POT ACTIVISTS TO DRAG OBAMA INTO RESPONSE

Marc Emery: Supporters Challenge U.S. Jail Time

Marc Emery's friends and supporters are using one of U.S. President
Barack Obama's democracy outreach projects to get the president to
weigh in on the pot advocate's stay in a U.S. prison.

Under Obama's newly launched "We The People" program, anyone who can
gather 5,000 names on a petition will receive a formal response.

"If a petition gets enough support, White House staff will review it,
ensure it's sent to the appropriate policy experts, and issue an
official response," says the U.S. government online petition website.

In Emery's case, the petition-signing effort took just nine days, and
Emery's supporters now expect a presidential response within 30 days.

"Marc is a political prisoner stolen from his home country for the
crime of financing cannabis activism in the U.S.A. and Canada through
selling seeds," said Emery's wife Jodie.

Jodie Emery told The Province that having her husband serve out his
sentence in Canada is a reasonable goal.

"He's a Canadian -- American taxpayers shouldn't be paying for a
Canadian to be in jail there," she said. "That's always the goal --
he should never have left Canada."

Emery is behind bars in Mississippi at the Yazoo City medium-security
prison, hoping to be set free on an early release date of July 9, 2014.