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 OneMoreRobot3021
punky jewster
Registered: 06/06/03
Posts: 55,980
Loc: new york shitty
Last seen: 2 minutes, 10 seconds
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 Re: Marijuana seed store raided, Emery arrested [CAN] [Re: veggie]
#4509129 - 08/08/05 12:05 AM (3 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
veggie said:
. "They do significant environmental damage and fuel the organized crime and drug trade that destroys lives."
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The Drug Policy Alliance  Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies
"The psychedelic experience - it has a tremendous force to revivify the spirit, particularly because it is not an ideology. It is not something someone 'figured out.' It is an EXPERIENCE. And this is important to bear in mind." - McKenna.
"We're not mad, we're just doing what we want. You rigid thinkers can't recognize the healthy sanity of that." - Harlan Ellison, "Crackpots"
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 veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 6,083
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Re: Marijuana seed store raided, Emery arrested [CAN] [Re: veggie]
#4540527 - 08/15/05 11:25 PM (3 years, 1 month ago) |
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B.C. pot activist warns of entrapment
August 15, 2005 - canoe.ca
VANCOUVER, B.C. (CP) - B.C. pot activist Marc Emery is warning his marijuana seed customers their orders may have been intercepted by U.S. justice officials.
He also alleges that those people are now being sent letters by drug enforcement authorities in a surreptitious move to entrap them. "These people are being set up to be busted in their own homes," Emery said on Monday. "They should be very alarmed."
He called the move "ominous in a way Canadians aren't used to."
Emery is the Canadian activist wanted on drug charges in the United States on conspiracy to sell marijuana seeds in that country. The U.S. wants him extradited from Canada to face the charges.
A letter posted on the so-called Prince of Pot's website claims 200 to 300 June orders took unusually long to get to clients.
It reminds people that nothing in the envelopes sent from Emery Seeds incriminates or links the order to the client.
It alleges that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is sending letters out to trap people into incriminating themselves if they respond and acknowledge that they wish to buy seeds.
Emery says in Canada responses are to be directed to an address in North Vancouver.
"Prosecution will require that those people who get the scam letter from the DEA incriminate themselves by agreeing that they wish to receive seeds, and through acknowledging the letter, prove that they asked for and paid for seeds," the site says.
"This is a regrettable discovery, and means the DEA and RCMP and perhaps other agencies are co-ordinating a massive round-up of both Canadians and Americans in a considerable escalation of the Drug War," the site says.
U.S. consulate spokesman Ian Hillman said in Vancouver on Monday that he had not heard of the website warning.
He said if anybody in the U.S. were being looked into, "that would be part of the greater investigation.
"I don't know anything about DEA scam lettering," he said. "It's still an ongoing investigation."
Emery, the leader of B.C.'s Marijuana party, and two other activists were arrested in late July at the request of U.S authorities who accuse them of selling marijuana seeds over the Internet to Americans.
Emery is accused of selling seeds out of his bookstore in downtown Vancouver and over the Internet. He also runs Cannabis Culture magazine.
Emery's lawyer, John Conroy, has said his client has long had tacit permission from Canadian authorities to sell seeds, adding that even Health Canada has directed people who are allowed to possess pot for medical conditions to the Internet to buy seeds.
Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm of B.C. Supreme Court granted Emery $50,000 bail on Aug. 2. He faces 10 years to life in prison if convicted in the U.S.
Emery's co-accused, Greg Williams and Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek, were also granted bail.
They face charges of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana, conspiracy to distribute marijuana seeds and conspiracy to engage in money laundering.
The U.S. wants the trio extradited after they were indicted by a federal grand jury in May following an 18-month investigation by American police into the sale of marijuana seeds on the Internet and by mail.
Emery spent three months in a Saskatchewan jail last year for passing a joint at a rally.
He returns to court Aug. 25.
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dblaney
Human Being
Registered: 10/03/04
Posts: 7,863
Loc: Here & Now
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Re: Marijuana seed store raided, Emery arrested [CAN] [Re: veggie]
#4541490 - 08/16/05 07:21 AM (3 years, 1 month ago) |
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He said if anybody in the U.S. were being looked into, "that would be part of the greater investigation.
Translation: there's a greater investigation going on in America...no one is safe.
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"What is in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering?"
"Belief is a beautiful armor
But makes for the heaviest sword"
- John Mayer
Making the noise "penicillin" is no substitute for actually taking penicillin.
"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." -Abraham Lincoln
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 fanaticus
Stranger
Registered: 05/05/04
Posts: 77
Last seen: 1 year, 6 months
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Re: Marijuana seed store raided, Emery arrested [CAN] [Re: dblaney]
#4542501 - 08/16/05 01:21 PM (3 years, 1 month ago) |
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That is no bullshit that the FEDS might very well be investigating the US recipients of EMERY'S seeds. It happened to me back in the 90's when some moron from HOLLAND sent me an envelope of weed seeds in the mail. I got the letter but in the letter was the seed catalogue and a noctice that contraband in the letter has been seized and futher investigations were being inititiated. Right about that time, about 5 narcs were in back of my house checking it out for signs of weed growing and they had one of those infrared scanning devices (no illegal for the police to use in "searching" your house. I saw them and even went outside and talked to them. They all had leather jackets and great shoes - typical of narcs and when they saw me coming, a guy down the alley started shouting out numbers. He was reading the serial numbers on a trashed motorcycle frams to try and cover their work. They were narcs and after 15 minutes, they realized I had no grow op to be seen.
