http://www.guardian.co.uk/bush/story/0,7369,758761,00.html'Persecuted' medicinal marijuana users seek asylum in Canada
Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles
Saturday July 20, 2002
The Guardian
A group of Americans are seeking political asylum in Canada, claiming they face persecution by their own government because of their use of medicinal marijuana.
Their cases are being considered by the Canadian legal authorities, who are assessing whether they face "genuine fear of persecution" if they are sent back.
Hundreds of Americans have crossed the border into Canada in recent months following clampdowns ordered by the attorney general, John Ashcroft, on medicinal marijuana clubs that exist in states where voters have passed measures approving
them.
(snip)
One of the best known American fugitives in Canada is Renee Boje, whom the US wishes to extradite to stand trial for cultivating cannabis plants at the home of
Todd McCormick, a cancer patient and medicinal marijuana activist in LA. She had watered the plants on his behalf.
"I'm a member of a class of society they're trying to oppress or wipe out completely," Renee Boje told the online news network, AlterNet from her home in Vancouver, British Columbia.
If convicted, she faces a minimum sentence of ten years. The length of that sentence is part of her plea that she faces unjust persecution if she were to return home. "There are hundreds of Americans here because they are being
persecuted by their own government."
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Yeah, those damn liburals... If we had a Republican government, they belive in states rights!
How do you relieve cancer patients their pain?... Why throw em' in prison for 10 years thats how.