Employees of Canada's 'Prince of Pot' get probation, ending years of legal wrangling

[Italiano715]

Employees of Canada's 'Prince of Pot' get probation, ending years of legal wrangling
After four years of politically charged legal wrangling, two employees of Canada's so-called "Prince of Pot" have avoided prison for their roles in exporting marijuana seeds to the U.S. by mail-order.

By Ian Ith
Seattle Times staff reporter



After four years of politically charged legal wrangling, two employees of Canada's so-called "Prince of Pot" have avoided prison for their roles in exporting marijuana seeds to the U.S. by mail-order.


The plea deal, finalized on Friday, sets the stage for the Prince of Pot himself, Marc Emery, to surrender to U.S. authorities later this year to face prison time. That will close the long-running, high-profile case that had pitted some of Canada's most vocal marijuana activists against the Justice Department in a war of words.


U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez accepted the deal for Michelle Rainey, 38, and Gregory Williams, 54, to be sentenced to two years of probation for conspiracy to manufacture marijuana. Both may return to Canada, where they remain active in the marijuana-legalization movement.


Rainey and Williams were indicted along with Emery in 2005 on drug and money-laundering charges for running a lucrative mail-order pot-seed business out of Emery's Vancouver book-and-paraphernalia shop that doubled as headquarters for British Columbia's Marijuana Party. Emery claimed to have sold some 4 million pot seeds, most to customers in the United States.


Williams took phone orders, and Rainey helped pack up the seeds and ship them.


Emery has been fighting extradition to the U.S. ever since, meanwhile maintaining his public persona as a "libertarian capitalist" and strident opponent of anti-marijuana laws.


He has said his seed business was a way to "overgrow" the U.S. war on marijuana, which he has called "immoral and lethal." He and supporters accused the Justice Department of indicting him and his employees for political reasons.


Federal prosecutors have vehemently denied that.


"We went after him for his criminal activities, not for his political views," Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle, reiterated Friday.


In court Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg asked Martinez to accept the plea deal for Rainey and Williams so the government could give up its expensive extradition fight for them and focus its energy on Emery.


Greenberg said Rainey and Williams played minor roles in Emery's business and are otherwise law-abiding. And he noted that Rainey is seriously ill with Crohn's disease and skin cancer.


"This is clearly a lenient sentence," Greenberg told Martinez. But the extradition fight "has been four years running, and it would be more years from here on out."


Rainey and Williams apologized to the judge for their crime, and they offered no rhetoric about U.S. drug laws.


Though he accepted Greenberg's reasoning for the deal, Martinez said, he was frustrated by it because while sparing Williams and Rainey, he is "forced to send so many young people to prison" in similar marijuana cases.


"Do you recognize that these are the laws of the United States, and until those laws are changed, you and people like you cannot do what you were doing?" Martinez asked Rainey.


She said yes. And she wept when Martinez said he would accept the deal.


"I'm very grateful," she said afterward. "We broke the law in the United States. That's what it comes down to."


But she added that she will remain a leader in Canada against the "reefer madness" of marijuana prohibition. "There's no moratorium on my career

whatsoever," she said.


In the meantime, Emery, 51, has been on a 30-city "farewell tour" of speaking engagements around Canada. On Friday, he spoke in Barrie, Ontario, at a "water pipe and lighter superstore" called Liquid Chrome.


In a phone interview, he said he has struck a deal with prosecutors to surrender in late September or October in return for prosecutors agreeing to recommend a five-year prison sentence.


Prosecutors won't confirm any such deal.


Emery remains outspoken that the charges stem from his activism having "insulted" the Bush administration.


"This is their revenge, but it will backfire on them, I'm convinced," he said.



"It's all politically motivated. Only the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) denies that. To everyone else it's patently obvious."


Nonetheless, he said he was relieved prosecutors had backed off on his friends.


"I'm pleased they won't be going to jail, and they'll still be able to do their work in Canada," he said.



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Italiano715 Reviewed by Italiano715 on 07-19-2009. Employees of Canada's 'Prince of Pot' get probation, ending years of legal wrangling Employees of Canada's 'Prince of Pot' get probation, ending years of legal wrangling After four years of politically charged legal wrangling, two employees of Canada's so-called "Prince of Pot" have avoided prison for their roles in exporting marijuana seeds to the U.S. by mail-order. By Ian Ith Seattle Times staff reporter After four years of Rating: 5

[boaz]

i wonder does Emery get a trial here in the states, too? or is he already convicted before he arrives? I don't know any of them but it sounds like Emery was able to at least keep Greg Williams (Marijuana Man :rasta and Michelle Rainey free. that seems pretty decent of him.

edit: no trial I guess, maybe appeal because of the bs politics involved???

[Dutch Pimp]

the whole deal, stinks...everybody got screwed

[Markass]

It wasn't politically motivated at all...my fucking dick.

[boaz]

thank you Markass, . . . let us mark this evidence number 1. :jointsmile:

what a fuckin joke this Karen Tandy is. why can't we, the people of United States of America prosecute these criminals like the DEA? there is NO exception to the Constitution and rule of law, not even for the DEA nazis. :wtf: I am not a lawyer but there has to be something we can do as a country to fight back at all this illegal bullshit that is going on in our homeland today. :wtf:

[Markass]

thank you Markass, . . . let us mark this evidence number 1. :jointsmile:

what a fuckin joke this Karen Tandy is. why can't we, the people of United States of America prosecute these criminals like the DEA? there is NO exception to the Constitution and rule of law, not even for the DEA nazis. :wtf: I am not a lawyer but there has to be something we can do as a country to fight back at all this illegal bullshit that is going on in our homeland today. :wtf:

Don't worry, I know of several active militias here in oklahoma, once our ignorant president starts fucking with gun rights, we can barricade our border, and be our own state. The time is coming, I worked for a year and a half in OKC doing computer repair, and probably 85% of people's houses I went to, always brought something up about how messed up our country is becoming..People are fed up with it, soon they'll fuck around and cause another revolution.

There's nothing in my opinion anymore patriotic than standing up for the principles in which this country was founded and developed upon. When those values are gone, so is America...Then it's Obamica, and I'll be damned if that's going to happen.

How bout 80-90 degrees outside, a lot better than 105 huh boaz?

[boaz]

. . .
How bout 80-90 degrees outside, a lot better than 105 huh boaz?

yeah definately much better! :smokin: nice breeze on the lake, ahh life is good, eh?

'cept for them damn armadillo's :stoned: sorry, just a little quote from one of the guys I vote for just 'cause he says stuff like that. I can't remember the line from the hearing for that judge chick but it was f'in hilarious. too bad he's got a bit of reefer madness but thats almost required to win here it seems sometimes. :wtf:

[Markass]

yeah definately much better! :smokin: nice breeze on the lake, ahh life is good, eh?

'cept for them damn armadillo's :stoned: sorry, just a little quote from one of the guys I vote for just 'cause he says stuff like that. I can't remember the line from the hearing for that judge chick but it was f'in hilarious. too bad he's got a bit of reefer madness but thats almost required to win here it seems sometimes. :wtf:

that's the bible belt for you, times are slowly changing though..someday soon we're going to see policy changes...

[boaz]

^ true. i grew up southern missouri and it was the same way up there, too. damn demon weed :jointsmile:

oh yeah, speaking of the BC pot tv crew, anyone ever read Chris Bennet's book where he talks about Jesus and his use of "cannabasin", or annointing oil, for healing. Bennet's theory is it was cannabis based. thats right, Jesus may have used the demon weed as medicine. hmmm. :detective1: :smokin: