Marc Emery turns himself in for US extradition

AFP: Canada's 'Prince of Pot' turns himself in for US extradition

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.

Bummer, Emery is a soldier!

...in Toronto, of The Principle of Pot, a documentary about Emery.

Though a bit dry, and in dire need of some kinda soundtrack, it illustrated the principled stand that he's taken throughout his life against various injustices. The documentarist draws some conclusions at the end that I disagree with, but the film (two parts, around 4:20 in duration!) is a wealth of information and old interviews and pictures of the man.

He's the only guy who has ever done time (not much, thankfully!) over our now-nonexistent idiotic anti-Sunday shopping laws. He's been arrested for stupid shit like ten times in his life, has spent time in the clink (though this may yet be the worse stretch), but he's on the front lines, and it is because of him and people like him that things are changing for the better.

I despise both the evil creeps who, in the name of the War on (some) Drugs, demanded his incarceration, and the gutless swine on our side of the border who handed him over. Aren't we all getting a little tired of our so-called civil servants acting like jackbooted thugs?

Write Marc! Physical, snail-mail style! He is currently in bloody solitary, and could use words of encouragement.

You can send snailmail to him (currently) at:

MARC SCOTT EMERY #40252-086
UNIT DB - FDC SEATAC
P.O. BOX 13900
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, USA
98198-1090

Pray that he gets out soon :)