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igotthisguitar
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)
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 Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 2:55 am Post subject: |
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Ok ...
I "signed" it.
Anyone still unsure who the REAL criminals are here?
While i've met Emery & consider him a total ass%^le, this creepy "extradition" process is entirely politically motivated.
All i can wonder is how many brownie points PM Paul Martin will score with the ruling US mafiosa.
Can you say QUID-PRO-QUO? |
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Octavius Hite
Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Location: Househunting, looking for a new bunker from which to convert the world to homosexuality.
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| Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 4:19 pm Post subject: |
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More on the story for those of you who are p*ssed or scared by this abuse of power.
from MoJones:
http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2005/11/Toking_Diplomacy.html
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If you were the guy everyone called the prince of pot and the U.S. drug czar came to town rattling his saber, you��d probably have the sense to stay out of his way. At the very least, you wouldn��t go out of your way to antagonize him, let alone pay $500 for the privilege. But that��s exactly what Marc Emery did. Emery is a Canadian entrepreneur who presided over the world��s largest marijuana seed sales business. In November 2002, when John Walters came to Vancouver, Emery bought a table at a Board of Trade luncheon, invited nine friends along, and—after nearly tricking Walters into posing for a photo with him—mercilessly heckled the czar (whose speech warned the Canadians about the errors of their drug-tolerant ways) before heading outside to spark up a fatty.
In July, after 10 years of watching as Emery sent seeds across the border, webcast his antiprohibition rants from the HQ of the British Columbia Marijuana Party (��Overgrow the Government��) on Pot-TV, and mailed out Cannabis Culture, the bimonthly he edits, U.S. drug warriors finally struck back. Acting at their behest, the Canadian police busted Emery in Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia, where he was due to appear at Hemp Fest 2005, on a three-count indictment filed by the U.S. attorney��s office after an 18-month investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Emery, 47, and two associates were charged with conspiracy to produce and sell marijuana, as well as money laundering—crimes that could carry life sentences.
I first met Emery just after the drug-czar incident and his second run to be Vancouver��s mayor. Swaggering through ��Vansterdam,�� the neighborhood of cannabis cafés and head shops that he helped establish, Emery seemed to have walked out of the pages of the Ayn Rand books he discovered when he was 21 (around the time he discovered pot) or the superhero comics he sold in his first business, started when he was 13. Both Howard Roark and Spider-Man, he told me then, ��had this total obsession with doing the right thing. I really related to these misunderstood people who had so much power.��
This August, released on a $50,000 bond, he was still obsessed, speaking in his customary rat-a-tat about the ��real reason�� for his arrest: the millions of dollars he says he��s given to antiprohibition causes over the years. ��My money went everywhere, spreading a revolution through retail,�� he said. ��It was the engine for worldwide activism against U.S. drug policy.��
��I��ve given his ��movement�� no thought,�� says Todd Greenberg, the assistant U.S. attorney in Seattle prosecuting the case. ��Emery��s criminal activities are the only focus of this case,�� he added, citing as justification the fact that 75 percent of Emery��s seeds go to American customers. But Greenberg��s attempt to distance Emery��s arrest from drug-war politics was undermined by Karen Tandy, head of the DEA. On the day of Emery��s bust, she proclaimed that it dealt a blow ��not only to the marijuana trafficking trade��but also to the marijuana legalization movement,�� whose lobbyists, she added, ��now have one less pot of money to rely on.��
��She makes it clear that her objective was to cripple the movement,�� says John Conroy, who leads Emery��s defense team and plans to use Tandy��s statement to fight his extradition. Under the Extradition Act, Canada is not obligated to surrender a citizen if to do so would be unjust or oppressive. (Canada limits sentences for cannabis production to a maximum of seven years.) Last year, Emery served 60 days for passing a joint at a concert, but Canada has largely tolerated his business—and taken his money: He pays about $80,000 a year in income taxes, listing ��marijuana seed vendor�� as his occupation on his return. Conroy believes Emery��s arrest is both personal (��It smacks of his being an effective pain in the ass to the drug warriors,�� he says) and political—an attempt by the U.S. to signal its displeasure at Canada��s liberal drug policies. The country has legalized medical pot, is flirting with federal decriminalization, and was the first nation to approve a cannabis extract called Sativex for prescription use(see "Respectable Reefer"). Many Canadians agree—a poll found that 58 percent oppose Emery��s extradition, and the arrest, which was front-page news in Canada, triggered an avalanche of letters to the editor and op-eds criticizing what one columnist called ��an outrageous infringement of Canadian sovereignty.��
Awaiting his extradition hearing (Conroy reckons the process will take years), Emery says he��s out of money and out of business. His website now offers grim warnings about an ��escalation of the Drug War�� instead of seeds of ��White Widow�� and ��Diesel�� varietals. But he seems certain that if he loses his extradition battle, it will be his ticket into the superhero pantheon. ��The DEA is losing the war for hearts and minds. They figure they can wipe out the movement by getting rid of this one guy. They��re going to give life in Supermax to a guy who isn��t even in trouble with his own people,�� Emery says. ��They will make a martyr out of me.��
Gary Greenberg is a psychotherapist, college professor of psychology, and occasional journalist. His writing on science and public policy has appeared in The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and Harper's
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Also check this out, Canada's number 1 again!
