B.C. POT ACTIVIST FACING EXTRADITION TO U.S. APPEARS ON 60 MINUTES

VANCOUVER - Pot crusader Marc Emery says his appearance on the news
program 60 Minutes on Sunday will be an opportunity for Americans to
see him as just an ordinary guy who regards himself as the Luke
Skywalker against their government's Darth Vader tactics.

Most people would be amused that the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration is trying to extradite him to face drug charges, Emery
said. Americans weren't forced to buy his marijuana seeds, he said.

"I think Americans are going to say that if this is the No. 1 drug
trafficking kingpin, then I want to move to Canada," he said, adding
he's fighting an evil empire similar to one in the movie Star Wars.

"I enjoy that comic-book premise of my actions, that it's this little
tiny person trying to bring justice and dignity to a whole culture in
the face of a big, monolithic, Nazified institution like the DEA."

Bob Simon, the reporter who interviewed Emery in Vancouver for the 60
Minutes piece, said the program decided to air the segment on Emery
because his case shows the enormous cultural divide between Canada
and the U.S. when it comes to smoking pot.

"Vancouver has a very permissive culture as far as smoking of
marijuana is concerned," Simon said from New York.

"You do not walk down the street in most American cities smoking a
joint, whereas in Vancouver you can do it and you will not be
punished for it," he said.

Simon said Emery has been punished only lightly in Canada, yet if
he's extradited to the United States, "he's going to face really hard time."

What shocked Simon the most was the pervasiveness of marijuana
grow-ops that offer huge profits for little to no risk. The reporter
joined police for two days as they busted several suburban homes in
the Vancouver area.

"I'd never seen anything like it," he said. "When you break into it,
which the police did, it's just nothing but a marijuana farm. The
science that goes into it and the extent of the plantation, that was shocking."

Emery, 48, will be facing an extradition hearing later this year.

Emery said he sold $15 million in marijuana seeds around the world
between 1994 and 2005. He heads the B.C. Marijuana party and is the
founder of Cannabis Culture magazine. He has been arrested 21 times in Canada.

Cpl. Scott Rintoul, of the RCMP's drug squad, said he wouldn't want
Americans to think Vancouver is some kind of drug haven, although he
understands why someone would get that impression.

"When the marijuana thing sort of hit in the '80s and the grows
continued, we were a bit naive and perhaps didn't do our job right
then to educate the public, educate the courts, educate ourselves to
the hazards," he said.

Much of the marijuana flowing out of Canada is traded for cocaine in
the U.S., which has also caused massive problems for law enforcement, he said.