Pubdate: Tue, 23 Aug 2005
Source: Collegiate Times (VA Tech,  Edu)
Copyright: 2005 Collegiate Times
Contact:  http://www.collegiatetimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/699
Author: Michael Krawitz
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?196 (Emery, Marc)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

PENALTIES FOR GROWING MARIJUANA ARE FAR TOO HARSH

How does one address a prince?

According to Webster's Dictionary, a prince is a "nobleman of varying
rank and status," and a nobleman is known to be "possessing,
characterized by or arising from superiority of mind or character or
of ideals or morals." Superior rank, mind and morals?

Now I'm really nervous.

What will I say when I phone the "Prince of Pot?" Even though it was
quite late, a very alert Marc Emery greeted me on the phone. After
stumbling a little in the face of royalty, I haltingly asked where the
name "Prince of Pot" came from. With a Gene Krupa rhythm, Marc ticked
off the names Lamont, Bernard Shaw and Impact CNN, and explained how
he took them around and showed them grow sites and Lamont nicknamed
him "Prince of Pot." I figure from the way Emery answered this
question he had been asked it a thousand times.

Emery became the focus of great attention when our DEA showed up in
Canada and served a U.S. warrant against Emery and two associates
pursuant to an international treaty designed to make sure those who
commit heinous crimes cannot find safe harbor in civilized nations.
But Emery's only crime was selling seeds.

Emery proudly pronounced throughout the world that his goal was to
sell enough seeds for Cannabis-loving people to overgrow the
repressive regimes of the drug war. The magazine he helped to create,
Cannabis Culture (CC), openly advertised his seed sales and he paid
income taxes as a "marijuana seed vendor," making the tax-receiving
locality complicit in his U.S. "crimes." Reading a state-controlled
newspaper in Malaysia, Emery found an article on Canadian Cannabis
issues.

Armed with the information that Vancouver had the greatest per capita
concentration of smokers and growers, Emery decided to open his own
hemp shop. One of the other hemp stores, Hemp Nation, run by Chris
Clay, was busted by an undercover officer for having a live Cannabis
sativa plant, and a saga of Canadian justice was born when Clay
employed Professor Alan Young to fight the constitutionality of the
charges.Clay's case created a wall of scholarly affidavits that are
the foundation of a new marijuana legal landscape in Canada. The
Canadian courts decided that on face value, Clay's challenge was a
non-starter, since they saw no inherent right to Cannabis and they did
see some potential harm from its use, the court's reading of the facts
allowed no room for debate.

The courts also decreed that if medical marijuana access was not
offered, the entire law would be rendered invalid.

Sometime in the middle of this Canadian marijuana saga, Emery decided
that he wouldn't just sell books anymore. Taking his lead from Ben
Dronkers of Holland's Sensi Seed Bank, Marc decided that the best way
to effect social change was to sell seeds via mail order.

Any profit from the sales he would use to pay legal fees for people
charged with marijuana crimes and on legalization efforts, and
according to the DEA, Emery was bringing in 5 million dollars per
year! In the United States, "The sentence of death can be carried out
on a defendant who has been found guilty of manufacturing, importing
or distributing a controlled substance if the act was committed as
part of a continuing criminal enterprise -- but only if the defendant
is (1) the principal administrator, organizer or leader of the
enterprise, and (2) the quantity of the controlled substance is 60,000
or more marijuana plants." Thirty days in jail and a fine versus death
penalty or at least 10 years in prison sounds very stark to me. Yep,
that's death for farming.

Or in this case, conspiracy to farm. But conspiring with whom? My
research hints at an unlikely ringleader of this worldwide conspiracy
to grow pot. It seems the kingpin of this massive and brilliant scheme
is the plant itself.

Cannabis has known from the beginning that if it mimicked human
endogenous Cannabinoids, chemicals tied to relief of pain and other
important human functions, humans would find the urge to cultivate the
plant for its nutritional, recreational and medicinal benefit
overwhelming. But even though I have no problem believing Cannabis
plants are following a master plan to employ humans as seed delivery
devices, I have trouble imagining the plant coming up with the plan on
its own.In his seminal 1855 work, "The Chemistry of Common Life,"
Professor Johnston states "It is impossible to form any estimate of
the quantity of hemp, or hemp resin, or of the artificial extract
which is now used in different parts of the world for purposes of
indulgence. It must, however, be very large, since the plant is so
employed by probably not less than two or three hundred millions of
the human race." If there were 300,000,000 Cannabis consumers in 1855,
there must be over half a billion today, and if you ask me, every one
of them should send Emery a Canadian dollar for his defense.

Note:
Note: Michael Krawitz is a director of Virginians Against Drug Violence 
www.drugsense.org/dpfva Advisor to Patients Out of Time 
www.medicalcannabis.com Regional Director for The November Coalition 
www.november.org Founder of The Cannabis Museum www.cannabismuseum.com 
Advisor to NORML at VPI&SU http://www.norml.org.vt.edu/ Listmaster, DRCNet 
(  ) & Drugsense (  ).  International 
Cannabis activist and Regular Columnist for the Collegiate Times.
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MAP posted-by: Derek