MOJO WIRE - Must Read

Pot advocate appeals for refugee status

Mother Jones, April 7, 2000

On Monday, the Canadian government will consider whether to grant a U.S. woman's rare application for political refugee status or to extradite her to California on charges of marijuana cultivation, according to the COAST INDEPENDENT in British Columbia.

Renee Boje applied for refugee status in February when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who held her in connection with a British Columbia pot bust at a medical marijuana cultivation garden, threatened to deport her. The RCMP then discovered an outstanding warrant in the U.S. for her arrest stemming from a 1997 DEA bust in Bel Air, near California.

Boje was arrested with eight others at the home of the "Pot Prince of Bel Air," medical marijuana activist and cancer patient Todd McCormick. McCormick had hired Boje as a graphic artist for a pro-marijuana magazine he planned to publish, and was growing marijuana with a then-valid (under the state's voter-approved Proposition 215) license for medical research.

Boje, who claims she was "in the wrong place at the wrong time," cited the United States' unusually strict penalties for drug-related crimes as the basis for her refugee claim. She also claimed that she had been sexually abused at the hands of Los Angeles police after her Bel Air arrest, and faced more harassment and abuse if deported.

Boje said she fled to Canada only after her lawyers told her the charges had been dropped. Unfortunately, according to the L.A. WEEKLY, the charges were reinstated in July.

If Boje is convicted, she could receive a life sentence. The same charges in Canada carry no mandatory sentences and are often penalized with fines or dismissed.

--BSB