AMERICAN HANDS IN THE CANADIAN POT

Canada's "Prince Of Pot" Talks With The Argus Before Extradition To U.S. Prison

Most Canadians think pot should be legalized, but we just can't seem
to muster much outrage over its prohibition. Even students, well
known for their love of hedonism and their hatred of "The Man", often
dismiss the issue as marginal and sophomoric. In short, nearly
everyone with a bone of sense in their bodies realizes the glaring
contradictions and sheer absurdity of marijuana prohibition, but for
the progressively-minded, it can seem like a distraction from the
"real" issues.

Marc Emery disagrees. Of course, as a man on the verge of serving
hard time in a U.S. prison for distributing marijuana, he has reason
to take legalization a bit more seriously than most. But his
arguments for the issue's importance rest on much more than personal
interest. He has cited the U.S.-led "war on drugs" as one of the most
important issues facing North Americans today, positioning it in a
constellation of other issues like the impact of Christian
fundamentalism on the continent's politics, class and race warfare,
and personal liberty.

Whether Emery is a martyr (like Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela,
and Gandhi, comparisons he's fond of invoking) or a blowhard is
largely up for debate. It's tempting to say he's both. Like Gandhi's,
his life is an intriguing mix: an appealing political philosophy
rooted in direct action, coupled with some very odd, sometimes
off-putting opinions and behaviour.

Emery began what has become a long and distinguished shit-disturbing
career in London, Ontario in the 1980s. His first brush with the law
came in 1988, when he served four days in jail for keeping his
bookstore open on Sundays. He also made a habit of stocking the store
with banned material, going so far as to sell 'High Times' magazine
on the steps of London's police station. It's interesting to note
that shopping on the Christian Sabbath and the sale of pro-pot
literature were both legalized within a few years of Emery's actions
(in Ontario, at least).

In 1994, after moving to Vancouver, Emery started 'Hemp BC', a store
selling marijuana seeds and paraphernalia - a "cannabis superstore,"
depicted in all of its surreal glory in the CBC documentary 'Prince
of Pot: The U.S. vs. Marc Emery'. He founded the magazine Cannabis
Culture and the internet show Pot-TV. After a couple of raids by
Vancouver police in the mid-1990s, he moved his seed business online.

He went mostly unmolested by police during the next decade, as most
seed and paraphernalia vendors in Canada typically do. He funnelled
the profits from his ventures into marijuana legalization efforts.
"I've always promised people: when you send me the money, you get the
seeds, we pay our suppliers, and whatever's left over, we use it to
subvert the political system," he explains.

His attempts to subvert the system included bids for the Vancouver
mayorship and the federal legislature. Emery usually received 3 to 4
percent of the vote in these contests, but that wasn't the point -
the press took notice, and it got people talking. All of his activity
has made Emery into something of a cult figure in the marijuana
sub-culture, and even brought him appearances on major media like the
CBC, BBC, NPR, CNN, and 60 Minutes.

The government's tacit acceptance of Emery's activities (they
accepted nearly $600,000 in taxes from his seed-selling business,
which he identified as such on his tax forms) came to an abrupt halt
in 2005. Why the sudden change of heart? It seems that Emery had
attracted the attention of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA). He was arrested for "Conspiracy to Distribute Marijuana" and
"Conspiracy to Distribute Marijuana Seeds", and subject to
extradition and trial in the U.S.

What makes the DEA's arrest of Emery especially suspect is a press
release published soon afterward, which called his arrest "a
significant blow. 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."

The DEA's pot puns leave something to be desired. But more
importantly, the press release makes explicit the fact that Emery's
importance to the U.S. government lies not in his illegal activities
(which are not discussed) but in his legal "propaganda" in favour of
marijuana legalization. Emery's place as the sole Canadian on a list
of the U.S. Attorney General's most-wanted drug traffickers would
seem to confirm this - is Emery really more dangerous than the Hell's
Angels, or dealers of Heroin, Crystal Meth, or Cocaine?

Whether or not they support legalization, many Canadians see Emery's
arrest as a dangerous precedent for Canadian sovereignty (or the lack
thereof). The Liberal, Green and New Democratic parties have all
condemned the Conservative government's handling of Emery's case.
"Canadian law enforcement officials have been aware of Mr. Emery's
activities for years yet have chosen not to penalize him," said Green
Party leader Elizabeth May. "By turning a blind eye to his
activities, Canada has implicitly acknowledged that our marijuana
laws are nothing short of ridiculous. The United States'
ideologically-motivated pursuit of Mr. Emery has gone far enough. We
should either enforce our laws, or change them."

Liberal justice critic, Marlene Jennings says Emery's extradition
sends the message to the U.S that "we'll let you do the dirty work
for us. And then we'll stand by with our arms crossed.'"

The NDP, meanwhile, stated "we should not be sending individuals to
face harsh punishment in another country when we have agreed as a
society their actions are not worthy of prosecution here in Canada."

Emery, who faces trial Monday, September 21st, is set to plead guilty
to the charges against him as part of a plea bargain, which saw two
of his coworkers let off with lighter sentences. He will likely be
sentenced to five years in prison, of which at least the first part
will be served in the U.S.

Visit:

www.cannabisculture.com

2002 Senate report:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/37/1/parlbus/commbus/senate/com-e/ille-e/rep-e/summary-e.htm

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Interview

Argus: What do you think accounts for the fact that marijuana is
still illegal, despite popular support? Are politicians just scared
of speaking out?

Emery: What we have in Canada is this unusual thing: a republican
fundamentalist government that was elected with 35 percent of the
voting public - about 16 percent of the total public - who are all
from these rural areas where they've been steeped in Christianity.
It's really difficult dealing with fundamentalists, especially the
kind we're getting.

Stephen Harper just appointed Chris Somerville, who's a
premillenialist minister, [to the Canadian Mental Health Commission].
Those are the people who believe Jesus Christ is coming back in our
lifetimes to take the chosen ones with him to heaven, and then the
rest of us get cast into the lake of fire. When they have these
beliefs, they don't really care how good our health care system is in
thirty years, or our schools, or the environment. Because, you know,
we're all going to get called to account before the great Lord by
then, so why bother, right?

That very much worries me about the future of drug policy, because
the whole point of prohibition [in the fundamentalist Christian
paradigm] is to provide suffering for people who have this moral failing.

Over forty-five years, billions of dollars [have been spent], 2
million Canadians and 14 million Americans have been criminalized for
marijuana alone. What was the public benefit for those billions and
billions of dollars and all of those people and their families hurt?

Argus: A lot of people are sympathetic to legalizing marijuana, but
they see it as a side issue, as sophomoric.

Emery: Well, that's because they don't have any trouble getting the
drugs they want at the price they're comfortable paying. Being an
[anti-prohibition] advocate is about providing for a decent, safe,
honest social system. it's not about getting high. The problem is
that most people who are sophisticated have the money and the access
to whatever they want, so they don't think it's such a problem,
because they're not the ones being arrested.

Most people in the marijuana legalization movement don't get out and
vote, because they don't think it does any good. That's a really big
mistake, because our opponents do get out and vote, and they
influence the elections a lot. 80 percent of people over 55 vote in
presidential and federal elections in the United States, whereas 80
percent of people in their twenties do not vote. We're being
outflanked by prohibitionists, who tend to be older and rural. People
who live in the cities tend to be educated and cynical, so they don't
go vote, and it really hurts us.

Argus: Another interesting contradiction is that a lot of the people
who identify with your struggle are NDP supporters, a lot of them
would profess themselves as socialists - whereas you are very much
revolted by socialism and statism. So I wonder how you reconcile
that, that a lot of your support would be ideologically opposed to
you in many ways.

Emery: Oh, for sure. But there are two different objectives running
on parallel tracks. One is myself the idealist: I have a vision of
the world, a libertarian state of being where everybody is consenting
and cooperative, and that's what I always advocate and promote. But
who I work with regarding political parties is only geared to one
thing: that is, who is going to bring in legislation that will reduce
the number of people in jail? Whoever promises to work towards that, I help.

We ally with the people who are going to be most sympathetic, so that
means allying with the Green party, sometimes with the NDP and the
Bloc Quebecois, and very rarely but occasionally with the Liberal
party. Typically, our biggest enemy is always the Conservative party
in Canada or the Republicans in the U.S. The big caveat there is
really the exception of Ron Paul, who's the greatest politician we've
seen in a century, and who of course totally wants to repeal the war
on drugs and prohibition.

Argus: A lot of people are skeptical of the importance of the issue.
Can you explain how marijuana legalization fits into a wider set of
issues or a wider struggle?

