Pubdate: Tue, 29 Sep 2009
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2009 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Petti Fong
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Marc+Emery

PRINCE OF POT HEADS TO JOINT IN U.S.

VANCOUVER-He saluted his supporters crowded in a Vancouver courtroom
to see him off, told his wife he loved her and then the
self-proclaimed Prince of Pot gave one last defiant rallying cry.

"Plant the seeds of freedom. Overgrow the government, everyone," Marc
Emery yelled out as sheriffs led him away to jail.

After years of flouting marijuana laws in Canada, openly smoking bongs
in public and making millions off a marijuana seed empire that funded
a magazine and an unsuccessful political party, Emery turned himself
in to police in Vancouver Monday.

He pleaded guilty earlier this year and made a deal to serve a
five-year prison term in the U.S. after being pursued by American
authorities for selling seeds through the mail.

Emery, 51, will be in Canadian custody before being turned over to
American authorities in Washington state. But he's making a last-ditch
attempt to get his supporters to lobby federal Justice Minister Rob
Nicholson to stop the extradition or allow him to serve his sentence
in Canada.

Emery, who called himself the most visible face of cannabis culture,
said his incarceration will motivate millions of Americans to back
him.

There were rallies last weekend to protest his arrest in various
cities and countries, but nearly all of them drew small crowds. In
Vancouver, where Emery's business is based, only 150 people showed
up.

"I've probably run the largest-scale revolution that has had no
bodies. There are no victims, no dead people, in my revolution," said
Emery. "This is a revolution fronted by a beautiful plant. The world's
most beloved plant."

Emery has been arrested 18 times and served three months in a
Saskatoon prison. 
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