Marc Emery plans to run B.C. Marijuana Party from his U.S. prison cell
Marijuana activist Marc Emery swears imprisonment in the U.S. won’t put out the fire in him.
In a phone conversation today (August 18), following his talk last evening at the Vancouver Public Library’s central branch as part of his cross-country farewell tour, Emery told the Straight that he will continue to run the B.C. Marijuana Party from jail.
Vancouver’s so-called Prince of Pot is also hoping to get some of his work published and even run in a Canadian election while doing time in a U.S. federal prison.
Emery has entered into an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to plead guilty to the charge of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana.
He previously operated a Vancouver-based mail-order business that sold marijuana seeds.
His shop was raided by Canadian police and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in 2005, and he was arrested and charged by American authorities for selling marijuana seeds over the Internet.
Emery’s camp has noted that the cannabis activist paid $600,000 in income tax over the years he was in business.
Emery chose to go with a plea agreement rather than continue to fight extradition to the U.S. and face the prospect of a 30-year prison term.
He will turn himself in at the border next month, and is expected to be sentenced to five years in jail by U.S. District Court judge Ricardo Martinez on September 21 in Seattle.
Rallies around the world are being organized for September 19.
Emery said he hopes that he will be transferred to Canada, where he could be out on day parole after 10 months in prison. Day parole would see him out working during the day but back in a halfway house by evening.
Once in Canada, Emery could also get full parole after 20 months.
“Normally transfers are automatic for any Canadian prisoner in the United States,” Emery said. “We have treaty transfers. They get transferred automatically normally. But the Conservatives have stopped transferring marijuana prisoners back. So it requires some degree of lobbying now to get transferred back.”
Comments
14 Comments
seth
Aug 18, 2009 at 8:45pm
Can't some Justice of the Peace lay a distribution charge against him here if federal prosecutors are too cowardly to stand up to that thug Harpo? If he's tried and convicted in Canada for the same "criminal" act then the American's can't extradite.
Shouldn't we be extraditing American gun exporters to stand trial in Canada. Whoops gun sales to murdering thugs is not a crime in the US and no US jury would ever extradite. Hmmm.
And what about those lowlifes that send Bibles to Saudi Arabia. Shouldn't they be sent to Saudi to face justice there? What you say - its the Christian right to convert those heathens.
Not to mention lying corrupt politicians. Oh sorry, they wrote the laws so campaign donations aren't bribes and election fraud is not fraud. Hmmm.
seth
JOE555
Aug 19, 2009 at 12:09am
Sending Emery to jail in another country is a joke. When govt depts accept his money, like Revenue Canada, who took his taxes, no crime occurred in Canada. We cannot send him to rot in another country's jail. Our govt has no backbone.
Canada is sovereign, we can turn down REQUESTS from other countries to extradite our citizens. Simply because a country makes a REQUEST to extradtite a citizen does not mean we have to honour it. We can choose because these are not orders.
I find it sickening we won't extradite foreigners because they might face the death penalty where they committed a crime. Yet we will give up a Canadian citizen to waste five years of his life for no crime at all in Canada.
LawAbidingCitzen
Aug 19, 2009 at 3:05am
JOE555
This guy committed a crime by not respecting another country's laws, so we're extraditing him to face the consequences. It's that simple. This is a grown man who made a conscious decision to break a law; now let him face the consequences. Laws are there to be respected; he chose not to.
Sure we could've dealt with him ourselves in Canada, but we CHOSE to extradite him. This sends a harsher message to every other idiot.
rin
Aug 19, 2009 at 10:55am
Being a "Law Abiding Citizen" is not something to brag about when the laws are unjust and cause people to suffer.
Do you really believe that governments who accumulate money and power through controlling people have everyone's best interests at heart when they make these laws? Do you even know anything about how marijuana prohibition came to be, who suffers and who benefits from it? It's pretty easy to be self-righteous when it's not your ass going to jail. Now I'm no big supporter of Marc Emery and his ideas and methods, believe me; but even if it was someone I hated and who stood for the opposite of everything I hold dear, nobody -- NOBODY-- should go to jail in another country for doing something that didn't hurt anyone.
Craig
Aug 19, 2009 at 1:38pm
As a casual toker I find Marc Emery very hurtful to the tokers cause. He is an egomaniac.
Dan
Aug 19, 2009 at 2:21pm
Selling seeds is not a victimless crime. The seeds are used in grow-ops. An 8-month grow-op can wipe $200,000 off the value of a house - perhaps more than the "value" of the drugs grown within. Either the owner takes the loss or the cost of house insurance goes up. Marijuana has the same health effects as tobacco and is also addictive - both drugs should be made illegal (but decriminalized, and in both countries)
That said, I am confused how the DEA is operating in Canada at our invitation, and how he was arrested and charged by US authorities while within Canada's borders. Last I checked we are not a state, yet.
Petes Sake
Aug 19, 2009 at 8:27pm
Tyrrany of government at work again. Time to stop prosecution of victimless "crimes" And don't give me any crap about there being victims, like family, society, etc. Either you believe in freedom, or you don't, simple as that.
Thomas
Aug 19, 2009 at 9:34pm
Dan, you do realize that extensive studies have been done and has shown no links between cannabis use and lung cancer (or any cancer for that matter, in fact it kills cancers and lowers the users risk of getting cancer), emphysema, or any other tobacco related illness. Now mind you the properties of smoke are not good for your lungs but this can be overcome by infusing it into foods or using a vaporizer. However, cannabis smoke has no effect on lung capacity anyways.
In addition, cannabis has no physically addictive qualities like harder drugs (heroin, etc that have physical withdrawal symptoms). The only risk is psychological addiction, which, to be honest can happen with anything, chocolate for example.
May I suggest you take a look at http://www.drugpolicy.org/marijuana/factsmyths/ I took the sources about addiction from here, the others were found on the NORML website, which I also suggest you read.
Sources
No lung cancer/diseases:
http://www.harmreductionjournal.com/content/pdf/1477-7517-2-21.pdf
Reduces cancer risk:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14570037
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19638490
No effect on lung capacity:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19679602
Nonaddictive:
United States. Dept. of Health and Human Services. DASIS Report Series, Differences in Marijuana Admissions Based on Source of Referral. 2002. June 24 2005.
Johnson, L.D., et al. “National Survey Results on Drug Use from the Monitoring the Future Study, 1975-1994, Volume II: College Students and Young Adults.” Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1996.
Kandel, D.B., et al. “Prevalence and demographic correlates of symptoms of dependence on cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana and cocaine in the U.S. population.” Drug and Alcohol Dependence 44 (1997):11-29.
Stephens, R.S., et al. “Adult marijuana users seeking treatment.” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 61 (1993): 1100-1104.
beelzebub
Aug 20, 2009 at 11:57am
Ata boy Carlito, way to actually get some people up and awake from their drug induced stupor long enough to pontificate on the burning number one question in the country. Isnt there a song about it form Red Rider? I think its called, Lunatic Fringe.
American Uber Alles
Aug 30, 2009 at 12:41pm
This makes me sad about my country. To INVADE a sovereign country to arrest one of its citizens for "crimes" not even committed on US soil is a gross commentary on our perceived role of entitlement on this planet!! Perhaps we should extradite pawn brokers to Mexico for their role in homicides commissioned in the drug war in Juarez, or Tiajuana, or hell, just put them in prison for Ft. Worth or any drug related offence commissioned within our own borders! It's asinine!!!! Marc Emery should in no way be in an American prison, and shame on BC for stamping the extradition!!!!!!!!