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.
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."