So without a doubt, EMERY'S seed shipments to the USA are a real bag of fun for the narcs.
The Prof
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 6,083
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Re: Marijuana seed store raided, Emery arrested [CAN] [Re: veggie]
#4557563 - 08/20/05 01:09 AM (3 years, 1 month ago) |
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Canadians Reject Extradition in Marijuana Case
August 20, 2005 - angus-reid.com
Many adults in Canada believe Marc Emery should not face trial in the United States, according to a poll by The Strategic Counsel released by CTV and the Globe and Mail. 58 per cent of respondents oppose the extradition of the Canadian citizen on drug charges.
On Jul. 29, Emery was arrested in Canada at the request of U.S. authorities on charges of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana and distribute marijuana seeds, and money laundering. Emory-who is currently free on bail-faces extradition to the U.S. If convicted, he could be sentenced to at least 10 years in jail.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) claims that Emory sold marijuana seeds over the Internet to American customers. The DEA also alleges that Emory's business is worth $2.5 million U.S. a year.
In November 2004, the Canadian federal government re-introduced a controversial bill that seeks "alternate penalty frameworks" for the possession of small amounts of marijuana. If the bill passes, any person caught with 15 grams of the drug or less would face fines instead of criminal charges.
In July 2002, Canada became the first nation in the world to regulate the consumption of cannabis for medical reasons. In the 2004 federal election, the Marijuana party-which seeks the outright legalization of the substance-received 0.3 per cent of the popular vote.
Polling Data
You may be aware that a Canadian was recently arrested in Canada at the request of U.S. police on the charge of illegally exporting marijuana seeds to the U.S. via the internet. While this is a crime in the U.S., Canadian police are not currently enforcing similar laws on marijuana. Do you strongly support, support, oppose or strongly oppose this Canadian to be extradited to the United States?
Strongly support
13%
Support
23%
Oppose
30%
Strongly oppose
28%
Not sure
6%
Source: The Strategic Counsel / CTV / The Globe and Mail
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 6,083
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Re: Marijuana seed store raided, Emery arrested [CAN] [Re: veggie]
#4582877 - 08/26/05 01:23 AM (3 years, 1 month ago) |
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Extradition hearing for pot crusader Marc Emery to begin Sept. 16
August 25, 2005 - brandonsun.com
VANCOUVER (CP) - Pot crusader Marc Emery said Thursday that all Canadians will be complicit if the United States succeeds in extraditing him to face drug charges in that country. Emery, 47, made the comment after a B.C. Supreme Court judge set Sept. 16 as the start of his extradition hearing that could net him life in prison if he is convicted on marijuana charges in the U.S.
The longtime pot activist is accused of selling marijuana seeds to Americans through the Internet and the mail, conspiracy to manufacture marijuana and conspiracy to engage in money laundering.
Emery's co-accused, Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek and Gregory Keith Smith, were also in court Thursday.
The trio was arrested July 29 after Vancouver police raided Emery's pot paraphernalia store following an 18-month investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Emery, who showed up in court with his fiancee and a few supporters, called the DEA "a Nazi-like military organization."
He said he's been selling his marijuana seeds for 11 years, during which time Canadians have benefited from the $4 million he's given away to various organizations.
Jack Layton, leader of the federal NDP, also reaped the rewards of his popularity because Emery's Internet-based Pot-tv solicited support for the party from viewers, Emery said.
"Everybody took the money, from the income tax departments representing the province and the federal government," said Emery, leader of the B.C. Marijuana party.
"I've never received a written complaint or a phone call in 11 years and I have a listed phone number.
"So if I get taken away for the rest of my life to a United States prison then every Canadian has let it happen because they have tacitly and complicitly condoned my behaviour."
He continued to vent against the DEA, calling it a well-armed beast.
"It's in the business of putting the marijuana culture away in prisons for a long time.
"As the leader of the marijuana people around the world they have targeted me and when I go to the United States, if I am extradited, you will never see me alive in Canada again."
Emery's supporters have requested Justice Minister Irwin Cotler step in but he has said the matter is now before the courts.
"He is selling out an exemplary Canadian citizen to appease their war on drugs," Emery said of Cotler.
Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm granted a request from lawyer John Conroy to have $15,000 of Rainey-Fenkarek's bail money returned so she could retain her own lawyer.
Conroy had asked Dohm to set a court date in September so Emery could continue a speaking tour across Canada.
While selling marijuana seeds is also illegal in Canada, no one has been arrested for years.
Emery, who last year spent three months in a Saskatoon jail for passing a joint at a pot rally in 2004, said he doesn't regret selling pot seeds to Americans and doesn't really fear spending life in prison.
His worst fear is that marijuana wouldn't be legalized in his lifetime.
"That's the only fear," he said, adding that people in the marijuana culture are peaceful and honest.
"We're total victims and to think that it would go on for longer than my lifetime is just a horrifyingly sad thought."
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Ravus
Not an EggshellWalker
Registered: 07/18/03
Posts: 7,969
Loc: Cave of the Patriarchs
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Re: Marijuana seed store raided, Emery arrested [CAN] [Re: veggie]
#4582884 - 08/26/05 01:26 AM (3 years, 1 month ago) |
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Like the Canadian higher-ups care about a pothead enough to risk U.S. relations? He's doomed.
