Renee Boje was charged with others in the Todd McCormick marijuana cultivation case in Bel Air, California, and after an initial arrest the charges were dropped before the United States reinstated them and sought her extradition from Canada.[1] She had come to Canada on legal advice and fought the extradition while seeking refugee status as, in her words, a victim of the American war on drugs.[1] In January 2000 the US government was still seeking to extradite her to try her over the Bel-Air medical marijuana growing operation, with a ruling expected on 9 February.[2]
On 9 February 2000 a British Columbia Supreme Court judge signed the order surrendering her to the United States, and her lawyer prepared an appeal.[1][2] She had been free on bail in Canada while she appealed the February 2000 decision, which sent her back to face marijuana conspiracy charges for her alleged role in the 1997 California case involving more than 1,000 marijuana plants.[3] Canada’s justice minister later described the allegation as tending and watering 4,116 marijuana plants grown in a rented Bel-Air mansion, conduct he ruled was not political expression.[3] If convicted in the United States she faced a mandatory sentence of up to ten years.[3]
Boje spent about seven years on bail in Canada while the judicial and ministerial surrender decisions were appealed.[1][3] Her lawyer’s archive says the US Department of Justice eventually approached her counsel to resolve the matter, and she travelled to California, pleaded guilty to possessing under 30 grams of marijuana and was sentenced to a year’s probation before returning to Canada.[1]
