Renee Boje stumbled on the founder of the Cannabis Castle in a Hollywood
bong gallery, the trendiest type of Los Angeles coffee shop. She was sipping
a latte and sketching at a table. He was smoking a joint and making no
secret of it.
| Renee Boje was one of several people indicted by a U.S. federal grand jury and charged with conspiracy to manufacture and sell marijuana to Hollywood stars. -- Christopher Morris / The Globe and Mail |
"You're very brave," she told him. He said he had cancer and a doctor's
note, which made it legal in California, and the conversation went from
there.
The next week, Ms. Boje pulled through the gates of Todd McCormick's Bel
Air mansion, dubbed the Cannabis Castle because of the marijuana plants
growing on the balcony and in tidy rows across the back yard. Mr.
McCormick, an activist for the legalization of marijuana for medical
purposes, was writing a book on how to best grow it. Ms. Boje, fresh out
of university, would draw the pictures. That was spring of 1997, two months
before a police raid shut them down.
In February of this year, Mr. McCormick and his band of followers,
including Ms. Boje, were officially indicted by a U.S. federal grand
jury and charged with conspiracy to manufacture and sell marijuana to
Hollywood starts. By then, Ms. Boje had been warned by a lawyer friend to
expect an indictment and the 29-year-old fine-arts graduate had already
slipped across the border to British Columbia.
The Americans want her back. According to police affidavits, the strongest
evidence against her is that she was seen watering a plant.
The lawyers fighting her extradition say she is a bit player, a pawn in the
U.S. government's war on drugs and its political spat with California,
where doctors can freely recommend marijuana. Ms. Boje has never been in
trouble with the law before and is terrified of going to prison, all for
knowing, as she says, "someone who grew some herbs to help his illness."
If convicted, she faces a mandatory minimum jail sentence of 10 years.
In Canada, her lawyers say, she would probably be fined.
Desperate to stay, Ms. Boje has taken an unusual step: An American, she is
asking Canada to give her sanctuary as a political refugee fearing
persecution in the United States.
Her chances are slim.
Last month, Norway's supreme court refused to extradite an American
charged with smuggling hashish into the U.S., ruling that he would suffer
inhumane conditions in prison. But it would be difficult for a close
neighbour such as Canada to refuse such a request.
Ottawa is already seen by Washington as soft on drug crimes and granting
refugee status would mean openly condemning the U.S. justice system, not to
mention the precedent it would set. If Ms. Boje wins, it will be an
extraordinary first.
"Why shouldn't the rest of the civilized countries stand up to the U.S
for once?" said John Conroy, the Abbotsford lawyer fighting Ms. Boje's
extradition. "Think about being stuck in a federal prison for 10 years for
watering some plants. That's what the U.S. wants to do. Does she have a
well-founded fear of persecution? I think she does."
It was hardly a secret the Mr. McCormick was growing marijuana in his
Bel Air house. The media ran stories on the news and Jay Leno joked
about it. People were always visiting; Ms. Boje said she met Woody
Harrelson, the actor now paying Mr. McCormick's legal bills, at a party at
the mansion.
On the afternoon of July 29, 1997, Ms. Boje and a female friend were
stopped by police after leaving the mansion. She though she might have run
a red light, but the officer handcuffed both women and drove them to a
nearby fire station, where several dozen federal agents waited in riot gear.
She said they threatened to "go in shooting," so she described the layout
of the house.
Ms. Boje said she was then interrogated at the police station for 72
hours, moved from one cell to another and strip-searched 15 times. She was
finally released on a $10,000 bond. The charges were dropped without
explanation a few months later, only to be reinstated by a grand jury in
February.
When federal agents raided the mansion, they found more than 4,000 plants --
a high quantity for personal use. Mr. McCormick said he was growing
different strains to determine which worked best on certain diseases.
Ms. Boje says she never saw celebrities or anyone else buying pot at the
castle. And she denied smoking marijuana at the house. Police say they have
samples of her handwriting on labels taped to some
marijuana pots. Her lawyer has advised her not to comment.
"I guess you could call me naive," she said. "It seemed to me that it was
all completely legal." Holed up in a friend's house in Robert's Creek, a
community up the coast from Vancouver, Ms. Boje is now struggling to raise
money for her legal defense. Prominent U.S. legal experts, including Mr.
Harrelson's lawyer, have agreed to testify at her extradition hearing. But
she must find a way
to cover the costs.
The first stage of the hearing is set for November, but Ms. Boje is
bracing for a long legal fight.