Emery: When you consider the hypocrisy of our society. all of the
things that kill people are legal and available: alcohol, tobacco,
prescription drugs, peanuts, deli meats, government-approved water
coming out of the tap in Walkerton, Ontario - I mean, Christ, table
salt is a big killer. And yet, marijuana doesn't kill anybody, won't
give you lung cancer, will prevent you from ever getting Alzheimer's
disease as long as you have your three puffs a day. all of these
incredible things, and yet it's illegal.

The people who make, sell, and consume marijuana go to jail, but the
people who manufacture alcohol, tobacco, prescription drugs, and all
of those other killers (fast cars, guns, sugar, you name it), they
don't go to jail. So what's the explanation? There's only one: so
that we're made to suffer. It's literally a biblical type of
Inquisition, whereby we're suffering because we're the free thinkers;
we're not buying into this one-book dogma, this book of the bible.
The people who believe in the bible try to wrestle control over the
other book, the book of the law, so that things are viewed in their
Christian fundamentalist paradigm. But it doesn't achieve any social
benefit, there's no public good that comes out of it.

Argus: If you look at a Canada with legalized marijuana, how would it
be different?

Emery: If they did it appropriately, marijuana would be produced
legally in massive greenhouses under license by the government. It
would cost about $20 an ounce, so about 65 cents wholesale per gram
[up to twice that much with tax]. It would be sold in places like
Starbucks. Marijuana in a legal environment would be very inexpensive
- - that would be the only way you could keep the black market out of
it, which is the incentive to the government to legalize it in the
first place. No government really ever understands civil rights or
the people's right to do something. So you can't use that as an
example, because politicians don't run for office to give us our
freedom, they run for office to control us with their rules and
regulations - that's why they're fascinated with the calling.

Argus: You don't think there are some altruistic people who get into politics?

Emery: No.

Argus: None whatsoever?

Emery: No, not really. See, altruism is the worst reason to get into
it, because those are the people who think they want to help others.
But what they really want to do is be a meddler, because it's their
vision of help that's going to be imposed upon people. And for that
matter, in Canada, [MPs] are so whipped by their leader that it won't
even matter what they think up anyway; It's a dictatorship out of the
executive offices of each party. So it doesn't matter who you vote
for: that person, when elected, is very compromised by the party
structure that we have.

Argus: Like with a lot of causes, there are many people who quietly
agree with you but aren't quite sure what they might be able to do.
Let's say somebody's sitting around Thunder Bay and he or she agrees
with you, what can they get out and do, realistically?

Emery: The first thing you can do is that you have to come out of the
closet, but that involves some degree of risk. If you can't, say
because you're growing or selling pot, then make sure you give money
to people who are doing the work for those causes. Go to the rallies,
absorb the energy, and see what you can do.

Right now, everybody in Canada should be calling their senator to
tell them to vote against bill C-15, because that bill will send
thousands of us to jail. If it passes the senate, we're in big
trouble. People who are growing pot (just five plants or more) in a
rented place are going to get 9 months mandatory minimum jail time.
If they've got kids at home, it's a year minimum. I don't know how
that's supposed to help the kids, it's insane!

And make sure they get out to vote next time! Most people who smoke
pot are very enlightened, and they won't get out to vote because they
get jaded and cynical about whether politics achieves anything. Well,
then they don't vote, and then they let our enemies determine the
issues that are going to be affecting us.

Argus: One of the things Noam Chomsky says is that governments are
very selective in which drugs they make illegal, that they use it as
a tool of social control. He sees it as a class thing. Would you
agree with that?

Emery: That's certainly true, but there's a racial element to it as
well. All the things that were Western European are legal, like
alcohol or prescription drugs. But anything that comes from foreign
cultures, like khat from Somalia, marijuana from India, opium from
China, or coca coming from Central and Latin America - all of those
things are demonized and made illegal, because all of the people
associated with them are necessarily being demonized and made
illegal. Just in the same way that we've always tried to keep Chinese
people out of North America, we try to keep their drugs out of North America.

It's the same with Mexicans and Hispanics - they've been trying to
keep those people out of America, and they try to keep their drugs
out of America. What we find is that all Western forms of inebriation
are acceptable, even though they're the most dangerous ones with the
highest mortality rates. Because they're Western, they're familiar
and we don't fear them the same way we fear the less harmful foreign
drugs. That's a very big component of [marijuana's illegality].