DdC

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

DdC

CBS: 60 Minutes Prince of Pot ~ Transcript By Catherine Olian *
Source: CBS News* March 05, 2006
His name is Marc Emery and he is called the "Prince of Pot." He claims to have sold more marijuana seeds than anyone in the world and, to date, no one has disputed that claim. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, where the culture is rather permissive concerning marijuana. The Canadian government, for the most part, has left Emery and his business alone.

But to the U.S., he is one of the most wanted men in the drug world. As 60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon reports, officials in the U.S. government want him extradited to the United States. They want him in an American prison and they want him badly.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21645.shtml

Canada's Supremes Cower Under DEAth Threats

Newsbrief: Walters Lies Pile Up in Canada Diatribe

Canadian Marijuana Organization Raided at Request of US

U.S. Government Threatens Canada with Trade Sanctions

Canada Moves to Ease Marijuana Possession Law

DdC

60 Minutes Prince of Pot Transcript
(CBS) His name is Marc Emery and he is called the "Prince of Pot." He claims to have sold more marijuana seeds than anyone in the world and, to date, no one has disputed that claim. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, where the culture is rather permissive concerning marijuana. The Canadian government, for the most part, has left Emery and his business alone.
F U L L S T O R Y/4686.html



Police Are the Prohibitionist Lobby in Canada
The people of Canada have been at war over Cannabis for longer than we have ever been at war before. The war is called “Canada’s Drug Strategy” and for more than 30 years the Canadian government – and particularly the Royal Canadian Mounted Police – have waged a vicious and costly campaign against our own citizens.
F U L L S T O R Y4684.html



My Message To You
July 29th, 2005. I had that ‘life flashing before me’ moment. The frozen second in time when everything was sharp, clear, and signaled a great convergence of all my effort into this precise moment. "Marc Emery, you are under arrest for Extradition to The United States of America…”
F U L L S T O R Y/4639.html



DEA Release Admits Marc Emery Extradition Politically Motivated
The US Drug Enforcement Administration admitted on the day of Marc Emery's arrest that his investigation and extradition were politically motivated, designed to target the Marijuana Legalization organization that Emery spearheaded and ran for over a decade in Canada.
F U L L S T O R Y/4685.html



Extradition Process
The extradition process is long and complicated. In this article, I’ll try to explain the basic framework and the key documents governing this area of law. I will also talk about some legal cases in order to explain the various factors used, and tests applied, by Canadian courts.
F U L L S T O R Y/4589.html


Greg Williams, Marc Emery, and Michelle Rainey

DdC

KEEP MARCHING, POT CRUSADER SAYS by Daniel Nolan
(Source:Hamilton Spectator) 10 Mar 2006 Ontario

B.C.'S Emery Says Protests Must Go On Despite Arrests At Hamilton Cafe

Pot crusader Marc Emery says fellow activists shouldn't abandon the battle to legalize marijuana even though the owner of Hamilton's pot cafe has been charged with trafficking.*

"We have to keep protesting and keep marching," Emery told about 50 people who marched to the downtown police station yesterday afternoon in the wake of Chris Goodwin's arrest.*

"They are trying to wipe out our movement," the founder of the B.C.* Marijuana Party said over a phone linkup from his home in Vancouver, where he is fighting extradition to the United States to face drug charges for selling pot seeds through the mail.* "They're trying to intimidate us out of business."

Goodwin, owner of the Up In Smoke cafe, was arrested Wednesday and charged with possession and possession for the purpose of trafficking.*

It's his latest run-in with Hamilton police, who he says have visited his business more than 300 times since he opened it in August 2004 on King Street East.*

The former Liberal government talked of decriminalizing possession of small amounts of pot, but the new Conservative government rejects that position and has promised mandatory minimum jail time and large fines for serious drug offenders and a crackdown on pot growers.*

Sergeant Michael Webber says police visited the downtown cafe in response to complaints from the public.* A plainclothes officer saw three men passing a joint and arrested them.*

Webber said officers later returned to the cafe and seized such items as a marijuana grinder, plastic bags, pipes and edible marijuana products.*

A woman in the cafe was arrested and charged with similar offences to Goodwin.*

Protesters marched to the station because they say Goodwin has not been released.* Staff Sergeant Ray Rikic said last night Goodwin is not behind bars at the central station.* He is believed to be in the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre.*

"Free Chris Goodwin," the crowd chanted.* At least one person passed around a joint.*

Up In Smoke Cafe in Hamilton Raided by Police,
The Up In Smoke Cafe at 227 King St. East in Hamilton, Ontario was raided Wednesday, March 8th by police at about 3.00 p.m. Owner Chris Goodwin was arrested along with three employees, and taken to Hamilton Police Headquarters.

DdC

High Crimes, or A Tokin' Figure? By Doug Struck
Source: Washington Post March 17, 2006 Vancouver
Sweet marijuana smoke tumbles down the steps from "the Vapor Lounge," a corner of Marc Emery's bookstore where customers toke up at will. "We get high with everybody," Emery says, shrugging. "This is a pilgrimage spot, and people come here from all over the world. We get high." Illegal? Yes.
Read More... cannabisculture/4701 * cannabisnews/21671

CBS: 60 Minutes Prince of Pot ~ Transcript

Prince of Pot Fights Extradition on Drug Charges

Just What Did Emery Expect?



"America's Most Wanted" Speaking To Montreal Universities
Vancouver-based marijuana advocate Marc Emery was busted by the RCMP in July of 2005, as the result of an extensive investigation conducted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Prince of Pot Busted!

Extradition Process

My Message To You

US drug-war in Canada! 27 Jun, 2001
Cross-border drug war destroys Canadian sovereignty,
as NAFTA helps DEA control RCMP in BC.


Marc Emery Speaking To Montreal Universities

DdC

WP Chat Transcript: Marc Emery
Washington Post Live Online Discussion*
Source: Washington Post*March 21, 2006 D.C
Do you think there is an image problem with the legalization movement? Why is it that most of the people who are advocating medical use don't look like doctors but instead look like 60s leftovers?
Marc Emery: I agree, it would be nice to get more suits and fewer cliches attending rallies.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21676.shtml

Prince of Pot Fights Extradition on Drug Charges
High Crimes, or A Tokin' Figure?