Marc Emery: Drug Kingpin or Political Prisoner?

In an August 5, 2005, article for the Seattle Post Intelligencer, columnist Joel Connely quoted D.E.A. administrator Karen Tandy on the arrest of Canadian marijuana activist Marc Emery:

"Today's arrest of Mark (sic) 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 to the marijuana legalization movement."



"Hundreds of thousands of dollars of Emery's illicit profits are known to have been channeled to marijuana legalization groups active in the United States and Canada. Drug legalization lobbyists now have one less pot of money to rely on."

But according to US attorney Todd Greenberg, this arrest was not supposed to about Mr. Emery's politics, "The focus of this case is on the drug trafficking of Marc Emery. It is not about his political activities, nor his campaigns for office. Nor is it focused on his magazine."



Mr. Emery has been selling marijuana seeds over the Internet since 1994. For over a decade Emery Seeds has operated out in the open, in the full view of the Canadian authorities and was considered to be the largest marijuana seed distributor in the world.



Mr. Emery is also a well known political activist in the fight against marijuana prohibition. The media calls him "The Prince of Pot." He is the leader of the BC Marijuana Party, the publisher of Cannabis Culture magazine and the host of The Prince of Pot on POT-TV, which he also owns.



According to Special Agent in Charge Rodney G. Benson of the D.E.A., “The tentacles of the Mark Emery criminal enterprise reached out across North America to include all 50 United States and Canada,” he said in a July 29, 2005 D.E.A. news release, “Mr. Emery utilized the Internet to sell his marijuana seeds throughout this country to customers no matter their age. He directed his business with efficiency, was motivated by greed, and will now be prosecuted for this illegal activity.”



Selling pot seeds is not considered to be an "arrestable" offense in Canada.



At a news conference held after Mr. Emery was granted bail, Mr. Emery's lawyer, John Conroy said, "For nine years he's been doing this quite openly. They've known about it, the local authorities haven't done anything about it." Mr Conroy also said that Mr. Emery has long had tacit permission from Canadian authorities to sell seeds, adding that even Health Canada has told people who have been prescribed medical marijuana to buy seeds on the Internet.



The US Marijuana Party has called for the Resignation of D.E.A. Administrator Karen Tandy. Loretta Nall, President of the U.S. Marijuana Party writes in an August 5, 2005 blog entry , "Tandy needs to clarify her remarks and state publicly that the DEA is not targeting protected political activity. If she cannot or will not do that, she should resign. Targeting political opponents is not Tandy's job."



Ms. Nall's article opens with the words, "Please distribute far and wide."



I now pass this news along in the blogosphere, hoping that this story will spread far and wide.