MARC EMERY GETS HIGH ON THE SEEDS OF ACTIVISM

Wanna Get High?

When I walk into the small office below the BCMP store, Marc Emery is
smoking some pot he received in the mail from a supporter out of a
giant bong and asks if I want to get high. The experience has indeed begun.

The well-known marijuana activist believes that "a journalist should
be telling people what it's like to do stuff they can't do." He
comments that usually all that's seen about what it's like to do
drugs is a list of side effects that rarely describes the sensations
he asserts having. Rather, he points to increased physical
sensations, the change in time perception, libidinous expressions,
and how pot acts as a creative tool -- although he admits that when
it comes to doing work that requires attention to detail, being high
may not be the way to go. Nevertheless, working when high becomes
easier as you get older -- at least in Emery's experience, but this
comes from experience.

"The problem with a lot of young people is that they smoke pot first
and maybe develop a discipline over time. I didn't smoke pot until I
was 22," he says, which was well after Emery developed the discipline
of work. At 17, Emery opened City Lights Bookstore in London,
Ontario. His activism started shortly thereafter. He was put in jail
for ignoring Ontario's ban on Sunday shopping hours and was convicted
for selling 2 Live Crew's videos, which were deemed obscene, and took
stands on other issues as well. But it is Emery's political activism
concerning marijuana that has garnered him the nickname the Prince of Pot.

Perhaps it was his first experience with the so-called illicit drug
that led him to put so much money and effort into legalising the
substance while simultaneously putting himself at risk of arrest and
persecution. During the winter solstice of 1980, Emery had just
fallen in love with Sandra Chrysler. They were making out and he felt
the need to make a move, but before he had the chance, she asked if
he wanted to smoke a joint. They did and suddenly, everything was
amazing. The moon, the silence of the night, the cold in his fingers
- -- it was all sensational. Then he went down on her. "It was like
gliding over the wings of manta rays. Her labia lips were huge, it
seemed to me, and they had this beautiful viscous element to them.
And I was just gliding over them and I thought, 'Wow, this is really great.'"

Planting seeds

In the early '90s, Emery encouraged people to plant marijuana in the
gardens of police officers, politicians, and other authority figures,
and began selling publications promoting marijuana use, which were
banned in Canada at the time. He hoped to get arrested for doing so,
but it was surprisingly difficult.

Nevertheless, this was the beginning of Emery's mission to have
marijuana legalised. "Plant the seeds of freedom. Overgrow the
government" has become a catch phrase for Emery (and a way to sign
autographs). In Cannabis Culture Magazine, Emery writes that
"inherent in that beautiful phrase are so many ideals and glories of
a co-operative, peaceful society."

After a short period of living in Asia, Emery moved to Vancouver in
1994 and opened Hemp BC. The police raided the store numerous times,
as pot paraphernalia and publications were still prohibited in
Canada. The law was overturned in 1995 and in the spring of that
year, the first issue of Cannabis Canada (later re-named Cannabis
Culture) was released, which was partially subsidised by Emery
through Hemp BC. Today Emery is the magazine's publisher and editor.

Cannabis Culture is just part of the subversive empire that includes
Pot.TV, the B.C. Marijuana Party, and the now-out-of-business Marc
Emery Direct Seeds -- all with the goal of ending marijuana prohibition.

"The whole idea of the project was to raise millions of dollars and
to fund a revolution . . . We paid for rallies everywhere -- in
London, Paris. We had posters printed up in seven languages for
rallies all around the world.

We paid for the Supreme Court hearing in 2003 that tried to legalise
pot. We paid for ballot initiatives in Alaska and Arizona, Nevada,
Washington, D.C. -- totally subversive stuff," Emery says. And the
seed business was the source of funding for all of it.

Emery went on to say, "I gave money to Dennis Kucinich in 2004 for
president and just gave it to some Americans to give to him. It's
easy to launder money if that's what laundering is . . . helping
participate in the democratic process. And that's what kills me. The
only laundering I ever did [was give money] clearly and openly and
nobody ever didn't take the money.

Four million dollars I gave away and nobody ever said no." With the
growth of the movement, Emery's "seeds" of a marijuana revolution
were blooming, and the DEA took notice.

Drug kingpin or politically persecuted?

On July 29, 2005, Marc Emery was arrested while in Halifax for
extradition to the U.S. for trafficking in marijuana seeds,
conspiracy to produce marijuana, and for money laundering. Back in
Vancouver, Michelle Rainey and Greg Williams, Emery's fellow
activists, were also arrested and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)
conducted a search of the BCMP bookstore looking for business
records, seeds, and anything else that could be incriminating.
According to Emery they found very little, and certainly nothing that
one would expect to find in the possession of a drug dealer.

Although Emery had been selling marijuana seeds in Canada for years
- -- even claiming all of his income as a seed vendor on his income tax
returns -- and had been charged twice for doing so, the penalty for
the crime was a mere fine. In contrast, if he is extradited to the
U.S., under "Drug Kingpin" legislation (selling 60,000 or more seeds,
plants, or kilograms of marijuana) Emery could receive 17 to 21 years
without probation plus a minimum of 10 years for money laundering.

In 2003, the Vancouver Police Department investigated Emery's seed
business and took their findings to the Crown Attorney of Canada, who
did not lay charges.

According to Emery, his file was turned over to the DEA later that
year, who continued the investigation. In May 2005, a Seattle jury
indicted Emery based on the evidence provided by the DEA. Irwin
Cotler, Canada's attorney general, allowed the arrest because of the
Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty that Canada has with the U.S.A.

Although there are numerous other seed vendors in Canada who sell
their product to U.S. citizens in the same manner that Emery did,
there are overarching political implications of Emery's arrest. Emery
admits to have been taunting the DEA with his activism efforts.

