WHY I WILL PLEAD GUILTY IN A U.S. COURT TO DISTRIBUTING MARIJUANA

In the end, my lawyer, a wily and shrewd man named Ian Donaldson, said
he just wouldn't do it. He wouldn't be the lawyer of record at any
extradition hearing for Marc Emery. It wasn't about money, though Ian
has charged me next to nothing over four years-less than $20,000-and
it wasn't for lack of caring either.

He said there just isn't any way to beat the extradition. As he told
the CBC, "I am unaware of any situation since the 1990s when the
Canadian government has refused an extradition request of the United
States."

What Ian had always hoped would happen is that the assistant U.S.
district attorney of western Washington state, a young, handsome, and
politically ambitious man named Todd Greenburg, would offer a plea
deal that would be the best outcome under the circumstances. Earlier
this year, my two co-accused, Greg Williams and Michelle Rainey,
agreed to plead guilty to a charge of distributing marijuana, and are
expecting to receive a sentence of two years' probation, considerably
less than what had been anticipated earlier, when jail terms of five,
10 years or longer were threatened. Only as late as last April, I was
agreeing to be sentenced to five years, at first in a U.S. jail, and
then with most time to be served in Canada. The U.S. district attorney
and I had a deal, but the Canadian prosecutorial service, at the
request of Rob Nicholson, the Canadian justice minister, nixed this
last May. The explanation was that the Conservative government wanted
to do me no favours.

I have always thought the Conservative government, since taking power
in January 2006, has been politicizing the judiciary, policing, and
law enforcement to take a more severe and punitive approach to the
marijuana culture. Its all a culture war to them, and Bill C-15
passing the House of Commons is the most blatant salvo in the
Conservative war on the cities and the Sixties at the same time. The
cities are where the gang violence that stems from drug prohibition
happens.

The cities are where policing budgets are escalating and
unsustainable. It's where the addicts go to get their prohibited drugs
from gangs, and it's where they steal and beg to finance their addiction.

It's where the women prostitute themselves for drugs.

It's where the social disorder of the prohibition drug market is. And
Bill C-15 is going to make every person, every teenager, every young
adult, who sells some pot or MDMA to a few friends in the school yard,
or at a rave ("any place frequented by young people"), or near a
playground, subject to mandatory jail times of six months, a year, two
years, or longer.

Repeat offenses are more harshly dealt with.

Middle-level and high-level drug dealers will already get six months
or more when convicted these days, so these minimums do not affect the
bigger bosses who make the money and large-scale decisions.

This is all about punishing kids and junkies and weed dealers and
small-time growers with shell-shocking punishment, on a scale never
seen before.

It costs about $50,000 to $90,000 a year to house an inmate in Canada,
depending on whether it's a provincial jail or federal prison.

What will we get from this?

All jails and prisons in Canada and the U.S. are in no small way run
by organized gangs with a full gang apparatus inside the jail and
outside in the community.

In order to use phones, get jobs, privileges, avoid trouble, not get
beat up or raped, new, young ("virgin") inmates convicted of a drug
charge and now serving six months jail on their first time in jail
will be pressured to join a gang in jail. Jails are the number-one
recruitment place for all gangs in Canada; in fact, the deadly and
volatile Red Scorpions gang that is responsible for considerable gang
mayhem in Metro Vancouver, formed in the jails of the Lower Mainland
of B.C.

The more we enforce the drug war with jail time for young dealers, the
more violence we manufacture. The more we enforce the drug war and
send kids to jail, the more we enrich gangs and gang activity.

When that young person who gets out of prison after six months, a
year, or two years, he will then be expected to continue gang
activities on the outside. The more we enforce the drug war with jail,
the more gangsters and dangerous criminals we manufacture. Or rather,
the politicians and police manufacture, as they are virtually the
exclusive beneficiaries of the drug war. No one else benefits except
the top-level gangsters, policemen (over 350 Vancouver police earned
over $100,000 in 2008 due to overtime spent enforcing the drug war),
politicians, judges, and jailers.

So while I contemplate spending time in a U.S. federal prison for
spreading cannabis culture to the masses of the United States, I now
know that my own country is about to descend upon the same painful and
wrong-headed policy that is drawing me to a U.S. prison, a rapacious
incarceration policy that makes the U.S. the most jailed place on
Earth. Now Canada is prepared to make every single marijuana grower in
Canada subject to a minimum six months jail, eviction, and forfeiture,
loss of children and employment. All cocaine users, heroin users, and
others who sell illicit drugs to pay for their own use, those who
carry and transport, can go to jail. Under pressure, they will
implicate others.

