B.C.'S 'PRINCE OF POT'

At the centre of the campaign to decriminalize pot in Canada is a
right-wing marijuana magnate residing in 'Vansterdam' who, like his
childhood hero, Spider-Man, just wants to save the world

Marijuana has emerged as a multi-billion-dollar industry in Canada,
largely because the United States maintains a vigorous opposition to
pot at the same time Canadian authorities turn a blind eye to its
cultivation and possession. In the second of a three-part series,
National Post columnist Diane Francis speaks with Canadian pot culture
guru and self-proclaimed reefer royalty, Marc Emery.

It is Friday night and Marc Emery and his colleagues are rolling 2,000
reefers on his coffee table, in anticipation of a big pot picnic
tomorrow on an island off the Sunshine Coast.

Should be quite an event: There are bags and bags of grass -- worth
$9,000 -- on the table, all of it grown from the marijuana seeds that
are the centrepiece of Mr. Emery's livelihood. Each of the expected 50
or so picnickers will be given a jar containing 22 joints in a variety
of flavours -- Northern Lights, Jolly Ranchers, Cherry Bomb and many
more.

But it takes a long time to roll up that many joints. By 3 a.m.,
everyone is stoned and work comes to a standstill, unfinished.

Marc Emery, at 43, is the linchpin for virtually all Canadian efforts
to legalize marijuana. "I'm the Prince of Pot," is how he describes
himself between drags on his bong, in an apartment overlooking
Vancouver's beautiful Coal Harbour.

Yes, he is a revolutionary -- but not Central Casting's version. He is
a right-wing marijuana magnate who is making millions in order to
overthrow the prohibition against cannabis. "I've developed a business
to finance a revolution. I sell marijuana seeds around the world and
take these proceeds of crime to subvert the system."

To this end, Mr. Emery employs about 40 workers and operates a
bookstore on West Hastings Street; produces a daily Internet
television show called POT-TV; heads Cannabis Culture magazine; and is
the leader of the B.C. Marijuana Party. He finances these money-losing
ventures by selling up to $3-million worth of seeds each year by mail
order to buyers around the world. His motto, he says, is "to overgrow
government."

His seed business, he explains, is not illegal. "There's no drug
quality in a seed. But it's considered a precursor to a restricted and
controlled substance."

Which is not to say he has not had brushes with the law. He has been
jailed. His business has been shut down twice. His seeds have been
confiscated. But charges are always dropped, or else he has received a
small fine.

Police and politicians know Marc Emery: "He's not a priority but a
pain in the ass," says RCMP Staff Sergeant Chuck Doucette.
"Marijuana combines the two largest killers -- alcohol and tobacco --
together in one drug. Organized crime has started to move into the
growing and trafficking of this drug. His case, involving seeds, is
before the courts and yet he's allowed to be the head of a political
party. Why does society allow that? And I can't understand why
Revenue Canada hasn't gone after Marc. Can you?"

In fact, Mr. Emery says he declares $145,000 a year income on which he
pays $60,000 in taxes. But he keeps no books and moves his seed
business from safe house to safe house so his inventory cannot be seized.

He buys seeds from local growers as well as from German seed
companies, then advertises them in his catalogue and on his Internet
television show. "I give no receipts to growers and keep no books.
That would be proof of a conspiracy to traffic," he says.

"I give all the money I make away immediately to provide people with
bail money or to pay their legal costs. I own nothing. This is why
they don't raid me. All my money is in by noon and out by 4 p.m. and
there's nothing left to take. I'm judgment-proof. The biggest fine
I've paid is $2,000. If they force me out of business again, I will
just personally go bankrupt."

He was raised in London, Ont., by two British parents. He is a
libertarian and business whiz who is incensed when the state intrudes
on personal freedoms. He began his business life at age 11 buying and
selling comic books. Next came books. "I'm just a bookseller from
London, Ont., who believes in Ayn Rand," he says.

He describes his early activism: "I first went to jail for breaking
the Sunday shopping law and then over a garbage strike in 1986. I
provided a free garbage service because the government union shut down
this service. I hate unions so I took the garbage to a private
landfill site. I was charged but they dropped these [charges]
eventually. I was also charged for home-schooling my four adopted
children in Ontario."

Marijuana activism came to the forefront when revisions to the
Criminal Code in 1988 made it illegal to sell or publish books or
periodicals such as High Times that promote pot. He was appalled: "I
have a passion for social justice and was stunned when Canadian
society had banned the truthful discussion of anything. I took copies
of High Times and sold them in front of the police station in London,
begging them to arrest me," he recalls. He got into the seed business
in 1994.

Today, Marc Emery Direct Marijuana Seeds exports the powerful strains
developed in British Columbia and elsewhere that cause plants to reach
maturity fast and in all kinds of conditions, indoors and outdoors.
These plants are "female," though without seeds, because they are
harvested from female clones, which have no seeds.

They are sold by mail order at a cost of between $2 and $40 a seed.
The average price is $6, the average order 30 seeds, with 85% of the
orders headed for the United States, even though cultivation of
marijuana could reap offenders a 10-year prison term there.

