Renee Boje Hearing Adjourned
To May 5 To Set A Date For The Extradition Hearing.
Canadian Asylum Sought.
See
Boje Case Gets More Publicity In Canada For
Cruelty Of DEAland Marijuana Laws(Marijuananews note:
The longer this drags on, the more bad publicity DEAland policies get. If the narcs were
smart, they would drop this, but if they were smart they would get a job with a future.)
POT ADVOCATE CALLED REFUGEE FROM U.S. ‘WAR’
April 20, 1999
Vancouver Province
provletters@pacpress.southam.ca
http://www.vancouverprovince.com/
By Jack Keating, Staff Reporter
The fight to keep a 29-year-old California woman from being deported to the U.S. to
face marijuana-related charges began yesterday in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver.
"She’s a refugee from the American war on drugs,"
lawyer John Conroy said of Renee Boje’s bid to stay in Canada. Renee’s website
is http://www.thecompassionclub.org/renee/
Boje, an advocate of medicinal marijuana, was caught up in a high-profile case
in Los Angeles in 1997 when Todd McCormick, also a medicinal-marijuana advocate, was
caught growing pot at a Bel Air mansion. He said he grew it to relieve the pain of cancer.
The use of marijuana for medical purposes became legal in California in 1996, but
federal authorities are fighting the law.
The U.S. government’s formal request for extradition to
California, where Boje would face a minimum 10 years in jail if convicted, was made
yesterday before Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm.
Dohm adjourned the case to May 5 to set a date for the extradition hearing, which is
being fought on grounds that Boje would face cruel and unusual punishment in California.
Conroy said similar charges here would result in a fine and/or a minimal jail sentence.
He also pointed to two recent reports by the United Nations and
Amnesty International that condemn "the systematic abuse of female prisoners" in
the U.S.
Boje said she was held for 72 hours at the Federal Corrections Facility for Women in
downtown Los Angeles, where she was strip-searched 15 times. Two of the searches were done
in the presence of male officers, who made lewd and threatening remakrs, she said.
Boje, who is free on $5,000 bond, said: "I am hoping that
Canada will provide me a safe haven, as it did for the conscientious objectors to the
Vietnam War."
Copyright: The Province, Vancouver 1999
Supported