This will fill prisons and also insure long expensive court trials as
the accused will no longer plead guilty if jail is mandatory. The
price of marijuana and other illicit substances will go up sharply due
to the tremendous rise in risk, and there will be violent turf wars
over replacing those who are arrested and jailed, as the money
involved becomes even more lucrative.

The problems will all worsen, and then next year the police, and the
politicians of the Liberal and Conservative parties, will demand more
prisoners, more punishments, more laws, more police, and more taxpayer
largesse to pay for what is clearly cruel, unsustainable, and morally
unjustifiable. The problem is not drug users; the problem is
prohibition.

As for me, I'm going to plead guilty in a Seattle courtroom sometime
in August. I will be sentenced in September or October. I'm pleading
guilty to one count of distributing marijuana.

I am doing this because my lawyer framed my options thusly: To
challenge the extradition will result in a lost cause, and result in
my extradition to Seattle to stand trial on three counts-conspiracy to
manufacture, conspiracy to distribute, and conspiracy to money launder.

Even waiting for my trial in Sea-Tac jail would take approximately six
months to a year. Sentencing on the money laundering involves a
mandatory minimum 10 years in federal prison. It also comes with the
possibility of a substantial financial penalty, perhaps as high as
$250,000 or up to $1 million in fines.

If there is a financial penalty attached to my conviction, I cannot be
transferred to a Canadian prison while any amount owing is
outstanding. To challenge all three charges involves a potential jail
time of 10 years plus five years plus five years plus $250,000 or more
in fines.

On the one charge of marijuana distribution that I will plead to, the
assistant DA, Mr. Greenburg, is going to be asking for five to eight
years, and my lawyers will ask for less, much less, in punishment, but
its likely to be a stint in a U.S. federal prison.

I have some very good arguments in my favour at a sentencing hearing;
I did all my activities openly, transparently, paid taxes on earnings,
in full view of all Canadians for 10 years.

I had clearly political motives, gave away over $4 million to the
movement in that 10 years, and there is no victim here.

Upon my conviction, my wife Jodie will organize a campaign to have me
transferred back to a Canadian jail; upon my arrival in the Canadian
system, my sentence reflects Canadian rules of release so a five-year
sentence may see me released after a few years to day parole.

During my incarceration, I expect all my friends and supporters across
Canada and the U.S. and around the world to assist Jodie in the
difficult task of running CannabisCulture.com and the Cannabis Culture
Headquarters. The store, Web site, the BCMP offices, Pot.tv will all
continue in my absence. Your financial support of our enterprises that
have had such a huge impact on the cannabis culture around the world
for the last 20 years will be required.

Updates and further developments will be found on PPot.tv,
www.youtube.com/pottv, and on CannabisCulture.com.

In anticipation of these changes, Jodie and I are embarking upon a
tour of Canada beginning in Calgary on July 5 that will cover all
major cities in Canada. If you want me to visit your hometown to
speak, what is required is $500 collected and remitted to Jodie or I
so we can book airfare and a hotel room. Once that is done, we will
indicate that city and venue are confirmed. I would prefer to speak
outdoors in a park or pavilion during the day, in the library or hall
in the evenings.

Once the $500 is remitted, my host would need to find a venue for us
to speak.

Here is my proposed itinerary for the Farewell to the Prince/Farewell to
Canada Tour:

Calgary: July 5

Banff: July 6

Edmonton: July 8

Saskatoon: July 9

Winnipeg: July 10

Northern Ontario, TBA: July 12

Sudbury: July 13

Windsor: July 14

London: July 15

Toronto: July 17

Orono, Ontario: July 24, 25

Ottawa: July 19

Montreal: July 20

Quebec: July 22

St. John's: July 29

Halifax: July 27

Kamloops: August 3

Whitehorse: August 7

Yellowknife: August 9

Iqaluit: August 11

Other cities I can add if a sponsor/host is found include St. John,
New Brunswick; Sarnia, Ontario; Fort St. John; Prince George; Regina.
I will consider any community I can get to where there is a
host/sponsor willing to put up the $500. The $500 doesn't cover the
full expense, but Dana Larsen of CannabisDispensary.ca has agreed to
cover any costs of Jodie and I visiting each venue if it goes over
$500.

After the $500 has been remitted to Jodie and I, you just need to get
a venue for me to speak, outdoor in a park or pavilion with microphone
or indoor which could be the public library, a coffee shop after
hours, the Ukrainian hall, et cetera, but not any licensed pub or bar.
I need a microphone for more than 50 people.

My speech is typically two to three hours plus questions.

If your hometown is not on my list, contact me. All dates and
locations are tentative until we get the money to book the airfare and
hotel.

So far the following places are paid for and confirmed:
none.