Tag Archives: former-federal

In a Seattle Times op-ed Saturday, former US Attorney for the Western District of Washington John McKay defected to the other side. As the federal prosecutor in Seattle, McKay oversaw the indictment and prosecution of Canadian marijuana seed seller and pot advocate Marc Emery, who now sits in an American federal detention facility awaiting the formal handing down of a five-year prison sentence later this year. But while he thinks Emery and most pot-smokers are “idiots,” McKay has come to see the futility of continuing to enforce marijuana prohibition. “As Emery's prosecutor and a former federal law-enforcement official, however, I'm not afraid to say out loud what most of my former colleagues know is true: Our marijuana policy is dangerous and wrong and should be changed through the legislative process to better protect the public safety,” he wrote. Marijuana prohibition “has utterly failed,” McKay concluded. “The demand for marijuana in this country has for decades outpaced the ability of law enforcement to eliminate it,” he declared, ready to throw in the towel. http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2010/sep/05/marc_emery_prosecutor_now_says_l added by: JackHerer