copobo
05-11-2010, 12:45 AM
AFP: Canada's 'Prince of Pot' turns himself in for US extradition (http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h8CtTINMoP27C61byyy1KXXrKLyw)
Canada's 'Prince of Pot' turns himself in for US extradition
(AFP) â?? 2 hours ago
VANCOUVER, Canada â?? Canada's self-styled "Prince of Pot" rallied supporters on Monday before turning himself in to Canadian authorities to be extradited to the United States to face a five-year jail term.
Marc Emery, 52, is alleged by US prosecutors to have sold more than four million marijuana seeds through the mail via his website. About 75 percent of the seeds went to US customers.
His wife Jodie Emery told AFP her husband expected to be extradited within "days or a week" after exhausting all legal challenges and an appeal for clemency to Canada's justice minister.
"It?s absolutely devastating to think that I might not see my husband for five years," she said. "It?s a harsh reality."
The couple are still holding out hope that Emery may be allowed to serve his sentence in a Canadian jail to be near his family, if Canada's Public Safety Minister Vic Toews consents.
"We hope to have him transferred here," she said. Meantime, "I am going to keep busy by running our store and our website online, keeping the cause alive, rallying to bring him back home to Canada."
Speaking outside the British Columbia Supreme Court before turning himself in, Marc Emery touted his activism to legalize marijuana as "the work of a great Canadian."
As well, he downplayed his "so-called crime of selling seeds from my desk here in downtown Vancouver to consenting adults all over the world and in the United States."
Marc Emery, who is the publisher of "Cannabis Culture" magazine and president of the British Columbia Marijuana Party, claimed Canada has five million to seven million pot smokers and he asked them to join his fight for freedom.
"I'm proud of what I have done and have no regrets," he said, flanked by two dozen of his supporters and claiming to have millions more in Canada and the United States.
"I have told my supporters every Conservative member of Parliament (from the ruling party) should be hounded endlessly, unrelentingly and unmercifully until they are defeated in the next or following election.
"It's to be a life project for them," he said. "As long as I am incarcerated in the US or Canada they are not to give the members of Parliament any peace in my regards."
Emery's troubles started in 2005 when Vancouver police simultaneously raided his store and party headquarters at the request of the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
The DEA claimed his operation generated nearly five million US dollars in profits annually and charged him and two co-defendants on three counts of conspiracy to distribute marijuana, marijuana seeds and money laundering.
No charges have ever been pursued in Canada.
Canada's 'Prince of Pot' turns himself in for US extradition
(AFP) â?? 2 hours ago
VANCOUVER, Canada â?? Canada's self-styled "Prince of Pot" rallied supporters on Monday before turning himself in to Canadian authorities to be extradited to the United States to face a five-year jail term.
Marc Emery, 52, is alleged by US prosecutors to have sold more than four million marijuana seeds through the mail via his website. About 75 percent of the seeds went to US customers.
His wife Jodie Emery told AFP her husband expected to be extradited within "days or a week" after exhausting all legal challenges and an appeal for clemency to Canada's justice minister.
"It?s absolutely devastating to think that I might not see my husband for five years," she said. "It?s a harsh reality."
The couple are still holding out hope that Emery may be allowed to serve his sentence in a Canadian jail to be near his family, if Canada's Public Safety Minister Vic Toews consents.
"We hope to have him transferred here," she said. Meantime, "I am going to keep busy by running our store and our website online, keeping the cause alive, rallying to bring him back home to Canada."
Speaking outside the British Columbia Supreme Court before turning himself in, Marc Emery touted his activism to legalize marijuana as "the work of a great Canadian."
As well, he downplayed his "so-called crime of selling seeds from my desk here in downtown Vancouver to consenting adults all over the world and in the United States."
Marc Emery, who is the publisher of "Cannabis Culture" magazine and president of the British Columbia Marijuana Party, claimed Canada has five million to seven million pot smokers and he asked them to join his fight for freedom.
"I'm proud of what I have done and have no regrets," he said, flanked by two dozen of his supporters and claiming to have millions more in Canada and the United States.
"I have told my supporters every Conservative member of Parliament (from the ruling party) should be hounded endlessly, unrelentingly and unmercifully until they are defeated in the next or following election.
"It's to be a life project for them," he said. "As long as I am incarcerated in the US or Canada they are not to give the members of Parliament any peace in my regards."
Emery's troubles started in 2005 when Vancouver police simultaneously raided his store and party headquarters at the request of the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
The DEA claimed his operation generated nearly five million US dollars in profits annually and charged him and two co-defendants on three counts of conspiracy to distribute marijuana, marijuana seeds and money laundering.
No charges have ever been pursued in Canada.