Jody Wynen, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Last week there was a very brief article on the extradition and arrest of Canadian citizen Marc Emery for the charge that he sold millions of cannabis seeds to U.S. customers.
I must admit that I was more than disappointed that the Saint Louis Post gave this so little coverage.
It is outrageous to threaten a non US citizen with prison time merely for the crime of selling of marijuana seeds when there are so many other offenses that our limited resources could be used to pursue, especially when so many States have decriminalized and legalized the medical use of cannabis.
Throughout the United States, and even within Missouri, we as a nation are reevaluating how we think about cannabis.
In Columbia, MO marijuana has been decriminalized, and just last week Mayor Francis Slay finished conducting a mini-poll to gage the public opinion of the decriminalization and legalization of marijuana. Check out the results, they are overwhelmingly in favor of legalization. The point is that there is currently a very lively public debate dealing with the issues concerning marijuana, and it deserves more coverage. The extradition of Marc Emery is an outrage, and to use him as a scapegoat, by attempting to sentence him in US court for a "crime" that we as Americans are reevaluating ourselves, is worse than immoral. it is downright hypocrisy.
Jody Wynen
St. Louis