American woman in B.C. faces prison in medicinal pot case

Extradition decision due: Fled to Canada after arrest in 1997 drug raid

National Post, February 11, 1999

By Cori Howard, National Post

VANCOUVER - Anne McLellan, the federal Justice Minister, has 30 days to decide whether to extradite a California woman who faces 10 years in jail for her alleged role in an operation to grow marijuana for medical use.

At an extradition hearing Wednesday, Justice Michael Catliff of the British Columbia Supreme Court ruled there was sufficient evidence to warrant the removal of Renee Boje, 30, who is living in Gibsons, along the Sunshine Coast.

John Conroy, her lawyer, plans to appeal the decision, which could buy Ms. Boje at least another year in Canada.

"If I win, it's a precedent for other Americans who need marijuana for medical reasons to come to Canada to be safe," she said.

Ms. Boje fled the United States last year to avoid an indictment by a federal grand jury. Since then, she has become an unwitting heroine for the international campaign for the medicinal use of marijuana.

In 1997, she was arrested and charged with cultivating, possessing and conspiring to distribute marijuana after the police found more than 4,000 marijuana plants in a Bel Air mansion near Los Angeles. Charges were laid against nine people, including Ms. Boje and Peter McWilliams, the popular U.S. self-help author. Mr. McWilliams, who has AIDS, was convicted and, after a plea bargain, now faces up to five years in prison. Ms. Boje does not suffer from a medical condition that would require marijuana to alleviate pain.

California passed legislation allowing marijuana for medical use in 1996. But the U.S. government refused to recognize it, maintaining that state laws do not apply to federal offences.

Ms. Boje, an artist, says she was hired to provide illustrations for a book Mr. McWilliams was preparing on medicinal marijuana, but Los Angeles police claim she was caught watering some of the plants and smoking marijuana.