MARC EMERY GOES FROM BEING 'PRINCE OF POT' TO 'PRINCE OF PRISON'

Vancouver's Marc Emery has gone from "Prince of Pot" to prison pauper
with a five-year U.S. prison sentence for mailing marijuana seeds
south of the border.

The 52-year-old cannabis activist spent part of the first night of
his sentence holding hands with his wife Jodie, during a two-hour
Seattle jail visit Saturday.

"He gets very emotional when he thinks of being away from me for so
long," Jodie, 25, said.

He said that when he comes back to Canada, if he's not allowed smoke
cannabis, he won't, and he doesn't care. He doesn't miss it -- he
just misses me and wants to get home."

Emery was slapped with the five-year jail sentence in a plea-bargain
deal after fighting for more than five years to avoid a U.S. prison term.

Jodie said her husband was pleased that District Court Judge Ricardo
Martinez agreed to a defence recommendation that Emery be transferred
to a prison in Canada to serve his sentence.

"His application for transfer was dropped off at the Canadian
consulate, so that will soon be at (federal) Public Safety Minister
Vic Toews' desk and he can approve it almost immediately," she said.

"Marc will likely be moved to a different institution somewhere in
the U.S. in four to six weeks. He'll still be called the 'Prince of
Pot' but some people have joked about him being the 'Prince of
Prison' and things like that."

Until he is moved to Canada, Emery hopes to serve his time at a
minimum-security prison in Lompoc, Calif., but he could also be sent
to a jail in Mississippi, Georgia, North Carolina, Texas or New Mexico.

If Emery does get a treaty transfer to Canada, he could be on day
parole as early as next summer and full parole by November 2011, said Jodie.

She said her husband will pass the time behind bars writing an
autobiography and working on a Canadian voters' guide to the federal election.

Jodie said she has been able to visit Emery twice a week.

When Emery was sentenced in Seattle Friday, he got a tongue-lashing
from U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg.

"This is a very serious sentence for a very serious crime," said
Greenberg. "At the time of this investigation, Mr. Emery was the
largest distributor of marijuana seeds in North America."

He said Emery sold millions of marijuana seeds which were grown into
millions of plants in the U.S. Emery sold the seeds by mail order and
telephone to anyone who placed an order, "regardless of their age,
regardless of their criminal association and criminal past," Greenberg added.