go ahead with the extradition proceedings that were held over in the face of the plea-bargain, and face a possible life sentence down south. Catch-22: because Canada is too humane and liberal to apply the punishment that the Americans would like — a punishment Emery has voluntarily agreed to — there appears to be no option but to hand him over to the Americans without protection against much worse treatment!

This story isn’t over by a long shot.
“bullet” Interestingly, there appears to be some positive movement within the U.N. Transform has the coverage: UN Secretary-General supports calls for Asian governments to amend outdated laws criminalising injecting drug users and other stigmatized groups and Executive Director of UN Office on Drugs and Crime declares international drug control system is not ëfit for purpose‰
“bullet” Vermont Supreme Court overturns felony marijuana conviction. Seems that the Justices felt hovering over your property at 100 feet for 30 minutes was “an unreasonable intrusion of privacy that triggers constitutional protection.”
“bullet” President George W. Bush Announces Amnesty For All Marijuana Prisoners