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2005/11/Respectable_Reefer.html |
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Wrench
Joined: 07 Apr 2005
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| Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 11:18 pm Post subject: |
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*beep* America and their policies and *beep* the DEA. How many time did the mofos break Canadian laws and they were never held liable. Softwood lumber and Alberta beef comes to mind, I think we should extradite the asshole American politicians and have them stand trial in Canada.
This just pisses me off. Americans should play in their own backyard not ours. |
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Octavius Hite
Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Location: Househunting, looking for a new bunker from which to convert the world to homosexuality.
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| Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 11:25 pm Post subject: |
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Here here, what we need is to expand the grassroots movement to end the drug war and support Mr. Emery.
An idea: this is not original I read it in a cult book written by a woman from New Orleans. The idea is that all of those who buy and smoke weed should collect the seeds that from time to time show up in your stash. Then throw the seeds in drainage ditches, gardens, paths, forrests, green belts, etc. Eventually if everyone starts to do this marijuana will start to grow in the wild again. If it is just growing everywhere the police won't be able to deal with it. I don't know if this is at all feasable but it sounds kool.
F@*K the DEA and the War on Drugs |
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Pligganease
Joined: 14 Sep 2004
Location: The deep south...
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| Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 11:53 pm Post subject: |
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| Wrench wrote: |
*beep* America and their policies and *beep* the DEA.
This just pisses me off. Americans should play in their own backyard not ours. |
That is exactly what Manuel Noriega said. |
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igotthisguitar
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)
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| Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2005 12:56 am Post subject: |
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Did i mention that THC ( capsule form ) has now been found to be FAR MORE EFFECTIVE than Ritalin in "treating" ADD children? Nope, don't believe i did 
News like this must really piss off the RITALIN "drug" companies & their sleezy investors.
This reminds me, why won't world gov't start a war on corruption? Hmmmmm ... would likely end up being a little too self-defeating. |
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Pligganease
Joined: 14 Sep 2004
Location: The deep south...
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| Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2005 1:52 am Post subject: |
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| igotthisguitar wrote: |
| Did i mention that THC ( capsule form ) has now been found to be FAR MORE EFFECTIVE than Ritalin in "treating" ADD children? Nope, don't believe i did |
Which, unfortunately, is the exact reason why it is illegal.
Pot smokers don't have multi-billion dollar lobbying budgets. Big drug companies, as in the manufacturers of Ritalin, Prozac, and Tylenol, do.
And that sucks. |
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igotthisguitar
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)
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| Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 12:58 am Post subject: |
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| Pligganease wrote: |
| igotthisguitar wrote: |
| Did i mention that THC ( capsule form ) has now been found to be FAR MORE EFFECTIVE than Ritalin in "treating" ADD children? Nope, don't believe i did |
Which, unfortunately, is the exact reason why it is illegal.
Pot smokers don't have multi-billion dollar lobbying budgets. Big drug companies, as in the manufacturers of Ritalin, Prozac, and Tylenol, do. |
Bingo!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Emery
WATCH THIS EXCELLENT CBC PIECE
http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/thehour_player.html?20051110-Emery_feature
Here's another revealing video docu-piece ...
http://current.tv/studio/media/1332228
As much of a jerk as Emery is, this whole "extradition" / rendition thing is flat out wrong.
STAY AWAY DEA!!!  |
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TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired
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| Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 3:10 am Post subject: |
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Is there a petition to EXTRADITE Emery?
I'll sign that one! |
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capebretoncanadian
Joined: 20 Feb 2005
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| Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 7:57 am Post subject: |
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Any updates on this stuff? I'm curious to know what happened but yet am too lazy to go after it  |
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igotthisguitar
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)
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| Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 10:54 pm Post subject: |
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| capebretoncanadian wrote: |
| Any updates on this stuff? I'm curious to know what happened but yet am too lazy to go after it |
Fresh off of YAHOO.ca ...
BC Pot Activist to Appear On TV's '60 Minutes'
CAMILLE BAINS
Thu Mar 2, 8:05 PM ET
VANCOUVER (CP) - Pot crusader Marc Emery says his appearance on the news program 60 Minutes on Sunday will be an opportunity for Americans to see him as just an ordinary guy who regards himself as the Luke Skywalker against their government's Darth Vader tactics.
