MARC EMERY NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE DrugSense FOCUS Alert #359 - Wednesday, 16 Jan 2008 Newspapers across Canada and in the United States have been publishing items about Marc Emery, Vancouver's self-styled Prince of Pot. While there is hope that a deal may be reached to allow Marc to serve five years jail time in Canada as opposed to perhaps a decades long term in United States, the deal is not final as of the date of this alert. He hopes that a deal will also save his two co-defendants, Michelle Rainey and Greg Williams, from prison time. Columnist Ian Mulgrew wrote in the Vancouver Sun: "He has run in federal, provincial and civic elections promoting his pro-cannabis platform. He has championed legal marijuana at parliamentary hearings, on national television, at celebrity conferences, in his own magazine, Cannabis Culture, and on his own Internet channel, Pot TV. "Health Canada even recommended medical marijuana patients buy their seeds from Emery. From 1998 until his arrest, Emery even paid provincial and federal taxes as a "marijuana seed vendor" totalling nearly $600,000. "He is being hounded because of his success. The political landscape has changed dramatically as a result of Emery's politicking for cannabis. Emery challenged a law he disagrees with using exactly the non-violent, democratic processes we urge our children to embrace and of which we are so proud." DEA administrator Karen Tandy in a press release on the day of Emery's, July 29th, 2005, stated: "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.... Drug legalization lobbyists now have one less pot of money to rely on." Tandy's statement is accurate. Though there are hundreds of vendors selling marijuana seeds in Canada, Marc was unique in his superb financial support of marijuana legalization efforts on both sides of the border. Thus in the time of need of Marc and his co-defendants your letters of support to newspapers may help make a difference. MAP has already archived news coverage on this ruling from across North America. These, and additional clippings during the days ahead, may be found at: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Marc+Emery Your letters to newspapers that print anything about Marc will help send a signal about simple justice. Additional suggestions for writing LTEs are at our Media Activism Center: http://www.mapinc.org/resource/#guides Or contact MAP's Media Activism Facilitator for personal tips on how to write LTEs that get printed. PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER Please post a copy of your letter or report your action to the sent letter list ( ) if you are subscribed, or by E-mailing a copy directly to if you are not subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others can learn from your efforts. Subscribing to the Sent LTE list ( ) will help you to review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing efforts. To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form Prepared by: The MAP Media Activism Team www.mapinc.org/resource =.

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