MARIJUANA ACTIVIST THINKS 60 MINUTES PROFILE HAS INCREASED HIS SUPPORT

A marijuana activist wanted by U.S. authorities to face drug charges
said Thursday he thinks being profiled on CBS's 60 Minutes has
increased support for dropping the charges against him on both sides
of the border.

"It's my job as leader of the cannabis culture to thwart the United
States government," Marc Emery, Canada's so-called Prince of Pot,
said outside the B.C. Supreme Court. "The American government and
their war on drugs has got to Kafkaesque extremes."

Emery is charged in the U.S. with conspiracy to launder money and
distribute marijuana and marijuana seeds. Conviction on the charges
would carry a sentence of at least 10 years in prison.

He appeared at the B.C. Supreme Court on Thursday to set a date for
the start of extradition proceedings, but the hearing was adjourned to April 6.

During the 60 Minutes episode last Sunday. John McKay, the U.S.
attorney for the Western District of Washington, said Emery was the
"biggest purveyor of marijuana from Canada into the United States."

Emery told Simon that while he's fighting his extradition to the
United States, he's resigned to the possibility of prison and being a
martyr for the legalization struggle.

"I am blessed by what the DEA has done," Emery said. "I'd rather see
marijuana legalized than me being saved from a U.S. jail."

Emery says he has made $15 million over the past decade selling
marijuana seeds online and by mail, along with equipment for growing
operations and instructions on raising pot plants.