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'Prince of Pot' pleads guilty; agrees to 5-year prison term
Monday, May 24, 2010
Last updated 2:40 p.m. PT
By LEVI PULKKINEN
SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF
'Prince of Pot' pleads guilty; agrees to 5-year prison term
Marijuana seed dealer Marc Emery -- Canada's purported "Prince of Pot" and a
former candidate for mayor of Vancouver -- has pleaded guilty to drug
charges that all but guarantee him a five-year stay in prison.
Emery, 52, and two others stood accused of selling millions of marijuana
seeds to customers around the world.
He pleaded guilty Monday to one count of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana
as part of a plea agreement that would see him serve the mandatory minimum
sentence for the crime.
He will be sentenced Aug. 27 and remains in federal custody.
His indictment was heralded by one top Drug Enforcement Administration
official as "a significant blow not only to the marijuana trafficking trade
â?¦ but also to the marijuana legalization movement," prompting Emery's
supporters to describe him as a political prisoner.
Indicted in 2005, Emery fought extradition in the courts while trying to
pressure Canadian authorities to block his transfer to the United States. He
arrived Thursday in U.S. District Court at Seattle in preparation for
Monday's plea hearing.
A plea deal struck between Emery and prosecutors would see him imprisoned
for five years; two of his former co-defendants have previously pleaded
guilty and received probation.
Shortly before his extradition, Emery's wife, Jodie Emery, accused Canadian
authorities of aiding the American government in an attempt to "silence the
most vocal opponent of the drug war."
Announcing the charges against Emery five years ago, then-DEA head Karen
Tandy nearly admitted the same.
In a bellicose statement, Tandy called the move against Emery "a significant
blow not only to the marijuana trafficking trade in the U.S. and Canada, but
also to the marijuana legalization movement."
Emery, an outspoken proponent of marijuana law reform and former publisher
of Cannabis Culture magazine, stood accused of operating a mail-order seed
business. Federal authorities assert Emery claimed to make $3 million in the
year before his arrest selling the seeds.
"Hundreds of thousands of dollars of Emery's illicit profits are known to
have been channeled to marijuana legalization groups active in the United
States and Canada," Tandy continued in the 2005 statement. "Drug
legalization lobbyists now have one less pot of money to rely on."
As Emery made his first appearance in an American court Thursday, a small
group of supporters protested his incarceration outside the Stewart Street
federal courthouse.
Among those gathered was Seattle resident Vivian McPeak, a Hempfest founder
and outspoken advocated for marijuana law reform who called Emery "a
political prisoner of the United States' drug war."
"It's an embarrassment to our home town," said McPeak, who was joined
Thursday by Sunil Aggarwal, a soon-to-be graduate of the University of
Washington's medical school who recently spearheaded a successful effort to
get the American Medical Association to change its position on medical
marijuana
McPeak noted Emery's indictment has done nothing to chill the mail order
marijuana seed industry. Anyone seeking seeds can still get them from a
variety of sellers online.
As Emery's supporters in his native Canada have done, McPeak faulted the
Canadian government for cooperating with the DEA during the investigation
and for handing Emery over to U.S. prosecutors.
"To me, this is like America extraditing someone to a country where they'd
be executed for drugs," McPeak said.
Emery remained in federal custody Monday. It is expected that Emery will
petition to be transferred to a Canadian prison after he arrives at a
federal Bureau of Prisons facility.