Most people would be amused that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is trying to extradite him to face drug charges, Emery said. Americans weren't forced to buy his marijuana seeds, he said.
"I think Americans are going to say that if this is the No. 1 drug trafficking kingpin, then I want to move to Canada," he said, adding he's fighting an evil empire similar to one in the movie Star Wars.
"I enjoy that comic-book premise of my actions, that it's this little tiny person trying to bring justice and dignity to a whole culture in the face of a big, monolithic, Nazified institution like the DEA."
Bob Simon, the reporter who interviewed Emery in Vancouver for the 60 Minutes piece, said the program decided to air the segment on Emery because his case shows the enormous cultural divide between Canada and the U.S. when it comes to smoking pot.
"Vancouver has a very permissive culture as far as smoking of marijuana is concerned," Simon said from New York.
"You do not walk down the street in most American cities smoking a joint, whereas in Vancouver you can do it and you will not be punished for it," he said.
"We're not talking about the difference between the United States and Laos. We're talking about the United States and Canada, our proverbial friendly neighbours to the north and all that.
Simon said Emery has been punished only lightly in Canada, yet if he's extradited to the United States, "he's going to face really hard time."
What shocked Simon the most was the pervasiveness of marijuana grow-ops that offer huge profits for little to no risk. The reporter joined police for two days as they busted (  the last line just said no risk ) several suburban homes in the Vancouver area.
"I'd never seen anything like it," he said. "When you break into it, which the police did, it's just nothing but a marijuana farm. The science that goes into it and the extent of the plantation, that was shocking."
Emery, 48, will be facing an extradition hearing later this year.
Besides being accused of selling pot seeds to Americans through the mail, the longtime pot activist is charged with conspiracy to manufacture marijuana and conspiracy to engage in money laundering.
Emery, along with his co-accused Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek and Greg Keith Williams, was arrested last July after police raided Emery's pot paraphernalia store following an 18-month investigation by the DEA.
Emery said he sold $15 million in marijuana seeds around the world between 1994 and 2005.
A chunk of the profits, he said, have gone to help pot activists in other countries and several U.S. states, including Alaska, Arizona, Nevada and Alabama, where the U.S. Marijuana party is based
http://news.yahoo.com/s/cpress/20060303/ca_pr_on_na/emery60_minutes |
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igotthisguitar
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)
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| Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 6:11 pm Post subject: |
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| capebretoncanadian wrote: |
| Any updates on this stuff? I'm curious to know what happened but yet am too lazy to go after it |
Plea Deal For Prince Of Pot Means
Jail Time For Marijuana Activist In The U.S.
Mon Jan 14, 6:57 PM
By Terri Theodore , The Canadian Press
VANCOUVER - Canada's so-called prince of pot is planning for prison after reaching a plea bargain with U.S. officials over his Internet sales of marijuana seeds.
But Marc Emery remains defiant, despite the prospect of serving a five-year-jail term and has no regrets over his pot-promoting antics through the years. "I'm really pleased and proud of what I've done," Emery said of his legacy. "I wish I could have done more to piss the U.S. government off actually."
Emery, 50, said Monday that U.S. prosecutors made the offer to his lawyer for a 10-year-prison term that would mean he would have to spend at least five years in prison, most of it in Canada.
The agreement also spares his co-accused Michelle Rainey and Greg Williams from doing jail time.
Emery said that's especially important for Rainey, who smokes marijuana to control symptoms of Crohn's disease, a painful digestive-tract disorder.
It was one of the reasons he considered the offer.
"Well, what if something did happen in jail to her?" said Emery. "You know I would always be responsible."
In July 2005, Emery was arrested in Halifax on an extradition request from the United States.
A U.S. federal grand jury had indicted the self-proclaimed "prince of pot" on charges of conspiracy to distribute marijuana seeds, conspiracy to distribute marijuana and conspiracy to engage in money laundering.
The charges related to his sale of marijuana seeds to U.S. customers over the Internet.
Emery still has trouble recognizing what he did wrong.
"There's no victim in my case," he said. "There's nobody who's claiming I hurt them ... so you're talking hundreds of thousands of happy customers."
For almost 15 years, Emery has been an outspoken advocate of the cannabis culture, even creating a magazine and forming the B.C. Marijuana Party.
Three years ago, he travelled across the country lighting up giant joints at pro-marijuana rallies in front of police stations in his quest to legalize pot.
He spent two months in a Saskatoon jail after he was arrested passing around a marijuana cigarette at a pro-pot rally.
"I'm a victim of political advocacy," he said Monday.
Alan Young, a professor at Osgood Hall Law School at York University, said extradition requests from the United States are very difficult to fight and the plea gives Emery some certainty.
