I was hoping to attend tonight’s forum in Edmonds with travel show host Rick Steves, State Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles, State Rep. Mary Helen Roberts, former U.S. Attorney John McKay, and former White House advisor Bud Krogh. It starts in about an hour, but I’m stuck at home with parental duties. I was hoping to ask Mr. McKay the following question:
If Marc Emery is successful in his efforts to avoid extradition to Seattle for drug charges (McKay was the U.S. Attorney who initially went after him) and becomes a free man again, what can Americans do to stay safe?
If anyone is in attendance, let me how it went.
UPDATE: Wow, it looks like McKay has done a 180:
“Federal law makes the possession of any amount of marijuana a crime,” McKay said. “So, even if you’ve got a certificate from your doctor, a federal officer could arrest you. … That’s just bad policy.”
McKay faulted Congress for failing to take initiative on the issue. It is not the place of federal prosecutors or law officers to make policy, he said, nor should the White House go it alone.
In the end, he argued, marijuana should not be lumped in with cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin as part of the war on drugs. Marijuana law, McKay said, “should look a lot more like alcohol (regulations) and a lot less like cocaine and methamphetamine (laws).”
Unfortunately, Marc Emery is still sitting in a Canadian jail cell awaiting extradition. Maybe McKay can meet with new U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan and reverse more than just his stance on this subject.
It starts in about an hour, but I’m stuck at home with parental duties.
Stuck? So your child is a drag on your social life, dad?
@1
Stuck? So your child is a drag on your social life, dad?
Of course it is, but that’s not a complaint. That’s just part of being a parent.
And going to political forums isn’t exactly my “social life”, it’s more of a strong interest of mine.
I’m going to make this clear to everyone in these threads. If you want to accuse me of being a bad parent for whatever reason you conjure up, please send me an email so that I can arrange for you to say it in person. I won’t bite, I’ll simply introduce you to my wife and child so that your naive prejudices about the kinds of people who advocate for drug law reform can be put to rest.
@2 I won’t bite
Lee, I agree, parenting skills, even if they are questionable, are a personal matter. Hang in there.
@3
Thanks. It gets old. I’ve started to delete some of the comments as off-topic, but I’m generally reluctant to do it unless it gets particularly annoying.
I heard McKay talk about MJ the other day. Seemed to be pretty rational guy.
He seems like an awfully good candidate to take Inlee’s seat if Inslee makes a go at Guv or even take McD off of his perch.
The US government should leave Marc Emery alone and establish reasonable, sane laws in regard to marijuana. That means legalize, regulate and tax it.
PI
How much do you know about the Emmery case?
What are the real issues?
In what I remember of McKay’s talk, he pushed the legal issues .. that the conflict between having a MM law to legalize the medical use of something where the medical indications are vague and the rational for treating MJ as a controlled substance are worse.
I would really like to know what the issues of law are here.
For example, it is clearly against the law to grow and sell or even give MJ to people who do not have prescriptions. If Emery did that, then he broke the law and needs to pay the consequences.
It seems to me that any other policy fall under the sobriquet used in the OJ defense by creating a level where laws do not matter.
On the other hand, from what McKay said, the MM law is written so poorly that the decision to investigate and prosecute may be pretty arbitrary.
Anyhow, maybe Lee could help us all be giving us some facts?
errrr ahhhh
Lee, might have read my comments about McKay @5.
This is not a turnaround for McKay, at least not form his recent stands. Personally, I think McKay has exactly the right stand and would hope that this guy would become active in WASTATE politics.