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So long as you are praised think only that you are not yet on your own path but on that of another.
http://marceltagen.wordpress.com/
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faslimy
Dead Man
Registered: 04/04/04
Posts: 3,433
Last seen: 5 months, 23 minutes
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Re: Marijuana seed store raided, Emery arrested [CAN] [Re: Ravus]
#4583040 - 08/26/05 02:30 AM (3 years, 1 month ago) |
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He may have gathered some high strings to pull in his time, thats the only option really
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motaman
old hand
Registered: 12/18/02
Posts: 5,024
Last seen: 1 year, 10 months
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BC Marijuana Party leader says if he goes to jail in the U.S., he'll die there [Re: veggie]
#4584577 - 08/26/05 03:57 PM (3 years, 1 month ago) |
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BC Marijuana Party leader says if he goes to jail in the U.S., he'll die there
Last Updated Thu, 25 Aug 2005 20:16:59 EDT
CBC News
The B.C. Marijuana Party leader said Thursday if he's extradited to the U.S. to face drug charges, he'll never get out of prison alive.
B.C. Marijuana Party leader Marc Emery (CP Photo)
Marc Emery spoke in Vancouver after a judge set Sept.16 for the start of his extradition hearing.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency wants Emery extradited on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering, claiming he sold marijuana seeds to Americans over the internet.
Emery said if he's sent to the U.S. he'll either die in jail or be murdered there.
He said all Canadians will be complicit if the U.S. succeeds in extraditing him because Canadians have tacitly condoned his behaviour.
Emery said he's been selling marijuana seeds for 11 years, during which time Canadians have benefited from the four million dollars he's given to various organizations.
He called the U.S. DEA "a Nazi-like military organization."
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http://heffter.org
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Ravus
Not an EggshellWalker
Registered: 07/18/03
Posts: 7,969
Loc: Cave of the Patriarchs
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Re: BC Marijuana Party leader says if he goes to jail in the U.S., he'll die there [Re: motaman]
#4584895 - 08/26/05 06:04 PM (3 years, 1 month ago) |
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Sounds like somebody's afraid to take responsibility for his actions.
You sell narcotics or narcotic materials like cannabis seeds and you lose. He should've known better than to break US law.
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So long as you are praised think only that you are not yet on your own path but on that of another.
http://marceltagen.wordpress.com/
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Smallworlds
Trippin' fool -Merry Prankster
Registered: 03/12/05
Posts: 4,207
Last seen: 3 years, 6 days
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Re: BC Marijuana Party leader says if he goes to jail in the U.S., he'll die there [Re: Ravus]
#4587078 - 08/27/05 10:40 AM (3 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
Ravus said:
Sounds like somebody's afraid to take responsibility for his actions.
You sell narcotics or narcotic materials like cannabis seeds and you lose. He should've known better than to break US law.
Fuck that propaganda!
The U.S. laws to ban a natural plant is both insane, and unconstitutional!
The U.S. government has been taken over by assholes, bottom fucking line.
No plant or other naturally occuring substance should be illegal, and it is our duty to resist laws which defy the common sense and decency of the ordinary average man!!
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Through the excercise of patience, one may learn humility..
Smoke plenty of green, and eat fungus!!!!
   
Trip Report
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motaman
old hand
Registered: 12/18/02
Posts: 5,024
Last seen: 1 year, 10 months
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'Prince of Pot' in hot water over Nazi tag [Re: motaman]
#4588429 - 08/27/05 06:54 PM (3 years, 1 month ago) |
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http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=d58d3fae-9740-4c74-9708-7d21733dcf01
'Prince of Pot' in hot water over Nazi tag
Marc Emery defends description of Justice Minister as a 'Nazi-Jew'
Zev Singer
CanWest News Service
Saturday, August 27, 2005
OTTAWA - Marijuana crusader Marc Emery has found himself under fire this week as bloggers scrutinize the content of his Web sites, including a posting from his "jail blog" last summer in which he called federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler a "Nazi-Jew."
With the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration after him, the case of British Columbia's "Prince of Pot," has become a cause celebre. Since his arrest a month ago, he has been facing possible extradition to the United States for selling marijuana seeds to U.S. customers.
Supporters of Mr. Emery, who calls himself "the leader of the marijuana people around the world," include federal NDP leader Jack Layton, who has argued against the extradition.
Mr. Emery, 47, was serving a three-month sentence in Saskatoon last summer for passing a joint at a pot rally when he wrote the "jail blog," which he dictated to associates over the phone, who then posted it on the Internet.
In it, he complained that Mr. Cotler went from being a human rights advocate to a justice minister who, as attorney-general, allows for the prosecution of cannabis users.
"I thought the term Jewish-Nazi, or Nazi-Jew, was an oxymoron until Cotler became the Injustice Minister," Mr. Emery's posting said. "What a disgrace he is to his Jewish roots. He should -- so much -- know better."
In June, the content on his main Web site -- cannabisculture.com, which he edits, publishes and uses to help sell millions of dollars worth of marijuana seeds -- prompted NDP House leader Libby Davies to write to one of Mr. Emery's employees, Chris Bennett.
"I have been extremely disturbed by the tone and characterization of the Minister of Justice, Mr. Cotler, as a Nazi-Jew and the Gestapo," wrote Ms. Davies, who has tried to help one of Mr. Emery's associates, Renee Boje, who also faces potential extradition to the United States. "I have been advocating for Renee against the extradition and will continue to do so, but find the anti-Semitic characterization of Mr. Cotler based on his religious beliefs to be very offensive and completely counterproductive."
Four days after Ms. Davies' letter was posted to the site by Mr. Bennett, Mr. Emery -- temporarily taking a view that the Nazi metaphor "disengages almost everyone" -- said he had a better word for Mr. Cotler: "capo."
"If you're going to make comparisons," he advised, "the term for Irwin Cotler might be 'capo'. These were the Jews during the Holocaust who were fated to deliver their fellow Jews to their death...."
In this case, Mr. Cotler would deliver his fellow Canadians to his American "masters," Mr. Emery's posting explained.
This month, a doctored picture of Mr. Cotler in a Nazi uniform, with a caption calling him a "neocon-kapo," was removed by one of the site's administrators after it had been posted by one of the regular participants of the site's discussion groups. Several bloggers, including smalldeadanimals.com, later began to draw attention to that posting and to Mr. Emery's "capo" comment.
On Monday, the same regular member on the cannabisculture Web site posted a cartoon that depicted an Israeli soldier shooting a Palestinian in the back. An Orthodox Jew with an exaggeratedly large nose then says to the soldier, "Hush ... We Don't Want to Wake Him Up" while gesturing toward a large, dozing, globe-headed figure labelled "world opinion." A man in a kaffiyeh, checking the pulse of the sleeping figure says "Wake Him Up? He's Dead..."
When Mr. Emery, who is out on bail, was asked by the Ottawa Citizen about this cartoon in an interview on Tuesday, he said that while he didn't endorse it, it was "probably legitimate political commentary."
On Wednesday, he changed his view, posting a statement above the cartoon saying: "This illustration is offensive to our Jewish friends and cannot possibly help our cause... "
An administrator banned the person who posted the cartoon from the site.
Mr. Emery said when he originally used the term "Nazi-Jew" he was in a very emotional state.
"When you're in jail, you can be seized by despair," he said.
Yet, he said that while he did not wish to be "insulting" to Mr. Cotler, ultimately he believes the Nazi metaphor is fair.
"To me a Nazi is a person who would inflict pain, punishment, incarceration or death on anyone who's acting peacefully and honestly," he said. Mr. Cotler, he said, fits into the category.
Mr. Emery said it is his respect and admiration for Jewish people that is behind his belief that Mr. Cotler should be held to a higher standard.
"I have a great sensitivity to the Jewish pogroms and I'm very steeped in knowledge about them. I love studying Jewish history, cultural history. A lot of people have always thought I was a Jewish wanna-be," Mr. Emery said.
David Matas, chief legal counsel for B'nai Brith Canada, said it trivializes the atrocities of the Holocaust "to call everything that happens in this world with which you disagree Nazism."
At the same time, Mr. Matas said Mr. Emery's use of the metaphor, although "totally inappropriate," is not an act of anti-Semitism, a brand of hatred which, he said, is generally based on conspiracy theories.
"I don't think this guy is in that business," Mr. Matas said.
He said, though, that Mr. Emery should restrict his criticism to Mr. Cotler's record and leave his religion out of it.
Mr. Cotler declined to be interviewed for this story. A spokesperson said because Mr. Emery is facing possible extradition, he does not want to risk prejudicing the case.
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http://heffter.org
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 6,083
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Re: Marijuana seed store raided, Emery arrested [CAN] [Re: motaman]
#4643354 - 09/10/05 07:36 PM (3 years, 28 days ago) |
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Pot activist Marc Emery rallies supporters in front of U.S. consulate
September 10, 2005 - theglobeandmail.com
Vancouver - Marc Emery took a quick hit from a joint as his fans smoked and screamed for his freedomin front of the U.S. consulate.
The self-proclaimed Prince of Pot, faces extradition for seed sales - a crime that isn't prosecuted in Canada - and up to life in prison if convicted by a U.S. court.
In the same breath, supporters gathered around him demanded sovereignty for Canada and the world-wide legalization of pot under a billowing cloud of smoke from spliffs being waved in the air.
People everywhere are outraged and scared it could happened to them, declared Mr. Emery, 47.
"I want to tell you," he shouted above the yells, "you are part of a great awareness. Today, 40 cities around the world, from Warsaw, Moscow, Russia, London, Paris, Madrid, Italy, they are rallying at Canadian consulates around the world. In Melbourne, Australia, and Sydney, Canadian embassies are being picketed!"
He said Canada has made a huge mistake.
"The government is threatening to extradite me to the U.S. to certain death for doing something no one has ever gone to jail for, that people only ever receive minor fines for."
Mr. Emery said there are about 50 pot seed companies in Canada selling seeds every day. The businesses, people who buy from them, people who smoke pot, believe in Canadian sovereignty, are all appalled he said. Mr. Emery referred to a poll by the Globe and Mail that showed the majority of Canadians are opposed to his extradition.
"People understand if it happens to me, it can happened to a New Zealander, a Mexican person. It can happen to an Australian or a person in England or Paris."
"Americans don't honour treaties. We've seen that with softwood lumber. They can spear people away from any of these countries and put people away for long draconian periods of time."
Police officers looked on as Mr. Emery spoke and clouds of pot smoke billowed above the crowd. One officer commented that it was a nice day and that he was glad it didn't rain.
A number of parents stood in the crowd with babies in strollers. Greg Popler had his two-year-old son with him as he joined in to support Mr. Emery.
"For me this is more about Canadian sovereignty. I support the legalization of all street drugs, but I'm most against the idea of the U.S. being able to take Canadians down to face their brand of justice, which is different from ours."
Mr. Emery's extradition hearing starts Sept. 16 in B.C. Supreme Court.
The 47-year-old long-time pot activist is accused of selling marijuana seeds to Americans through the Internet and the mail, conspiracy to manufacture marijuana and conspiracy to engage in money laundering.
His co-accused are Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek and Gregory Keith Smith.
The trio was arrested in July after Vancouver police raided Mr. Emery's pot paraphernalia store following an 18-month investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Mr. Emery was picked up in Lawrencetown, N.S., while speaking at a music festival to raise funds for a medical marijuana organization.
He was detained in a Halifax-area jail cell for several days before being transferred to Vancouver.
During his brief tour and incarceration on the East coast, Emery made quite an impression. Supporters rallied for him in Halifax in front of city hall Saturday.
"Halifax is important for this demonstration because this is where Marc Emery was arrested originally . . . and this whole procedure started," said Marc-Boris St-Maurice.
Mr. St-Maurice, who founded the Marijuana Party before jumping to the federal Liberals, said if Mr. Emery broke the law he should be prosecuted in Canada.
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 6,083
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Re: Marijuana seed store raided, Emery arrested [CAN] [Re: veggie]
#4693851 - 09/22/05 02:36 AM (3 years, 16 days ago) |
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The Strange and Seedy Case of Marc Emery
September 22, 2005 - LA City Beat
Facing life in a U.S. prison, the ?Prince of Pot? sparks an extradition war that could test the limits of the War on Drugs ? and legalize pot in Canada at last
Looking back, Marc Emery says it was like a scene out of Bonnie and Clyde. The publisher of Cannabis Culture magazine and Canada?s leading marijuana rabble-rouser, Emery was sitting in Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia ? the Lawrencetown Restaurant, in fact ? getting himself together to speak at a legalization rally. It was July 29, 2005, and the second annual Atlantic Hemp Fest was already in full swing, with bands and speakers organized by Maritimers United for Medical Marijuana already entertaining a crowd of about 400-500 people.
Suddenly, the lunchtime crowd vanished. The air changed. ?Then I notice the waitresses getting jittery, and oddly encouraging me to leave in an unfriendly way that you never find on the East Coast,? Emery says.
Not connecting this weirdness to himself ? he wasn?t breaking any laws ? he paid his tab and walked outside to his car. Which, oddly, he found boxed in; ordinary-looking cars were right on his bumper in front and behind. As he stood there, looking around for whoever needed to move their cars, a large black man got out of another car parked nearby. Ever polite, Emery quipped, ?Hello.?
?Marc Emery?? said the man, not waiting for an answer, ?you are under arrest ??
This was a mild shock, even though Emery has intentionally had himself arrested 11 times since 1994 on pot-related charges as a form of protest. The man Canadians call the ?Prince of Pot? knew such arrests to be mostly pro forma exercises in his country, which he?d used to prove that pot was de facto legal there. But nothing prepared him for the remaining clauses of this stranger?s brief proclamation.
?? for extradition to the United States, on charges of Conspiracy to Manufacture Marijuana, Conspiracy to Distribute Marijuana Seeds, and Conspiracy to Engage in Money Laundering.?
This was no exercise. Cars with flashing lights screeched to a halt all around him, and 10 members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police ? the Mounties ? swarmed him in full tactical gear and ski masks over their faces. As he spent the night in a Halifax holding tank, the reality hit him cold turkey: He wasn?t under any charges in Canada, and never would be. Canada?s federal Justice Ministry didn?t think his crime ? selling marijuana seeds to fund activist causes ? was worth prosecuting. But it was the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) that had nailed him, and they?d also grabbed two of his comrades at Emery Seeds in Vancouver ? Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek, 34, and Greg Williams, 50 ? on the same charges. All three ? now known as the ?B.C. 3? ? face the same sentences. The DEA had reached across the border into Canada, exerting heavy pressure on that country?s federal law enforcement, and were going to drag them all to a hellish federal prison in the United States. Possibly for life.
The conflicting attitudes regarding pot could not be framed in more stark terms: Canada, no charges; U.S., 10 years to life. Canadian response to the arrest has turned the spotlight back on the U.S. federal government?s ruthless prosecution of marijuana users and activists. It also mirrors the conflict between the feds and the various states, like California, which have legalized pot for medical use. The disparity between state laws and federal mandatory minimum sentences are often so huge that activists say they violate the 8th Amendment guarantee against disproportionate punishment.
Emery Seeds is one of about 50 seed companies operating in Canada, most of which continue to operate today. In her bizarre press release of July 29, DEA chief Karen Tandy left little doubt as to why they singled out Emery?s operation.
?Today?s DEA arrest of Marc Scott Emery, publisher of Cannabis Culture magazine, and the founder of a marijuana legalization group ? is a significant blow not only to the marijuana trafficking trade in the U.S. and Canada, but also the marijuana legalization movement,? it begins, adding: ?Hundreds of thousands of dollars of Emery?s illicit profits are known to have been channeled to marijuana legalization groups in the United States and Canada. Drug legalization lobbyists now have one less pot of money to rely on.?
Last anyone checked, funding ballot initiatives wasn?t illegal in the U.S., and this kind of hubris has threatened to turn Emery?s extradition proceedings into a slugfest. Under treaty, the Canadians are bound to turn him over. But the Prince of Pot might prove the exception to the rule. The Canadian press has erupted in a campaign of vitriol against the U.S. for targeting Emery, who was already a kind of national antihero for opening up the country?s outdated censorship laws with Cannabis Culture and his British Columbia Marijuana Party Bookstore. Now he?s morphing into a symbol of Canadian sovereignty. Members of Parliament have taken up his case, angry over high-handed efforts by U.S. Drug Czar John Walters to force the Canadians to join the U.S.?s failed Drug War. The former mayor of Vancouver has lashed out. The Canucks are pissed.
The U.S. government insists that it is not engaging in a ?war on marijuana.? But marijuana, it seems, is going to test the relationship between the U.S. and Canada.
Overgrowing the Government
One thing is very clear about Marc Emery: He definitely broke the law, and on both sides of the border. And he did it on purpose, in front of God and everyone else, making a point of calling attention to his lawbreaking activities in his magazine, on his celebrated web video channel, Pot-TV, and in the Canadian press. But where the Canadians saw an activist, the U.S. government evidently saw a guy with a target painted on his back.
??Overgrowing the government,? that?s my phrase for 10 years,? Emery says by phone from the Cannabis Culture offices in Vancouver. ?The idea is that we?d sell seeds, people would grow lots of pot, empower themselves by not needing to buy on the black market, by being self-sufficient in marijuana and medical marijuana. Hopefully, people would grow so much pot that the DEA could never eradicate it all, and it would be futile spending all that money. Then Americans would simply say, ?Well, why should we spend all this money when it?s impossible to stop? We should legalize it.? That was the strategy on one hand.
?And then, from the money people sent me,? he adds, ?we would give that away to organizations and groups advocating peaceful democratic change and an end to the Drug War. So the money would be totally useful at both ends.?
?You might want to get the press release from our office, as opposed to Karen Tandy?s,? says Todd Greenberg, Assistant U.S. Attorney from the Western District of Washington, distancing his office from the overzealous DEA chief, ?because I want to emphasize this: He?s entitled to publish his magazine. He?s entitled to run for mayor, or do whatever the hell he wants with his Marijuana Party [chuckles]. It has nothing to do with this case. He?s being prosecuted because he?s a one-stop shop for large marijuana grows that we have busted throughout the U.S.?
And that?s in every state in the union, according to the U.S. Justice Department. Here?s where Emery?s unique political strategy becomes problematic. His enterprise is what Allen St. Pierre, a Washington, D.C.-based spokesman for the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws, or NORML, affectionately calls a ?seed wrap.? Emery Seeds began in 1994, selling high-potency marijuana seeds via mail order and using his magazine and his well-made Internet site to hawk them to customers. Those sales are illegal in both the U.S. and in Canada.
And business is good. A single marijuana plant might yield 4,000 to 5,000 seeds, which are sold for anywhere from $2 to $20 apiece. Do the numbers. They add up quick. He?s been doing it for 11 years, and in 2003 alone, Emery estimates, the seeds pulled in about $2.2 million Canadian.
But, apparently, Emery keeps almost none of it. He pays out $1 million a year to suppliers, he says, about $400,000 to support the magazine, the website, and to advertise (his last paid advertisement was in the San Francisco Chronicle, in June, for his ?Medical Marijuana Pak?), and another $300,000 for staff. That leaves about $300,000 to $400,000. Which he gives away. He even paid taxes on that money in Canada before giving it away, and on his revenue forms he marked his business as ?Marijuana Seed Vendor.? He says he doesn?t own a car, a house, investments, or any property, and luckily all his ex-wives and his four adopted children are self-sufficient now.
?I gave away, over a period of 10-11 years, close to $4 million Canadian,? Emery says now, ?to various activists, organizations, ballot initiatives, politicians, political parties, conferences, rallies ? you name it.?
That includes $19,000 for a medical marijuana ballot initiative in Arizona. And $7,000 for one in Alaska. Then $5,000 for one in Washington, D.C. He?s tabulating this stuff now, but says his U.S. contributions total ?probably no more than half a million.?
He?s also given loads of money to Canadian politicians and political parties ? even when he was running for mayor or Parliament himself.
?Politicians of every stripe both took my money and showed up at conferences to speak on legalizing marijuana,? he notes. ?Jack Layton, the leader of the New Democratic Party, came to my home 18 months ago and filmed an interview to be broadcast on Pot-TV. The mayor came to a conference that I put on with seed money last year called ?Beyond Prohibition 2004.? Every politician in Parliament had a subscription to our magazine for the last eight years. And in all that time, I never had a complaint from anybody about selling seeds.?
Nobody in the U.S. has ever worked like this. In fact, says NORML?s St. Pierre, we haven?t seen anything like this since a cat known only as Neville first started selling seeds via mail order in the Netherlands in the 1980s. ?Nobody has ever been as plotting and as pragmatic about trying to combine commerce, politics, and rabble-rousing, than Marc has,? says St. Pierre. ?He is a complex individual. In this country, the closest example are Yippies. But Marc has taken it further. Unlike a number of folks that are about enriching themselves personally, in a semi-Messianic way he?s developed a wont to give as much as he can back towards the politics of changing the laws.?
The U.S. Justice Department is unmoved by these facts. U.S. Attorney Greenberg says not only have they connected Emery Seeds to big commercial grows ? more than just DIY medical marijuana patients ? but Emery?s website (now shut down) also offered all the other paraphernalia one would need to grow or smoke pot. ?He would send 8- to 10-page instruction booklets on how to grow,? says Greenberg. ?Then he had a part of his business on the website called the Little Grow Shop. He sold the large apparatus to grow marijuana ? plus lights, fans, fertilizer, irrigation-type systems.?
Plus, he used the Internet to solicit worldwide. Any money that went across the Canadian border, in either direction, constitutes money laundering.
Jeff Eig, spokesman for the DEA in Seattle, says he doesn?t expect any problems getting Emery extradited out of Canada.
?The bottom line is that he?s facing three significant charges in federal court,? Eig says. ?He faces significant exposure to the law, facing in anywhere from 10 to 40 years, or up to life, on those charges.?
Blame Canada!
?Oh, I?m outraged, I see this as a purely political maneuver by the U.S. government and the Drug Czar. It?s political pressure,? says Libby Davies, Member of Parliament ? the equivalent of a U.S. member of Congress ? from East Vancouver. Emery?s bookstore office, where he sold the seeds, is near her district. ?What is he guilty of ? selling marijuana seeds on the Internet. He?s been doing that for over a decade, and no one in Canada has prosecuted him.
?There?s not a shadow of a doubt in my mind that this is entirely politically motivated, and it is to back Canada into a corner,? she adds, ?sort of the old adage from Bush, ?Are you with us or are you agin? us???
Canada has been softening its laws regarding marijuana possession for years, and some of the most progressive harm reduction policy has been implemented in Vancouver. Davies backed heroin maintenance studies and helped create the country?s first safe injection site for IV drug users there, where HIV and hepatitis were ballooning out of control. The current mayor of Vancouver, Larry Campbell, has championed a ?Four Pillars? drug strategy which prioritizes harm reduction, prevention, and treatment, using law enforcement specifically ?targeting organized crime, drug dealing, drug houses,? and ?problem business involved in the drug trade.? Drug users are not listed as targets, like they are in the U.S., where they are the focus of the overwhelming majority of prosecutions. Nor did ?problem business? evidently include Emery Seeds. Campbell?s office says it is not currently discussing the Emery case.
For several years, a federal bill to decriminalize marijuana possession has plodded through the Canadian Parliament, and U.S. Drug Czar John Walters has campaigned through the Great White North to try to squash it. In 2002, Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN), chair of a key congressional drug-policy committee and infamous anti-pot crusader, told Toronto?s Globe and Mail that Canada is free to make its own laws but passage of the decriminalization bill could cause Congress to tighten the border with Canada ? thus threatening the flow of goods to that country?s biggest trading partner.
These threats are not laughed off. There is a caucus within the ruling Liberal Party who believe Canada ought to liste Walters. But many find his efforts there offensive.
Former Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in August that he met with Walters on one of his pro-Drug War tours in 2002, and called it ?the most unsatisfactory meeting of my life. The pressure was intense.?
?I feel that, politically, they cannot sanction the fact that Canada is taking a different perspective, and that we?re much closer to a European model when it comes to drug policy reform,? says MP Libby Davies. ?I think there are a lot of Americans ??16 who would like to ? adopt more of a Canadian approach on a number of things, whether it?s health care or equal marriage rights for same-sex couples, or drug policy.?
Davies says she and other members of government will lobby Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler to refuse extradition of Emery. Under treaty with the U.S., Cotler was apparently required to provide Mounties to execute the U.S. arrest warrant, and will be required to present Emery for extradition hearings. Even if a judge decides to send him to the U.S., however, Cotler still has broad discretion to say no.
Vancouver Sun columnist Peter McKnight, in a September 10 piece laying out the several options for refusing extradition, wrapped it up with the idea that Emery?s ?persecution? might actually advance the legalization cause, writing: ?That leaves Cotler with one last way to refuse extradition, and it?s a way that, for both legal and moral reasons, Cotler ought to take. Whether he wants to admit it or not, selling viable cannabis seeds is de facto legal in Canada, and Cotler can therefore refuse to surrender Emery on the grounds that what he is charged with in the U.S. is not an offence [sic] in Canada.?
Chris Girouard, a spokesman for the Justice Ministry, says selling viable pot seeds is a crime in Canada, but that the U.S. can determine what conduct should be treated as a crime in the U.S., ?so the frequency of the prosecution in Canada is not a factor.?
The Prince of Pot
The fact that mainstream Canadian columnists like McKnight are going to bat for a pothead is attributable, in many ways, to the work of Marc Emery himself. When he launched Emery Seeds in 1994, Canadian laws were more strict than the U.S. Even distributing literature about pot could get you six months in jail. No store dared to carry bongs or pipes. Or a pair of hemp shoes. He opened a bookstore and began importing Jack Herer?s hemp bible, The Emperor Wears No Clothes, then went door-to-door selling High Times and books about industrial hemp and medical marijuana. He started the BC Marijuana Party, which spawned a U.S. equivalent, and ran for mayor twice, the provincial legislature three times, and federal Parliament once. His Cannabis Culture magazine and website enjoy heavy readerships and his Pot-TV programs have received as many as 10 million viewers ? including, he says, the children of Justice Minister Cotler.
Coconspirator Michelle Rainey was the financial agent for the BC Marijuana Party, and worked out of the bookstore. Greg Williams, an employee of Pot-TV, was also arrested there.
These new institutions notwithstanding, Emery built his reputation through Yippie-like national campaigns that put the pot issue on Canada?s front pages. In 2003, he launched the Summer of Legalization Tour, contending that pot was legal and demonstrating this by smoking a bong or a huge joint in front of police stations in 18 cities across Canada. Ultimately, he was charged in six cities and five provinces.
?All those charges were dropped because I was right, pot really was legal and their courts just hadn?t acknowledged it,? crows Emery.
He operated so openly, and with such impunity, that it came as a bit of a shock when he was actually convicted on a similar offense in 2004. He was barreling along on a 22-city speaking tour of university campuses, once again making a show of a few token tokes, when he was busted flat in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, for passing a joint. It seemed a laughable charge, but the judge was upset, saying Emery was arrogant and flouting the law ? which he clearly was ? and gave him 92 days in the pokey. He served 62 ? a fairly severe sentence in Canada. In 11 years, it has been his only custodial conviction. The other 10 sentences were either fines or probation.
?I?ve been very, very busy, and we?ve gotten books and magazines legalized, hemp stores are everywhere in the country, pipes and bongs are everywhere ? we have legal medical marijuana and a vibrant hemp industry, in the space of 11 years,? says Emery. ?On the ground, too, people have gone from 26 percent support for legal marijuana to 57 percent in Canada.?
After all that living way out front, Emery has earned some support from the Canadian people. But not all of his rapid-fire extemporizing has worked. After his arrest in July, he called Cotler a ?Jewish Nazi? and compared marijuana prohibition to the Holocaust, drawing howls from online commentators. He has also made a habit of telling reporters that, since selling 60,000 seeds would make him a ?kingpin? under Newt Gingrich?s draconian federal drug statute, he could be subject to the death penalty. U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg insists he is not subject to that charge, which would make extradition illegal.
?If I?m extradited, Canadians will never see me alive again,? Emery says. ?And even if the Canadian government tried to make an arrangement to have me sent back to a Canadian prison, I am certain that I?d be murdered or damaged mentally by the time I got to Canada, so I could never actively work against the government again.?
In the battle of bluster, he and DEA head Karen Tandy seem made for each other.
Do Not Respond to the Blue Letters!
Then again, Emery has plenty of strange evidence to fuel his conspiratorial fears. First of all, the DEA statement seems to indicate they?re investigating not only his customers but also the activists and politicians who?ve taken his money. Then, shortly after his arrest, customers who had ordered seeds from Emery received mysterious letters, printed on blue stock, which seemed like a sting operation.
The letters, printed on the Cannabis Culture website (www. cannabisculture.com), acknowledge the shutdown of Emery Seeds, offer a hip-hooray to Emery himself with some weird cult-of-personality cheers ? ?Smoke For Our Leader! Overgrow The Government!? ? then ask for another $100 to fill the already-paid order. Customers are instructed to go to either Western Union or Wal-Mart to send the $100 to someone in Vancouver, using a different name each time, like Mike Wong or Patrick Oliver, and to use a specific password, ?SWAP.?
In order to complete the order and receive seeds, customers were required to e-mail a confirmation of their order, the Money Control Number, the real name of the sender, and their home address (no P.O. box accepted) to a Yahoo e-mail. Which would give an agent every piece of information they would need to arrest and convict someone for buying pot.
Evidently, no one was fooled. Instead, scores of customers all over the world simply sent the letters back to Emery as evidence. The splash page on his now-closed seed company website barks in huge block letters: ?DO NOT RESPOND TO THE BLUE LETTERS!?
Todd Greenberg laughs at the idea that this is a sting: ?You?ve gotta think: His customers, many of them, are engaged in criminal activity,? he says. ?Would it shock you that they?d seize upon this as a way to make some money? I think he?s paranoid.?
Asked if this is a DEA operation, Jeff Eig says, ?Not that I know of.?
For his part, Emery is girding for political battle. He is terrified, but also energized. He?s accustomed to the bittersweet quality of his notoriety: Every time he?s been profiled by major media, he?s been busted ? a month after appearing on the cover of The Wall Street Journal, a month after a profile in Rolling Stone, two months after being the subject of a CNN Special. This time, the situation is flipped. The DEA has given him a mighty tall soapbox. But now he?s trying to save not just the weed, and not just his own ass, but those of Rainey and Williams, too.
?The whole business proposition was to raise money to start a revolutionary botanical movement to destroy the U.S. drug war and to stop this vicious gulaging that goes on with our people,? he says, adding, ?So I was very good at what I do, ?cause the DEA noticed.?
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Locus
Playing With Fire
 
Registered: 03/11/04
Posts: 5,777
Loc: Deep Inside
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Re: Marijuana seed store raided, Emery arrested [CAN] [Re: veggie]
#4693885 - 09/22/05 03:15 AM (3 years, 16 days ago) |
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this is sad
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"Fear is the great barrier to human growth." ~ Dr. Robert Monroe
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity. ~ Albert Einstein
~~~*Dosis sola facit venenum*~~~
*Check my profile to listen to my music* 
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carbonhoots
old hand
Registered: 09/11/01
Posts: 1,319
Loc: BC Canada
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Re: BC Marijuana Party leader says if he goes to jail in the U.S., he'll die there [Re: Ravus]
#4695086 - 09/22/05 12:29 PM (3 years, 16 days ago) |
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Quote:
Sounds like somebody's afraid to take responsibility for his actions.
You sell narcotics or narcotic materials like cannabis seeds and you lose. He should've known better than to break US law.
That statement makes you sound like a guy who has a grow-op going right now and hopes to deflect attention from it by writing crap like that on the net for the narcs who moniter these drug culture websites.
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-I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy
CANADIAN CENTER FOR POLICY ALTERNATIVES
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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 6,083
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Private B.C. citizen to file drug charges against pot activist Marc Emery [Re: veggie]
#4734187 - 09/29/05 10:41 PM (3 years, 8 days ago) |
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