Martin Luther Emery

Marijuana activist Marc Emery was released from jail today. He was a guest on John Gormley Live, where he compared the "persecution" of his "culture" by "Europeans" to the civil rights movement, slavery and the Holocaust.

"We've arrested more people for marijuana since 1960 than Stalin sent to the gulags."

That ladies and gentlemen, is your brain on drugs. (Emery is also of the opinion that the climate in Saskatchewan was too harsh for white men and that Europeans should have left it to the Indians and sought more "civilized" places to live. Like Vancouver's Hastings Street, I presume.)

By and large, I'm ambivalent towards the decriminalization of marijuana, but I have enough past experience with the effects to know that I don't want pot smokers behind the wheel, taking care of children, or responsible for heavy machinery - and until there is a roadside test for pot intoxication, arresting people for possession is just fine with me.

What I'm not ambivalent towards are those who choose civil disobedience to make a political point, who then mewl like babies when they suffer the anticipated legal consequences. In the case of the self-described "Prince of Pot", he really needs to be treated to the reality of the Soviet gulag to get a better understanding of how obscene his pathetic, self-pitying comparisons were.

My advice to the advocates of decrimilization is to dump this loser, and fast. At best, his logic is convoluted - at worst, one suspects he's suffered brain damage. It may be a simple chicken-egg question - perhaps his stupidity predated his marijuana use. It's conceivable that Mr.Emery was destined to be as dense as a soggy post from the day he first drew breath - but whatever the case may be, inhalation of marijuana has not enhanced his mental capacities.

Posted by Kate at October 18, 2004 11:54 PM