"It looked a bit hopeless," Young said. "That's not to say a great fight could not have been mounted."
Young, who has known and worked with Emery since 1990, said on that level he's relieved that Emery knows the sentence he will face.
But on a political level the sentence is a travesty, he said.
"I think it's remarkable that I could cripple someone and put them in hospital ... and get less time that Marc will serve," Young said.
"It's grossly disproportionate by Canadian standards. But, unfortunately, by American standards, it may appear to be a kiss."
Emery said he's always been open about his actions, lobbying and meeting politicians such as Sen. Larry Campbell and New Democrat Leader Jack Layton and even filing income tax on his seed sales.
"Nobody ever treated me like a drug dealer in this country," he stated.
That wasn't the case in the U.S. after his arrest in 2005.
"The tentacles of the Marc Emery criminal enterprise reached out across North America to include all 50 states and Canada," Rodney Benson of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency told reporters in Seattle.
The plea agreement still needs the approval of the Canadian Department of Justice, which Emery believes won't oppose it.
"Because it spares the Conservative party government ... with a looming election, this awkward decision of whether to extradite me," he said.
"In a sense, it takes the heat off the government too, which I'm really disappointed by because one of the great things about having a crisis is something politically good might come of it."
Alain Charette, a spokesman for the Department of Justice, said the plea is a negotiation between other parties and doesn't yet involve the department.
He noted in all such extradition decisions, the minister is left with the final decision.
Emily Langlie, public affairs officer for the U.S. Attorney's office in Seattle, said it was not appropriate for officials there to comment on the plea agreement.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration did not respond to a request for an interview. 
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080114/national/emery_pot_plea_3 |
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igotthisguitar
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)
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| Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 6:07 am Post subject: |
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Snag In Deal By U.S & Canada's "Prince of Pot"
Wed Mar 5, 8:38 PM ET
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - A deal to resolve the extradition fight between Canada's "Prince of Pot" and U.S. drug authorities has hit a snag, the marijuana activist said on Wednesday.
The United States wants to extradite Marc Emery -- who founded a political party and campaigned across Canada to legalize pot -- on charges he illegally sold marijuana seeds from his Vancouver store to American buyers.
Emery tentatively agreed with U.S. prosecutors in January to plead guilty in return for the charges being dropped against two other defendants and he being allowed to spend the bulk of a 10-year sentence in Canada.
Canada must also approve the deal, but its prosecutors say a Canadian judge cannot be ordered to impose a U.S. prison sentence of no release for at least five years that is stricter than Canadian law requires.
"The Canadian government says that's not legal in Canada ... and so Justice Department in the United States says the deal is not possible because the Canadians are not playing ball so to speak," Emery told reporters.
Emery was in court in Vancouver on Wednesday to set a date for his extradition trial, but a judge agreed to postpone the hearing until April 19 to allow his lawyers, U.S. and Canadian prosecutors to continue negotiating.
Emery said he will fight extradition if a deal is not reached.
Emery has accused Canadian police of bowing to U.S. political demands by arresting him in 2005, since his activities were well-known and tolerated in Canada -- where he even paid taxes on his seed sales.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/usa_marijuana_dc;_ylt=AlsHAQR2qNhz_RVMBYqD5GIDW7oF |
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TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired
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| Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 9:52 pm Post subject: |
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| igotthisguitar wrote: |
| capebretoncanadian wrote: |
| Any updates on this stuff? I'm curious to know what happened but yet am too lazy to go after it |
Plea Deal For Prince Of Pot Means
Jail Time For Marijuana Activist In The U.S.
Mon Jan 14, 6:57 PM
By Terri Theodore , The Canadian Press
VANCOUVER - Canada's so-called prince of pot is planning for prison after reaching a plea bargain with U.S. officials over his Internet sales of marijuana seeds.
But Marc Emery remains defiant, despite the prospect of serving a five-year-jail term and has no regrets over his pot-promoting antics through the years. "I'm really pleased and proud of what I've done," Emery said of his legacy. "I wish I could have done more to piss the U.S. government off actually."
Emery, 50, said Monday that U.S. prosecutors made the offer to his lawyer for a 10-year-prison term that would mean he would have to spend at least five years in prison, most of it in Canada.
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If he wishes he could have done more to "piss the U.S government off"...then they likely would have called for a longer sentence...and he should have been prepared to face the consequences. That being the case why is he fighting extraction? Seems like all words and bravado but when it comes time to pay the piper and stand up for one's beliefs he's suddenly hiding behind lawyers.  |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 10:12 pm Post subject: |
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| Octavius Hite wrote: |
| This is a clear violation of Canada's soverignty by the jack-booted thugs of the DEA. |
Does Canada have an extradition agreement with the United States? |
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