Joint Opinions
Activist Charlo Greene Detained At Canadian Border for ‘Marijuana Residue’
Pot-activist and former TV reporter for KTVA 11, Charlo Greene is famous for her on air outburst in September of 2014, quitting her journalism job to pursue a career in cannabis.
Greene recently tried to cross the Canadian border in order to promote her new company Go Greene in Vancouver. In a statement released on her Facebook page, Greene says she was immediately recognized as the “F**k it, I quit” lady by customs agents. She told Global News that customs agents detained her from 9 p.m. Wednesday until 6 a.m. Thursday on “suspicion of smuggling marijuana residue,” before being turned away.
The marijuana residue they found was “just crumbs on a black sock,” at the bottom of her purse says Greene.
“I was so excited that Phant Extract gave me the opportunity to dive into British Columbia’s cannabis culture and what I hoped would be a progressive region, as a whole,” said Greene. “But when Canadian Customs threatened to take my freedom over ‘suspicion of marijuana residue’ at the bottom of my purse, and I literally mean less residue than there was lint, it became clear there’s still so much more work to be done and I plan on returning to help.”
Charlo remained pretty positive overall, saying “this whole experience was just really disappointing,” in a video statement.
Stories like this go to show just how unfair our cannabis laws currently are, both in the United States and Canada. If Charlo wasn’t immediately recognized as the pot activist who quit her job on air, would she still have been so thoroughly searched and detained for 9-hours for “marijuana residue?” It shines a light on the fundamental problem surrounding marijuana prohibition, it allows law enforcement to discriminate and persecute whomever they choose. It was abundantly clear that Greene wasn’t smuggling marijuana into Canada, but when officers want to find something, chances are they will.
Canada is in the midst of rolling out a plan to legalize and regulate marijuana across the country, thanks to the newly elected Liberal government. Many law enforcement officers and even judges are refusing to enforce the unjust marijuana possession laws.
A judge in Quebec recently made a statement by charging a man $1.30 for growing 30 pot plants, saying “These laws are obsolete and ridiculous. When one is in the presence of laws which would have more than half of the population has a criminal record in Canada… And probably most Crown Attorneys and defense, and perhaps judges, but I will not comment on it.”
Across the country in British Columbia, a federal court judge just ruled that medical marijuana patients have a right to grow their own cannabis at home. A ruling that protests both the government’s reluctance to roll out real change immediately, as promised, as well as the licensed medical marijuana producers monopoly on cannabis in Canada.
Charlo Greene being turned away at the Canadian border due to “marijuana residue” is as ridiculous as marijuana prohibition itself.
What do you think? Was Charlo targeted for her activism?