The Prince Of Pot By Cathy Olian
CBS March 2, 2006 60 Minutes on Sunday
A Canadian who calls himself the "Prince of Pot" could wind up in a U.S. jail for life for selling marijuana seeds, but says he would be "blessed" because such a plight could help legalize the drug.
60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon talks to Marc Emery, who had a mail-order pot seed business that Canada ignored and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency wants to prosecute him for, this Sunday, March 5 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
The last place he wants to be is in jail, but Emery says if the Canadian courts allow the U.S. government to extradite him and a U.S. jury puts him away, he still sees a silver lining.
"I am blessed by what the DEA has done," he tells Simon. "I would rather see marijuana legalized than me being saved from a U.S. jail. I hope that if I am incarcerated, I can influence tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of young people to take up my cause."
The 48-year-old Vancouver, B.C., resident is a fervent activist for the legalization of marijuana and a hero to the movement. He has made several million dollars and claims to have sold more seeds than anyone in the world on his Web site and through a magazine he publishes, "Cannabis Culture."
Selling the seeds is an illegal activity in Canada, but enforcement is rare and punishment light. The drug is legal for medicinal purposes and, overall, Canada has a very laidback attitude toward marijuana. But Emery estimates that the majority of customers he’s sold to over the past decade are Americans. Furthermore, British Columbia is a region that produces very pungent pot known as "BC bud" that is smuggled into the United States, where it's well known. Emery takes pride in the image.
"(British Columbia growers) have had a wonderful marketing man in charge of that campaign — yours truly," boasts Emery.
U.S. officials in Washington also have taken notice, however.
"We have a huge regional, national and international issue here in the growing of marijuana in lower British Columbia," says John McKay, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington. "(Emery’s) activities are kind of a leading edge of that marijuana problem."
McKay says the fact that Canadian officials don't regard him as a threat has no bearing in the United States, where marijuana seeds are just as illegal as the plant.
"He's dealing drugs into the United States and violating laws of the United States and we expect to extradite and try him in the United States," vows McKay.
Asked what he thinks of U.S. officials' stance that Emery is a major drug dealer, Canadian Senator Larry Campbell, a former drug officer, says: "If they consider that, then they have bigger problems than I can even imagine. There's simply no way he's a major anything."
There would also be a backlash from Canadians if the U.S. can extradite someone like Emery. "I think there would be outrage," Campbell says.
For McKay, the law is the law. "We have full respect for the laws of Canada … and they respect our laws and he's violated our laws. You know he calls himself the prince of pot but he may become the prince of federal prison," says McKay.
If he goes to prison, Emery wants to be known more as leader rather than a martyr.
"The language I like to use is one of a person, a leader, who’s confident and prepared to accept the punishment that noble purpose will bring about," Emery tells Simon.
Cannabis Culture
http://www.cannabisculture.com
The Political Forum: Emery Extradition
Prince of Pot Fights Extradition on Drug Charges By Peter Lewis
October 25, 2005, Seattle Times Staff Reporte
Extradition Blues
The US government is in the process of spending at least a quarter of a million dollars to investigate, arrest and kidnap a prominent Canadian citizen from Canada and put him on trial in the United States. F U L L S T O R Y
Ideas are more powerful than guns.
We would not let our enemies have guns,
why should we let them have ideas.
Joseph Stalin
The Drug War Refugees
Emery contends a news release issued July 29, the day of his arrest, reveals the U.S. government's intention to mute his efforts to advance the spread of marijuana. In the release, Karen Tandy, head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, wrote: "Today's DEA arrest of Marc Scott Emery, publisher of Cannabis Culture Magazine, and the founder of a marijuana legalization group, is a significant blow not only to the marijuana trafficking trade in the U.S. and Canada, but also to the marijuana legalization movement. ... 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."
The 'Virtues' of Ganja
Tandy's office has declined to comment about the statement, but locally, federal prosecutors have distanced themselves from her remarks.
The Ganjawar Fraud...
"Not only are we here to protect the public from vicious criminals in the street
but also to protect the public from harmful ideas."
Robert Ingersoll, then Director of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, in a column by Jack Anderson in the Washington Post, June 24, 1972, p. 31 (Ingersoll became the first director of the DEA in 1974)
"The DEA is unequivocally opposed to the legalization of illicit drugs
(including, marijuana, hemp, and hemp seed oil)."
- US DEA booklet, "Speaking Out Against Legalization"
Once-Secret Nixon Tapes Show Why US Outlawed Pot
Nixon Launched The 30 Years' War as Election Issue
DEA Success Update: Let's see. After 20 years of relentless federal Drug War activity, while the price of world-class marijuana has gone from $60 an ounce to $450, the price of quality cocaine has plummeted from $125 a gram to $30, and 30%-pure heroin has dropped from $700 a gram to about $100. Way to go, boys! High Times, April 1995
Think of the message being sent to the kids?
If the personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution inhibit the government's ability to govern the people, we should look to limit those guarantees.
President Bill Clinton, August 12, 1993
Bushit Rumcheney Cocktail:Fascist Nationalism and MKULTRA
Bush's War on Pot
The Ganjawar is a Product Sold by D.E.A.th to Profit Fascists
. . . unfortunately, we can't control the actions of everyone.
-- Bill Clinton, April 20, 1993
Bushladen and the Terrorists Carlyles Groups
We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.
-- President John F. Kennedy
Each time a (person) stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others... he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current that sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
-- Robert F. Kennedy
Witch hunts and the war on weed 20 Jun, 2002
They can do anything we can't stop them from doing.
Joseph Heller, "Catch-22"
Psychosis, Hype And Baloney
It is enough that the people know there was an election.
The people who cast the votes decide nothing.
The people who count the votes decide everything.
Joseph Stalin
