AGITATING FOR AN END TO POT LAWS

MARIJUANA GROWERS even have their own lobbyist, in the forrn of
transplanted Ontario libertarian Marc Emery.

He is the man Vancouver dopers love and the RCMP loves to hate.

Constable Vince Arsenault, of the Surrey drug squad, refers to Emery as
part of the "dark side" - pro-pot forces that constantly agitate in the
media to have marijuana legalized. Indeed, the former London, Ont.,
bookseller has long been crusading against the state.

A one-time candidate for the right-wing Freedom Party of Ontario, Emery
made a point of flouting Sunday shopping laws in the late '80s and
anti-obscenity laws in the early '90s. In 1991, he was convicted for
selling obscene, anti-women rap music tapes. The same year. he openly sold
what is called illegal drug literature - magazines and comic books that
promoted pot smoking.

Setting off for India in 1992, he ended up two years later in Vancouver,
still interested in both libertarianism and marijuana. That's where he
started up Hemp B.C., a store selling marijuana literature, and the
next-door Cannabis Cafe.

Customers and staff routinely smoke marijuana in Hemp B.C. - even when the
RCMP drug squad comes visiting. ("We don't bother arresting," explains an
RCMP officer. "For simple possession, it's not worth it.")

The Cannabis Cafe, Emery says, mixes marijuana and hashish oil in its food
but doesn't sell dope. Prospective pot buyers, he says, have to go to the
Cross-town Cafe across the street to buy.

Now facing 15 drug-related charges (including one for assaulting a police
officer), Emery has passed over legal ownership of his cafe and store to
another transplanted Ontarian, former Toronto resident Shelley Frances.
Frances, a single mother who has lived in B.C. for four years, prefers to
call herself Sister Icee.

Emery now concentrates on his marljuana seed business. From his apartment
in downtown Vancouver, he and his assistants field calls from around the
world.

A packet of 10 marijuana seeds can range from $20 to $375.

On the day The Star visits, Andrew from Vancouver Island is clutching a bag
of marijuana buds while two assistants man the phones. "Marc," yells one,
"the guy from Australia's on the phone again and I can barely understand
him. I think he's asking about an order he gave."

Emery slips behind a computer and punches in a command. "I don't see any
record here," he says. "Let me talk to him" After a few minutes, Emery
hangs up. "He sent the order to B.C. Hemp," he explains. "It's okay. Give
Icee a call and ask her to pass it along."

Emery is very jolly about his crusade against marijuana laws. He insists on
selling seeds because he says they don't contain enough THC, the
mood-altering ingredient in marijuana, to qualify as a banned substance.
The crown, it appears, disagrees, since one charge he faces is for
trafficking in marijuana seeds.

Emery says he is a good corporate citizen. "I've paid more than $1 million
in income taxes (from his marijuana operations) between 1994 and 1998," he
says.

And he takes personal credit for revitalizing, through B.C. Hemp and the
Cannabis Cafe, one block of Vancouver's sleazy downtown east side.

His one regret is that he had to change the name of the magazine he
founded, Cannabis Canada, to Cannabis Culture.

"We have a lot of sales in the U.S.," he explains. "And the Americans won't
buy anything with the word Canada in it."

Checked-by: Richard Lake