PRINCE OF POT SUPPORTERS TO RALLY AT CITY HALL ON SATURDAY

Local supporters of Canada's so-called "Prince of Pot" will rally in
front of City Hall on Saturday.

Marc Emery, 52, pleaded guilty in a Seattle courtroom on Monday to one
count of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana and will receive a
five-year prison sentence.

The owner of Vancouver's Cannabis Culture store was extradited to the
United States last week after being charged with shipping millions of
marijuana seeds to customers south of the border.

Nicole Raffa, 26, said as a marijuana user she has been following
Emery's efforts to legalize cannabis for a number of years and
believes he has been unfairly targeted.

The Red Deer resident said it is wrong that Emery is being prosecuted
under U.S. laws when the Canadian government was well aware of his
marijuana seed-selling business and chose not to charge him here in
Canada.

To show support for Emery and to pressure the government to bring him
back to Canada, Raffa is encouraging supporters to join her in front
of City Hall from noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday.

"There's been a whole bunch of rallies across Canada in support of him
so I wanted to put one together in Red Deer to show that we supported
him here as well."

The rally has been promoted mostly by word of mouth and a Facebook
page. "We have a few people spreading the word as much we can, telling
all their friends, getting it around.

"So far, we've had a lot of positive feedback. Most people are in
support of him not being extradited and bringing him home."

Raffa hopes to get a least a couple of dozen people out and hopes for
more. "I'd like to have a hundred or so but we'll see what happens."

Emery supporters will continue to draw attention to his case and his
cause while he is in prison by staging rallies, she said.

"We think this is a big way to really speak out and get a lot of
people's attention about it. It's being very publicized right now.
Hopefully, if we can keep it rolling we can change some minds."

City Hall Park is also the site of an annual marijuana rally on April
20 as part of a global movement to show support for marijuana
legalization by smoking pot publicly.