At first, there doesn’t seem to be any connection between the Surrey “terrorist” couple and cannabis.
John Nuttall and Amanda Korody were convicted of planting inert pressure cooker combs on he B.C. legislature grounds in 2013.
They were assisted by an undercover RCMP agent.
But they were released and declared victims of police entrapment last week when a B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled in their favour.
Justice Catherine Bruce said the pair were no threat to public safety.
She said: “This was not a situation in which the police were attempting to disrupt an ongoing criminal enterprise; rather the offences committed by the defendants were brought about by the police and would not have occurred without their involvement.”
“By any measure, this was a clear case of police-manufactured crime.”
The connection with cannabis has less to do with the terrorist plot, and more to do with police actions.
Nuttall and Korody were set up by the RCMP. Without the help of an undercover agent, 240 officers, and $900,000 of taxpayer money in overtime alone, the 2013 Canada Day bomb plot never would have happened.
Likewise, without a little help from the RCMP and other police departments, cannabis prohibition would not be as severe.
Cannabis is a harmless substance, and is, in fact, a medicine for a great number of people.
As social taboos diminish and light shines on the truth, cannabis connoisseurs have left the shadows and opened up storefronts.
These entrepreneurs make purchasing cannabis far less dangerous by defying federal rules and offering patients and consumers a safe, clean, over-the-counter environment.
But, whether it’s Vancouver’s onerous regulations threatening the shut down of a majority of the market, or Toronto’s zero-tolerance and subsequent raids, police and politicians remain committed to enforcing cannabis prohibition.
And that is police-manufactured crime.
We’re told that the “law is the law,” that police are just following orders.
But that’s nonsense. Forget that cannabis is in the criminal code, it doesn’t matter.
In her ruling of the Canada Day bombing plot, Justice Bruce said, “The role the police played in the mission is even more offensive because they violated the Criminal Code in order to accomplish their objectives and almost all of their actions were unsanctioned.”
You see? The police will ignore the criminal code when it suits them.
There is no reason to continue cannabis prohibition. The fact that cannabis was ever deemed illegal in the first place is an affront to the self-ownership of men and women in a free society.
Raiding dispensaries and fining those who fall outside an ultra vires regulatory apparatus is police-manufactured crime.
This is not a situation in which the police are attempting to disrupt anti-social criminal enterprises.
Rather, offences are brought about the police’s insistent desire to act out against the free and fair market in cannabis.
Rather than ignoring the criminal code where it is outdated, rather than lowering cannabis on their scale of priority, the police continue to manufacture this perceived conflict.
By any measure, continued prohibition is a clear case of police-manufactured crime.