The Prince of Pot returns to Canada

A friend of mine, Marc Emery, has finally completed his 5 yr sentence for selling marijuana seeds. Marc is a fellow Canadian,who had been extradicted to the US from Canada (B.C.) to serve time in a US prison, and though we’ve never met, we became correspondants and ultimately friends not long after he entered the US prison system. I’d somewhat followed his case while we were living in California, having come across the story on some news site (Canadian no doubt). He was and had been for many years, well known in Canada as the Prince of Pot, for his outspoken, direct and in-your-face crusade to legalize marijuana. I read that in the presentencing hearing, Emery’s lawyer, Mark Troberman told the judge and courtroom "The only thing that makes Mr. Emery unique or different from most of these other seed sellers is that Marc donated his proceeds to help fund lawful marijuana legalization efforts throughout the United States and Canada.” Marc himself estimates he contributed, across the border, roughly $4.5 million in seed revenues from his Cannabis Culture shop, to help pay for drug-law challenges between 1995 and 2005. If you are unfamiliar with Marc Emery, Canada’s leading and most steadfast activist in the fight to legalized marijuana, you can google him for all kinds of information.

Marc was first sent to D. Ray James Correctional Facility in Louisiana, the facility is designated low-security for INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) ‘deportable alien’ inmates. It is, in fact, run and controlled like a medium-high security prison. But in regular BOP medium-security prisons, you get a two-bunk cell to share; here in this “low”-security prison, 60 men share one big dorm with no privacy. About two years later Marc was transferred to Yazoo Medium Security Prison in Mississippi after his applications to be transferred back to Canada to serve his sentence (as many Canadians are entitled to do in accordance with a Treaty between the US and Cdn Govt’s) were denied.

I first wrote him at D.Ray James, a letter of ‘solidarity’ more or less. Living the ‘prison’ world as we (my husband son and I) had been doing for around five years at that point I knew getting letters in the mail was the highlight of any inmates day, and that he would likely appreciate all and any support. I imagine being extradicted, to serve five years in a foreign country’s prison system (even though that foreign country is ‘next door’) would have to add just one more level of anxiety, to an already over-stressed and anxiety ridden man in this situation, to anyone actually, experienced or not, with the prison journey.

As I’m sure you’ve surmised, since my sons arrest and ten year foray in the US prison system, since my eyes were opened (my ‘enlightenment’ if you will) to the broken, corrupt and draconian prison system our taxpayers (mostly through ignorance) and the Govt’s ‘drug war’ supports, I have been a strong supporter of legalizing marijuana, decriminalizing it, for ending the U.S. Govt’s failed “war on drugs”, so was sincerely sympathetic and supportive of this man and what he stood for. The US Prison system holds more drug offenders, serving overly long sentences, than it does convicted felons of any other crimes, with convicted marijuana ‘criminals’ filling more beds than any other. The ‘politics’ behind the surging levels of marijuana encarcerations and our prison populations exceeding 137% of capacity, after 40 years and 1 Trillion being spent on the failed ‘war on drugs’ being the reason….cha ching, cha ching.

Marc had, to all accounts and purposes, always been fully transparent in his business dealings in Canada, in his ‘head shop’ business in downtown Vancouver, his Cannabis Culture magazine and website, and in his mail order seed selling business. The Canadian Govt was fully aware of Marcs business enterprises and politics, and gladly accepted and spent the taxes he paid on his profits, most of those profits having been donated to efforts aimed at furthering the legalizing of marijuana in the US and Canada. The US Drug Czar however saw things differently and placed him on their ‘most wanted’ list, Marc was ultimately arrested by the DEA for selling seeds to a US customer. The arrest and prosecution was mostly all political, as immediately following Marcs guilty verdict and extradition papers being signed, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency hailed his capture as a “significant blow not only to the marijuana trafficking trade in the U.S. and Canada, but also to the legalization movement.”

The Prosecutor in Marcs case, John McKay, has, four years ago, taken a 180 degree turn re his stance on the drug war, having come out and stated that "he has come to see the futility of continuing to enforce marijuana prohibition. "As Emery's prosecutor and a former federal law-enforcement official, I'm not afraid to say out loud what most of my former colleagues know is true: Our marijuana policy is dangerous and wrong and should be changed through the legislative process to better protect the public safety." Marijuana prohibition "has utterly failed," McKay concluded. Failed, yes, and in the process destroyed countless lives of young (and old) men and women, and the fabric of the lives of their family and friends.

I can’t even remember what I wrote in my first letter to Marc, other than, in introducing myself, I recounted "our story" re Coreys arrest and lengthy sentence for a first time, non-violent marijuana offender and my own thoughts on America’s ‘drug war’, the draconian and overly severe sentences imposed on all drug offenders (including first time, low level offenders) and wished him well. Within two weeks when I opened my mailbox I found a letter in response from Marc and we became regular correspondents from then till his release just last week, August 17th. At some point, I think after he was transferred to Yazoo Medium Security Prison in Mississippi, he had access to an inmate email service (Corrlinks, the same private ISP Lompoc Prison used and that Corey and I used daily his last two years at Lompoc, Ca) and we corresponded in that fashion thereafter. After he was released from prison, about a month ago, he was first sent to an ICE Detention Center to await his deportation to Canada, and had access to a cellphone, so we talked and texted a few times while he was there. He was clearly enjoying himself and in great spirits! SO excited, as you can imagine, to soon be back with his lovely wife Jodie, on Canadian soil and rejoin the movement he was perhaps due more credit towards advancing than any other pot activist in the past twenty or more years in Canada.

I always enjoyed our conversations and our correspondence, I found Marc highly intelligent, well read and educated, world travelled, witty, clever and v funny. Also possessed of the most positive attitude, likeable personality, and I learned first hand, highly exuberant quality in conversation. The man can tell a STORY! The Canadian Govt will have their hands full going into this next election with Marc supporting and campaigning for the opposing Liberal Party (led by Justin Trudeau) who have taken on support for the Legaization of marijuana as a key issue. Marc has vowed to seek political revenge against the Conservative Govt for its role in his extradition.

He also has a university tour booked in Canada starting in Jan. 2015 and will begin a 30-city Canadian tour on Sept.10, 2015 continuing until Oct. 17, the day before the next scheduled federal election. He also has invitations to speak in several EU countries this and next year, many of which we spoke about. Good luck to you Marc, my thoughts and prayers go with you.

"If I had to sum up Friendship in one word, it would be Comfort". ~Terri Guillemets