When John Walters, the U.S. "drug czar," was speaking in Vancouver at
the Board of Trade in 2002, Emery paid for a table of 10 marijuana
activists to be present.

At the meeting Walters gave a speech on marijuana. "Every time he
says a lie about marijuana, which is frequently, we say, 'Bullshit,
liar, jailor, incarcerator' and eventually he cracks and gets really
upset and he has a terrible meeting.

He's humiliated, he's pissed off, and he want to strangle my fucking
neck," Emery says. The Vancouver Police Department was also at the
Board of Trade meeting and Emery claims that it was one month later
that they began their investigation into his seed business.

Even more convincing proof that the DEA investigation is politically
motivated is the statement made by the DEA's Administrator Karen P.
Tandy in a press release on the day of Emery's arrest. She stated:
"Today's DEA arrest of Marc Scott Emery, publisher of Cannabis
Culture Magazine, and the founder of a marijuana legalisation group,
is a significant blow not only to the marijuana trafficking trade in
the U.S. and Canada, but also to the marijuana legalisation movement
. . . Drug legalisation lobbyists now have one less pot of money to rely on."

Furthermore, in a statement provided by Libby Davies, the NDP's MP
for Vancouver East, she states: "We should recognise that the arrests
of these Canadian citizens is more related to political pressure on
Canada to cooperate with the U.S. War on Drugs than on any harm that
has been created by the actions of these individuals."

Now what happens?

Marc Emery Direct Seeds has been put out of business, as selling
seeds would violate Emery's bail conditions. As a result, Emery is
currently relying on donations from supporters to pay for legal fees,
which are expected to be rather high.

But the BC3 (how Emery, Rainy, and Williams are being referred to)
are asking for help in other ways as well. T-shirts have been made,
petitions are being passed around, and supporters are being asked to
contact local politicians as well as the justice minister of Canada.

On July 23, 2006, there was a change to the extradition laws made by
the Supreme Court of Canada that may prove lucrative for the BC3.
Under the new legislation, the judge residing over the case must
decide if the court would find the accused guilty in Canada before
handing them over to the state requesting extradition. Since Canada
decided against charging Emery for seed selling in the past, and this
is the basis of the charge in the U.S., it may cause problems for the
DEA's case.

On September 5, 2006 a court date will be set for the BC3's
extradition hearing, which is expected to occur some time in May.

Marriage, movie deals, and media coverage

Emery will be able to count on at least one source of income for his
legal fees. He is currently in talks with an undisclosed movie
company, which is donating $10,000 to each of his lawyers for
exclusive access to his life story for two years.

The film is set to be released at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. In
mid-2007 the CBC will be showing a documentary that is currently
being made, and Emery will also be appearing in The Serious Business
of Happiness, which is due out later this year. In the film he tells
the story of his first pot-smoking experience to the main character
that is looking for guidance in life, of which an extended version
will be available on the DVD.

Besides film appearances, Emery has been featured on 60 Minutes, in
The Washington Post, and The New York Times, among various other
media sources. Meanwhile Cannabis Culture will be appearing in
upcoming episodes of Weeds and Robson Arms. All of the media coverage
and film appearances continue to add to the prominence of the
marijuana movement in popular culture.

On Sunday, July 23, Emery married his assistant editor at Cannabis
Culture Magazine, Jodie Joanna Giesz-Ramsay, in a small ceremony in
Queen Elizabeth Park, after which they shared their first joint
together in front of their guests. Local media extensively covered the wedding.

As reported in The Vancouver Metro, Emery stated that his wife will
"have the authority of my name to run the magazine and Pot.TV, and
credibility when she speaks on my behalf." Meanwhile, Giesz-Ramsay
stated to Metro reporter Jeff Hodson, "I will support [Emery] no
matter what happens in any situation."

What if he goes to jail?

When asked what will happen to his marijuana activism and businesses
if he is incarcerated, Emery responded by saying, "If I do a good job
before then, then everything should go on as normal. Without my
classic presence perhaps, but . . . the job of leader is not to
create followers, but to create more leaders and secondly to leave
things so that people understand what their job is and make sure that
the right people are behind it. I expect Pot.TV to continue and
Cannabis Culture to continue, and the store and the vapour lounge and
all the entities that we have going and perhaps new ones, too. And I
hope to be still active from jail. I like a good confrontation, so if
they put me in solitary and I go buggy or something like that then
maybe people can have protests.

Let's hope, anyway."

Stoner Flicks

In the small garden behind the BCMP bookstore, I ask Marc Emery if he
believes that stoner movies help marijuana activism.

He doesn't think so, but "the great thing is that stoners can laugh
at themselves, so we enjoy those movies," he says.

He mentions that movies like Half-Baked and Homegrown, while amusing,
are quite cliched and that he prefers Harold and Kumar Go to White
Castle, which has become a favourite. "I love that movie precisely
because they're anti-stereotypes -- one's East Indian, the other's a
Chinese math student, but they're very moral and ethical people, so
you like them and you're meant to like them the whole time, but they
are totally chronic.

They smoke in every possible way. They're getting the munchies in
some fanatical way and hence their journey.

It's interesting that the pothead's principal journey is to find
food. And that's very amusing."

Other favourites include the first Friday movie and Saving Grace, of
which he says, "That's almost a perfect film."

What's lacking, however, is a pot hero. "We need that kind of guy --
who's got a bomber of weed and he's a heroic character and he's
taking it to a medical marijuana hospital somewhere where they're
going to be doing weed therapeutics. And he's got to get through and
he has to deal with the CIA and the DEA and gets through it all and
ends up in this final mission dropping millions of seeds all over the
White House or something like that . . . where we triumph over the
bad guys in a political as well as weed context."