Pubdate: Sun, 13 Jun 2010
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Copyright: 2010 Winnipeg Free Press
Contact: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/send_a_letter
Website: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502
Page: A20
Author: Kim Murphy

PRISONER OF POT

Canada's Marijuana Crusader Caught In U.S. War On Drugs

VANCOUVER -- For years, his seed catalogs were scrutinized by 
discerning cannabis cultivators across the U.S. and Canada.

There was Blue Heaven pot, capable of producing a "euphoric, 
anti-anxiety high," or Crown Royal, whose "flower tops come to a flat 
golden crown, sparkling with gems of THC."

The difference between Marc Emery's pot seeds and countless others on 
the market was that if you bought Emery's, he'd use the money to 
launch a cannabis tsunami across North America that would set the war 
on drugs adrift like a cork on a massive sea of weed.

"Plant the seeds of freedom, overgrow the government," Emery urged 
his clients. With a pot plant on every patio, he declared, violent 
drug gangs would see their livelihoods disappear and police would be 
reduced to "running around... chasing all these marijuana plants." 
Sooner or later, he promised, "they will simply give up and change the laws."

Well, not yet. Emery, who U.S. authorities fingered in 2005 as one of 
the top 46 international drug-trafficking targets, was ordered 
extradited by the Canadian minister of justice last month and 
relinquished to federal marshals in Seattle. He now faces a likely 
five years in U.S. federal prison.

"In fact I have done these things, so I admit my guilt," Emery said 
in an e-mail after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court to one 
count of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana. "We are winning, 
especially in the United States, and I can take a lot of credit for 
that.... When I am gone, or even locked up here in the U.S., my 
historical legacy is secure."

Here in "Vansterdam," where cannabis cafes, head shops and even a 
supervised needle-injection site are prominent features of downtown, 
pot is a multibillion-dollar industry. And Emery, a longtime fixture 
at political forums and downtown rallies, is widely seen as one of its titans.

The extradition of the 52-year-old self-proclaimed Prince of Pot has 
sparked a sovereignty outcry across Canada, where supporters, civil 
rights advocates and even several members of Parliament have demanded 
to know why he was handed over to the U.S. for an offense that Canada 
seldom prosecutes.

"It seems like the American war on drugs is just reaching its arm 
into Canada and saying, 'We're going to scoop you up,'" said 
Vancouver MP Libby Davies. "The whole thing has struck people as 
being over the top, harsh, unwarranted -- and at the end of the day, 
what are they trying to prove?"

Emery became a target for police in both nations -- in Canada because 
his appearances on international television shows was an irritant to 
police; in America because his seed business, which at one point 
reached revenues of $3 million a year, was supplying 
marijuana-growing operations in at least nine states.

"Marc Emery happened to be the largest supplier of marijuana seeds 
into the United States," said Todd Greenberg, the assistant U.S. 
attorney in Seattle who is prosecuting Emery's case.

Emery believes he caught the eye of the Drug Enforcement 
Administration not because of his seeds but because of what he did 
with his revenue. Emery channeled most of the millions he earned into 
marijuana legalization and defence efforts across North America. The 
Prince of Pot's seed money has helped start "compassion clubs" for 
medical-marijuana users across Canada, launch the Pot-TV Internet 
network, and fund lobbying organizations and political parties in 
North America, Israel and New Zealand.

The Prince of Pot's blog posts from the SeaTac detention centre go 
out regularly on the Internet to his supporters. What he wants to do 
next, though his attempt to get a recorded phone call out has so far 
only gotten him stuck in solitary confinement: Potcasts.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart