Marc Emery, marijuana activist, long a thorn in the side of the U.S. war on drugs is facing extradition to the United States.
Marijuana activist Marc Emery and his mail order marijuana seed business serviced U.S customers looking to grow their own.
Marc Emery got his start in the mail order business as a child buying, selling stamps and comic books before moving on to marijuana and related paraphernalia.
Marc's Cannabis Cafe and his mail order business seemed to thrive, particularly in Vancouver, long a society of dope smokers, who considered Vancouver a marijuana mecca since the 1960's.
Emery operated his business enterprise with relative freedom, perhaps experienced a few legal bumps in the road, though always a long time activist since the mid 1970's in every conceivable cause of one type or another. The Ontario transplant certainly was never deterred by anyone, including a failed attempt at running for political office.
In regards to Emery, a new found freedom came about when Marc, after an attempt to get an audience advocating marijuana use in Ontario, won a Ontario court challenge to allow drug related literature to be published, such as High Times.
Marc, it appears, felt he would find a more appreciative audience elsewhere than stodgy Ontario. Mark soon took his various ventures, publications, marijuana advocacy to Vancouver where he found a willing Vancouver clientele eager to follow his mantra and marijuana lifestyle.
Marc set up shop and soon media were taking notice the world over at this upstart, with media naming him the Prince of Pot. Marc seemed to operate with relative freedom in Vancouver, much to the chagrin of our neighbours south of the border who would later send government agents covertly to investigate his highness and his place of business.
It came as no surprise later on when Emery's new venture, the Cannabis Cafe was open for business, a cafe where marijuana was smoked freely ala Dutch style cafe. This caught the attention of then Vancouver Mayor Phillip Owen, who postulated to the U.S media that the end of days for Marc is "Toast".
Soon after, Vancouver police descended on the "Baked" crowd at the Cannabis Cafe and like a stern parent cleared out his marijuana and drug paraphernalia, wagged a legal finger at Marc, wrote him up, fined him and went on their merry way.
Though Marc was never charged for his marijuana indiscretions, it can only be assumed that since he paid provincial and federal sales taxes on his various marijuana activities, one can be sure a federal can O worms would be opened since the feds and province greedily pocketed his sales taxes extravaganza for their coffers estimated to be over $500,000 plus.
Marc Emery, unfazed by fines, would soon be back in business, regardless that he lost over 1.5 million dollars of marijuana and associated drug paraphernalia seized by police.
In 2005, Emery's was detained and arrested, charges would stick this time, with many marijuana advocates who felt this came about as a result of U.S. pressure on Canadian authourities to fish or cut bait, as Marc Emery was contravening U.S. law selling illegal drugs to U.S. customers while using Canada as a safe haven to operate. This was putting Canada/U.S. relations in jeopardy.
Can Canada whose previous governments, both provincially (NDP) and federally (Liberal) emphatically state to the U.S. they were serious about ending the War on Drugs, while happily collecting well over a half million dollars in sales tax from a drug dealer? Goodness, South American countries have been invaded by U.S. forces for doing much the same.
The other issue which may have irked the U.S. Government may have been the ongoing publicity surrounding the Prince of Pot, from media, a movie and play certainly didn't go unnoticed and could have been the last straw.
Keeping under the radar was never Emery's strong point, pissing in government and law enforcement's cornflakes is his forte.
Coming full circle, last week Prime Minister Stephen Harper's response to Canadian's looking for answers in decriminalization of marijuana laws were met with a downer of a response by the Prime Minister, who stated, "the status quo stands".
Three politicians from all three federal political parties, Liberals, NDP and Conservative are looking to block the extradition of Emery to the United States. One can only assume votes are to be had, following the response by voting age marijuana users across Canada, upset over Prime Minister Harper's anti marijuana decriminalization stance.
Marc Emery, if extradited to the United States, where ZERO tolerance on drugs is the catchword of the day, is looking at five years in the slammer for an offense.
This offense we Canadian's must remember was condoned by previous provincial and federal governments in Canada.
Canada's previous stance (before the Federal Conservative party inherited the Federal Liberal and Provincial NDP, who happily collected a half million in sales taxes from Emery) stated these previous governments stated to Canadians and the U.S.A that they were truly serious in stemming the War on Drugs. If this was the case, then Emery's activities should have been nipped in the bud at it's inception a decade and a half ago.
Should Marc Emery go free? That is for the law to decide.
One puzzling turn of events was last weeks ruling by a British Columbia Supreme court judge Peter Leask, whose take on the War on Drugs certainly raised the question of his supreme competence, since this judge went against the recommendations of his own Crown attorneys. During a drug case of monumental proportions, the Crown attorneys argued for 16 and 14 year sentences respectively for two hard core methamphetamine and cocaine dealers. These arguments were overturned by said judge Peter Leask who felt flaccid sentences of 14 months was ample prison time as a strong deterrent for the two accused, who happened to be members of the Hells Angels.
Perhaps the U.S. Government should be immediately applying to extradite by all means necessary and trade BC Supreme Court Peter Leask for Marc Emery instead?
Many Canadian's according to media reports feel British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Peter Leask has done more harm to the War on Drugs campaign than local mail order seed seller Marc Emery could ever dream of.
Marc should be so lucky.
Comments
Marc should never be extradited to the USA. I think the USA would be better to concentrate on what is happening to their southern drug problem....I don't see any innocent americans getting shot because of Marc's seed business. I think mj use should be decriminalized and taxed to the hilt. It seems the government has done a good job taxing the life out of alcohol and tobacco..they would do a good job with mj too! Any drugs other than mj should have very stiff penalties. And the USA should extradite Peter Leask. WTH is he thinking???
I am more concerned about my salt intake than Cannabis use.
Take the money away from the criminals so that my money goes towards healthcare and education. Currently it goes to my neighbour.
I don't see how anybody can be extradited to a country within the borders of which he hasn't committed any crime. Next you may see countries like China and Iran claiming jurisdiction over Canadians for cross-border exportation of opinion that are outlawed in those countries. How would you like to be extradited to Saudi Arabia for disseminating an article that would be a crime in that country? As for Mr Justice Leask, we are fortunate that he doesn't think he should be on the side of the Crown. There's already enough government interference with the judiciary in BC, and if that happened we might as well flush the justice system and democracy down the toilet.
"Keeping under the radar was never Emery's strong point, pi55ing in government and law enforcement's cornflakes is his forte."
That's our Marc Emery. We love you Marc
I don't see how anybody can be extradited to a country within the borders of which he hasn't committed any crime. Next you may see countries like China and Iran claiming jurisdiction over Canadians for cross-border exportation of opinion that are outlawed in those countries. How would you like to be extradited to Saudi Arabia for disseminating an article that would be a crime in that country? As for Mr Justice Leask, we are fortunate that he doesn't think he should be on the side of the Crown. There's already enough government interference with the judiciary in BC, and if that happened we might as well flush the justice system and democracy down the toilet.
Just another attempt to stick a bunch of search engine keywords into a headline and article so examiner.com shows up high on search ratings even though it does not report anything new, it just vultures off of other news. Examiner is a scam!
The U.S. wants to lower U.S. demand for Mexican pot, or so it says. Marc Emery has done more to lower U.S. demand for Mexican pot than the entire DEA and ONDCP taken together. This is the thanks he gets? Marc Emery is my hero.
Great report, Barry. Yes, I agree with liane above!!
I am not an advocate for marijuana and believe it should be against the law, but when I see the sentence this Canadian judge gave these two Hells Angels, I can see your point. This judge needs to be removed from the bench.
I love how people become sovereignists when it's a Canadian being sent to another country to face charges for their illegal actions that took place on foreign soil. Would these defenders of sovereignty be so devout if it was a foreign national from a country where, say, heroin was legal mailing the drug into Canada for consumption here? I think not. Those same people would be screaming at our federal politicians to get that criminal to Canada to face charges for their crimes. And what of people who have sex with children in countries where the age limits are lower than Canada. Would they say that since no crime was committed in the jurisdiction that they should face no punishment back home?
Marc Emery made millions selling pot seeds to the US using the US Postal Service - something he knew was a crime in the US. Had he not done that he would be free to sell and toke freely as he has. Buy he chose to make the big bucks and take the risk. Pay up Marc!
I love how people become sovereignists when it's a Canadian being sent to another country to face charges for their illegal actions that took place on foreign soil. Would these defenders of sovereignty be so devout if it was a foreign national from a country where, say, heroin was legal mailing the drug into Canada for consumption here? I think not. Those same people would be screaming at our federal politicians to get that criminal to Canada to face charges for their crimes. And what of people who have sex with children in countries where the age limits are lower than Canada. Would they say that since no crime was committed in the jurisdiction that they should face no punishment back home?
Marc Emery made millions selling pot seeds to the US using the US Postal Service - something he knew was a crime in the US. Had he not done that he would be free to sell and toke freely as he has. Buy he chose to make the big bucks and take the risk. Pay up Marc!
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