Recently, Marc Emery, the head of the B.C. Marijuana party was arrested and is threatened with being extradited to the States. There he might be sentenced to life in prison.
My gut reaction is that this is wrong. Marijuana shouldn’t be illegal, and I think a large portion of the Canadian population would agree. Our laws against it have been getting more and more lax. And I don’t like the idea of the US enforcing their laws/beliefs in a sovereign country.
But, my brain thinks otherwise. However much Mr. Emery disagrees with the US policy on marijuana, the fact is that he broke their law by mailing seeds to them. How is this different from growing the marijuana in the states, sending it to someone, and then fleeing to Canada? If he had only sent the seeds to places in Canada, I don’t think there would be a problem, but he broke the US laws on US soil.
If we don’t extradite people for breaking another country’s law within that country, then we open ourselves up to a lot of stupidity. Would the average Canadian be happy if a terrorist blew up the CN tower and then crossed the border into the States and stayed there scot free? Probably not. By the same token, if someone within Canada was smoking medical marijuana, he should not be arrested because he was breaking a US law.
So, I think Marc Emery is going to have to face the facts that he is a criminal in a country he effectively conspired against. His sacrifice will keep important treaties going.

For the record, I don’t smoke pot. I don’t even drink alcohol.