Marc Emery: U.S. federal prison blog #11—Letter to Jodie

(Marc Emery's U.S. federal prison blog #11 originally ran here on the Cannabis Culture Web site on August 24, 2010.)

Dearest Jodie:

It was a tremendous visit with you on Sunday morning. I am so proud of you for doing such a great job speaking at Hempfest. I know Jeremiah is uploading the videos of your speeches to Youtube, then shared on the Cannabisculture.com and FREEMARC.ca websites. I can't wait to hear the feedback!

I had a challenging week as you know. The no-flesh diet they give me is so terribly poor, of the 14 meals I get here weekly, 5 of them substitute the meat of the others with a packet of peabnut butter, that's it. And as you know, I don't eat peanut butter. So I go hungry 5 meals out of 14. Then on two of the other remaining nine meals, they give me a 5-spoonful carton of cottage cheese. The other seven have soy or cheese substitutes, almost always very poorly prepared and simply reheated. It's so discouraging. I eat all the apples, oranges, bananas I can get, sometimes the other inmates give me theirs but I have to eat them right away because we are not allowed to have food from the "kitchen" in our rooms, which causes a massive amount of waste as so much fruit & food is just thrown out because if you don't eat it in 15 minutes at sit-down, into the garbage it has to go. The rules are absurd and cause so much waste and, in my case, hunger and malnutrition.

This past week we were locked down for 36 hours because one of the inmates' stash of alcohol hooch was discovered. I've been breathalyzed four times since I've been here; the first time in my life I've had a breathalyzer test of any kind. That was Wednesday and Thursday morning, so I couldn't shower, exercise or use email or the phone during the constant lock-down.

On Friday, when I expected you to be here at 2:00 pm for our long-anticipated visit that day, I did not get the call to visitation and as the hours went by I got extremely anxious about you being in an accident, or hurt, or worse, or held-up at the border. All sorts of terrifying things went through my head because you are never late or miss a visit. Yet all day the phones and internet were disabled because inmates were being moved that day and as a security measure (so they say) all phone & emails go down when a bus or planeload of prisoners is on the move; that's BOP (Bureau of Prisons) policy. So I had no idea what happened to you, or way to contact you. I was so torn up by anxiety that I had to go and throw up and then cry around 5:30 pm, 3.5 hours after you were due here. By 6:00 pm I was pacing the track upstairs looking pale and distraught when the C.O. (Corrections Officer) called me to his office and said he saw you at 2 pm, first in line, at the front entrance when he came to work on his shift. He said that all visitation was canceled, but the inmates weren't being told! I was the first to know! Then I cried in relief you were alright but stunned they would let me and others here go all afternoon terrified something had happened to our loved ones without informing us visitation was canceled. It seems incredibly heartless and so unnecessary. One fellow inmate had his wife drive three hours from Blaine, but she was turned away and had to drive three hours home. Others came from Portland, 5 hours away, and were rejected. And of course we get no explanation. Finally phones came on at 7 pm and I was able to call you to breathe a sigh of relief. Then email came on and got your note about how crushed you were to have our visits canceled without explanation.

Of course, it was probably because the scheduled airlift of a huge number of inmates on Con-Air broke down and the inmates all had be returned for the weekend to Sea-Tac. I have never seen this place as crowded as it was this past weekend, with some serious bruisers and hardened types among the temporary residents. I have never been so anxious here as in those 4 hours when I was wondering what could have happened to you.

As you know, I am looking forward to getting my sentencing out of the way on Friday, September 10th in downtown Seattle at the federal court. If all goes as expected, I will be sentenced to the 5 years I agreed to in my plea deal (I have almost 6 months in already in accumulated time served in Canadian & US jails on the sentence) and that day I hope to submit my Treaty Transfer application to the Canadian government via the Canadian Consulate here in Seattle. Then, following that application, I am hoping my loyal supporters will show up on Saturday, September 18 at hundreds of busy intersections, football or baseball stadiums, or in front of Member of Congress or Member of Parliament local offices, at Canadian and US Embassies and Consulates throughout North America and the world, or just at busy intersections in your town, urging my imminent transfer back to the Canadian correctional system to serve out my sentence.

I am hoping individuals, pairs or groups of four will go to busy places anytime from noon to 5 pm with signs saying "Return Prince of Pot Marc Emery to Canada from US Prison" or "Google Marc Emery - Political Prisoner - Bring Him Home" or "FreeMARC.ca - Return Marc Emery to Canada" or "Vic Toews: Approve Prison Transfer for Marc Emery" and that sort of thing. Big king-size sheets with these messages at bridge overpasses are great too, so traffic on the highway below can see it. Wherever there will be lots of eyeballs to view the signs is a good place. I'd prefer groups of two or four spread out over several busy places, rather than one group of 10 or 20 in one mass. Encourage people to sign up at WhyProhibition.ca and use my Facebook fan page to publicize where they will be. Have people take photographs of their action on what I am calling the Marc Emery Support Day Mobilization (though my supporters are calling it the "Free Marc Emery" worldwide rally).

I am keeping busy with letter writing, I have written 25 letters in the most recent 3 days, and am writing my 2010 Canadian Voters' Guide and great lengths of my autobiography for Dana Larsen, who is putting it together for me. I am very prolific and busy and it's because of you, my dear wife, and your endless love for me, and the support you generate for me, that inspires me to keep producing under this incredible adversity.

I Love You,
Great job at Hempfest sweetheart!
Marc