Marc Emery just recently turned himself into the authorities in the US and pleaded guilty in US Federal Court to drug distribution. I am not looking at turning this into a debate on marijuana usage but just wanting to discuss the legal facts of the matter.
Currently in the US, Canada and several other countries marijuana is considered an illegal substance except for narrow usage. This is where the whole Marc Emery debate is getting sidetracked. It has turned into a debate on marijuana usage not if what he did was legal or not. I have heard arguments that said he should not be guilty of anything because what he did was not wrong. But according to the laws he was acting illegally. He knowingly sent marijuana seeds to the US and in the US this is considered illegal. This is why he was charged and convicted. Marc pleaded guilty. If he really believed he was innocent why did he not plead not guilty and go to trial.
It seems he was fighting the law through civil disobedience. Which is the wrong way of doing it. As Canada is a democracy laws can be changed in 2 ways that I am aware of. The first one is getting a sitting government to pass laws to accept your viewpoint or going to court to prove an existing law illegal. If he was so set in his ways he should have gotten enough voters accepting his viewpoints that the law would be changed. This was not done. Marc took the view point that getting charged and convicted of the crime as a way of making a statement. Is this any different than someone murdering their spouse and saying they should not go to jail because it should be legal.
If Marc and his supporters believe the laws should be changed get parliament to change the rules not practice civil disobedience to get your point across. Remember that at the end of the day the taxpayers of either Canada or the US will have to pay for his incarceration. And as a taxpayer this upsets me because I have to pay higher taxes so someone can make a political statement.
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