"I'm the biggest. I sell 430 varieties," he says. "I can sell a
certain seed that grows in a certain climate at certain times of the
year. I can sell you a product that is good for sex. I can sell you
seeds that result in tall thin plants or ones that are dwarf."

His seed catalogue is contained in the front of every issue of his
Cannabis Culture and at www.emeryseeds.com. Descriptions are quite
detailed: Northern Lights, we learn, reaches maturity within 50 to 55
days, produces "fat, chunky" buds, is not smelly and delivers a "heavy
lethargic stone." Buddah seeds, costing $120 each, are described as
the "talk of the town in Amsterdam." Then there are Euforia seeds,
which cost $95 each; they do well in a greenhouse and deliver "that
famous Skunk high."

His records contain only initials and the city name, to protect the
identity of customers. He does not worry about getting arrested: "Jail
is only about time. I was jailed for opening my bookstore in Ontario
on Sundays in order to fight the blue laws. But this is an enormous
issue. This is about people's lives being ruined for using a substance
that's not as harmful as others legally allowed," he says.

While using his profits to bring the issue to public attention, his
seeds have spawned a gigantic, illicit marijuana growing and exporting
industry that has U.S. law-enforcement agencies upset.

But his operation, and others in Canada, are of fairly recent
vintage.

"There was absolutely no pot grown in Canada before 1969," he says.
"But hippie travellers brought California and Mexican seeds. These
were combined with high-altitude strains from Afghanistan and India.
Indoor grows did not get started until 1980. Now one $200, 3,000-watt
bulb can grow one pound. That's when growing shifted from outdoor to
indoor. Now there is just too much money going to people on the basis
of illegality."

Most of his supply comes from home-grow operations and Germany, where
marijuana possession and cultivation have become virtually
decriminalized. Switzerland will be another source country this year
because it has just made marijuana legal.

"We don't buy anything from Amsterdam to be mailed to us because that
would tip off the authorities right away," he says. That is because
Amsterdam is the first jurisdiction in the developed world where
coffee houses are licensed to sell marijuana to patrons.

Vancouver, dubbed "Vansterdam," is the pot capital of Canada and
multi-billion-dollar growing operations proliferate in the city and
province. And Mr. Emery is at the centre of it all: His store houses
the political party, a bookstore and television studio. It also sells
pot paraphernalia. When I was there, two patrons pulled on joints
while they examined pipes and books.

Next door is the Blunt Bros. Cafe -- a "smokeasy" with a sealed-off
room, such as airports have, where people can smoke marijuana before
returning to the cafe area to drink coffee and listen to music. The
cafe has never been busted, although others, including one Mr. Emery
owned, have. "We have been a threat to the agenda, but Blunt Bros.
hasn't been," he explains.

"Dignity time" every day is 4:20 p.m. -- when city by-law enforcement
shuts down and POT-TV airs on the Internet. Then, people can smoke
wherever they like in the building. No one bothers them. "Who cares
about a bunch of hippies," says a police officer. "We're busy busting
grow-ops all over the province."

A few years back, there was a crackdown on such cafes, but marijuana
smoking is everywhere in the city. In hotel lobbies, restaurants and
even on the street, its distinctive smell wafts through the air at
most times of day.

"The most important place in the world is Vancouver, which is the
centre of resistance to marijuana prohibition. It's the main pressure
point and Marc is the centre of all this," says Richard Cowan, a
wealthy U.S. activist and founding president of NORML (National
Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws) who works as anchorman for
Internet POT-TV. "He's the only person I know who is this hybrid of
entrepreneur and activist."

Mr. Cowan says Mr. Emery recently spent $200,000 to get several people
out of jail who were in for marijuana offences. He has also
contributed toward the legal fees involved in a Charter challenge to
be heard this fall by the Supreme Court of Canada into whether
marijuana prohibition is unconstitutional.

Last Monday, Canada announced changes to its marijuana policy and is
growing pot for physicians to distribute next year to patients who
have a year or less to live, or who have specific debilitating
conditions. This is part of a clinical trial that came about as a
result of a court case.

And it turns out Mr. Emery, the Prince of Pot, lays claim to having
his hand even in that, albeit indirectly -- and he is not happy about
it. The seeds for this legal operation came from him and other
"criminals" whose supplies have been confiscated.

"Isn't that outrageous?" he asks. "To think that I've been inducted
into this experiment involuntarily and my unpurchased assets are part
of this government initiative."

What is next? Mr. Cowan believes Mr. Emery's efforts will result in
full legalization in Canada within two years.

Mr. Emery is more the realist. "I'm not sure," he says. "But I don't
care because I have a wonderful life. I'm so lucky. Here I am doing
something that I believe in and that's fun.

"Why do I do this? I think it's because I grew up reading Spider-Man
comics and Spider-Man was a person who just wanted to do the right
thing and just wanted to save the world."

Tomorrow: Beyond Compassion Clubs