Pubdate: Tue, 08 Jul 2014
Source: Prince George Citizen (CN BC)
Copyright: 2014 Prince George Citizen
Contact:  http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/350
Author: Tamsyn Burgmann
Page: 5
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?196 (Emery, Marc)

U.S. TO FREE 'PRINCE OF POT' AFTER FIVE-YEAR IMPRISONMENT

VANCOUVER - When the poster child for marijuana legalization is 
released from a U.S. prison later this week, he'll be re-entering a 
world where many of his ideas have taken root and in some places have 
sprouted right up.

Marc Emery, Canada's self-styled "Prince of Pot," concludes a 
five-year sentence on Wednesday and will emerge into a lucrative 
marijuana landscape, where two U.S. states are now issuing 
recreational pot licences, medical growers are reaping profits and 
investors aren't hedging on potential opportunities.

The 56-year-old Vancouver resident was extradited to Seattle in May 
2010, when he pleaded guilty to selling marijuana seeds from Canada 
to American customers before serving his time in several U.S. 
corrections' facilities.

When he was first arrested almost a decade ago, the Drug Enforcement 
Agency heralded his seizure as a "significant blow" to the 
legalization movement.

On Monday, Washington state distributed for the first time licences 
to 24 shopkeepers who will hawk legal marijuana, while New York 
simultaneously became the 23rd U.S. state to authorize pot as 
medicinal treatment.

"I wish he hadn't gone to prison," said his wife Jodie Emery in an 
interview, just before boarding a flight at a Mississippi airport 
after her final visit to the Yazoo City institution. "But it's almost 
fitting that he had to go down into the belly of the beast of America 
where the drug war begins, and where it has pressure in Canada, and 
spend his time in the United States to oversee all the success from his work."

She lauded her husband for spurring much of the shift in legal 
regulations and social consciousness while he's been locked away.

"Marc [can take] a lot of credit for everything happening in the 
United States. And of course it's a wonderful feeling to see that his 
mission has been accomplished," said the 29-year-old, who's assumed 
much of the advocacy work and has been managing their marijuana 
paraphernalia store. "He was successful, even though he had to pay 
the price for it."

Marc Emery started selling pot seeds in 1994 to raise money to 
support activist groups, lobbyists, court cases and ballot initiatives.

In the years leading up to his arrest and extradition an entire "Free 
Marc Emery" movement replete with posters and T-shirts sprang up. 
However, it could still be weeks before the high-profile activist's 
diverse contingent of followers can finally celebrate his release.

The Canadian man will be transported on Thursday to a private 
deportation facility in Louisiana, where paperwork must be completed 
and a flight booked to Detroit. His estimated return is between 
August 10 and 25.

Jodie Emery said she'll encourage a crowd to greet him in Windsor and 
then Toronto, before the pair visits his siblings in London and 
Newmarket, Ont. They may even spend a weekend alone.

But all the while they'll be plotting their next moves, because the 
laws in Canada still lag far behind the United States, Jodie Emery 
said. Recreational marijuana remains illegal.

In the works is a 30-city, cross-Canada advocacy tour, as well as 
speaking engagements and meetings with officials in Spain, Austria, 
Ireland and Uruguay.

When the dust settles, Jodie Emery expects her husband to go back to 
work at the Cannabis Culture store in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. 
She said his seed business is long-gone, while everyone else in the 
industry is leaps and bounds ahead.

"Marc's going to have to walk by a weed shop to and from work, and he 
won't even be doing it himself," she laughed.

"Or, maybe, maybe we will become associated with one of the new 
licensed providers and try and change the whole system to allow 
everybody to grow. Our activism won't end."

In his final blog post from prison, Marc Emery wrote that he expects 
to "marvel at all the changes in Vancouver," including hundreds of 
new buildings and 35 medical marijuana dispensaries that have opened.

"Jodie and I appreciate everything you've done for both us and the 
movement at large in my absence," he wrote on June 30. "I can't wait 
to get home to thank you all in person in the weeks and months ahead, 
and resume the unfinished battle to finish off marijuana prohibition 
with renewed vigour."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom