'PRINCE OF POT' FIGHTS EXTRADITION ON DRUG CHARGES

VANCOUVER, B.C. - Marc Emery differs in so many ways from most people
accused of big-time drug dealing, it's hard to know where to start.

Even though he faces the possibility of decades in a U.S. prison for
selling marijuana seeds to Americans, Emery regularly welcomes a
steady stream of journalists. That's an approach most people accused
of drug dealing avoid instinctively, or on advice of their attorneys.

Not Emery, founder of the B.C. Marijuana Party, who maintains that
his legal troubles spring from the U.S. government's desire to muzzle
him and the movement he claims to lead.

He relishes his reputation as the so-called "Prince of Pot" and
"Mayor of Vansterdam," the latter a reference to Vancouver and
Amsterdam, the Dutch city where marijuana can be purchased from
"coffee shops." He proudly proclaims his long-term vision to
"overgrow the government" by spreading marijuana faster than drug
agents could eradicate it.

Unlike others accused of drug dealing, Emery has for years made no
effort to hide the fact he earns his living from marijuana, making
millions selling marijuana seeds and paraphernalia through his
Vancouver store and the Internet. It's that marijuana-centered
business that has landed Emery in hot water in the United States,
where a Seattle-based grand jury has indicted him and two of his
employees on drug and money-laundering charges.

Emery, who is free on bond, freely expounds on the virtues of
marijuana for both recreational and medicinal purposes. He claims to
have poured nearly $4 million (Canadian) into political and legal
causes to decriminalize marijuana and/or to make it available for
medical use, including ballot initiatives in Nevada, Alaska and Arizona.

Emery contends a news release issued July 29, the day of his arrest,
reveals the U.S. government's intention to mute his efforts to
advance the spread of marijuana. In the release, Karen Tandy, head of
the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, wrote: "Today's DEA arrest
of Marc Scott Emery, publisher of Cannabis Culture Magazine, and the
founder of a marijuana legalization group, is a significant blow not
only to the marijuana trafficking trade in the U.S. and Canada, but
also to the marijuana legalization movement. ... Hundreds of
thousands of dollars of Emery's illicit profits are known to have
been channeled to marijuana legalization groups active in the United
States and Canada."

Tandy's office has declined to comment about the statement, but in
Seattle, federal prosecutors have distanced themselves from her remarks.

Todd Greenberg, the lead assistant U.S. attorney on the case, said he
could understand how her comments could be interpreted as having a
political dimension but added, "No one locally has made such a
statement. No prosecutor, no agent, no one in Seattle."

"As the chief (federal) law-enforcement official here, I'm not
interested in his political speech in the slightest," added Seattle
U.S. Attorney John McKay. "He's a legitimate target."

Prosecutors contend that Emery was targeted because he was Canada's
largest supplier of seeds and marijuana-growing equipment, and
because the majority of his customers were U.S. citizens. Prosecutors
allege that Emery also has provided customers with detailed
instructions on how to grow marijuana, and also sold specialized
lights, fans and fertilizer.

"He was a one-stop shopping facilitator for marijuana growers," Greenberg said.

Emery does not quarrel with the substance of the charges, though he
has much to say about the U.S. government's "war on drugs," which he
described as "immoral and lethal." In fact, he is unabashedly proud
of his efforts.

"If I'm going to be sentenced to life in prison in a U.S. jail, it'll
be for what I've done, and I'm proud of what I've done," said Emery.
"And there's no going back on that. I helped facilitate hopefully
millions of Americans to grow marijuana."

At the request of the U.S. government, Canadian prosecutors are
working to force Emery and co-defendants Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek and
Gregory Williams to appear in Seattle federal court to answer
drug-conspiracy and money-laundering charges stemming from Emery's
seed and marijuana-growing business.

They are fighting extradition, a process that legal experts say could
take up to two years. Theirs will be an uphill fight, acknowledges
John Conroy, a Canadian lawyer assisting the defendants.

Conroy notes that the U.S.-Canadian treaty under which Emery and the
others were arrested creates an exception for extradition in the case
of offenses of a "political character." The problem, Conroy adds, is
that the treaty goes on to deem certain crimes, including drug
offenses, as ineligible for the political-character exception.

Another argument likely to be advanced is "cruel and unusual
punishment," Conroy said, referring to the much harsher sentence the
defendants would face in the United States - up to life in prison.

"I face a penalty longer than what you'd get for multiple murder in
Canada," Emery said.

Technically, Emery could face up to life in prison under Canadian
law. But Conroy, a noted criminal-defense attorney, said there are no
mandatory minimum sentences in Canada and that "life in prison" means
the defendant is generally eligible for parole after seven years,
except in murder cases.

British Columbia courts levied fines but didn't impose jail time on
the three occasions Emery was convicted of selling marijuana seeds.
The punishment is consistent with a judicial attitude reflected in a
2003 drug-case ruling by Court of Appeals Justice Mary Southin, who
described marijuana as "no better or worse, morally or physically,
than people who like a martini."

Emery said he is happy to become a martyr for the movement. He thanks
the DEA for the heightened exposure, because he says he's suddenly
become relevant to people who don't smoke marijuana.

"Now I'm meeting a lot of people, including very old people, who are
alarmed about the sovereignty of this country," Emery said. "But also
Americans who are just shocked by the potential prison sentence I might get."

Emery's appearance and eloquence might surprise those who
automatically associate pot with the spaced-out persona made famous
by the Cheech and Chong comedy team. Now 47, he says he has smoked
marijuana almost daily for 25 years.

Clean-shaven and nerdy-looking with a high forehead, Emery could pass
for a stockbroker or an accountant. In fact, he was a bookseller for
many years before he dedicated his life to growing marijuana.

He credits marijuana with making him a better parent, a better lover
and even a better driver, partly because it made him understand that
life was "all about discovery, not actualization."

He published his political manifesto a decade ago in the first
edition of his magazine, Cannabis Culture:

"We are a wrongly outlawed culture, viciously discriminated against
for 72 years, and we are finally effectively organizing to reclaim
our rightful place in society as individuals among equals. We have a
right to our culture and we must act and inform to ensure that we
receive proper justice."

Of the political course he set for himself, Emery said in a recent
interview, "I wanted to rapidly change the way the world looks at
marijuana." Hence his decision to popularize the use of seeds along
with instructions on how to grow them.

"I sold millions of seeds over 11 years, all over the world," Emery
said, offering more than 500 varieties.

His highest grossing year for seed sales was 2002, when he took in
$2.2 million (Canadian), he said. He also said he has provided free
seeds to people certified as medical-marijuana patients.

Since 1999, Emery says he has paid $578,000 (Canadian) in income tax,
identifying seed-sales as the source of his income to the Canadian
Revenue Agency, the equivalent of the IRS.

Emery said he continues to smoke marijuana despite his arrest and
subsequent release on $50,000 bond. But less often these days, he
said, because he can no longer afford it.

Emery also is something of a provocateur. Three years ago, for
example, Emery and other marijuana activists bought a table at a
luncheon in Vancouver where Bush administration drug czar John
Walters was making a presentation.

Every time Walters made a comment about marijuana that Emery and his
friends believed was untrue, they'd heckle him. "We yelled 'liar,'"
Emery recalled, "so he (Walters) just had a total slow burn. ... I'm
sure I've never been forgiven for that."

Then there was the "summer of legalization tour" in 2003. Emery
recounted that he "smoked a bong or a big joint in front of police
stations in 18 cities across Canada."

He has been arrested many times, but more often than not the charges
were dropped, Emery said. The point, he added, was to demonstrate his
belief that marijuana is effectively legal in Canada.

In fact, possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana (including
marijuana seeds), carries punishment of up to 12 months in prison and
a $1,000 fine.

Emery felt the sting of Canadian enforcement in the summer of 2004,
when he served 62 days in Saskatoon Correctional Centre for
possession and trafficking after admitting he'd passed a joint in a
public park. But Emery chalked that experience up to landing in front
of an unforgiving judge in a conservative province.

You'd never know marijuana is illegal walking around parts of Vancouver.

Next door to Emery's B.C. Marijuana Party headquarters on West
Hastings Street, toward the back of the New Amsterdam Cafe, is a
designated "smoke room" where patrons smoke marijuana and tobacco
weekdays until 4:30 p.m.

Smoking is confined to the room during normal work hours to be
"respectful" of neighboring businesses, an employee said. But after
4:30 p.m. weekdays, and on the weekends, the ashtrays move into the
main dining room.

Before the DEA raided Emery's business in July, it had been seven
years since Vancouver Police had charged him for seed sales. A police
spokeswoman said he was charged in September 1998 with two counts of
"possession with the purpose of trafficking viable marijuana seeds,"
for which he was fined $4,000, and served no jail time.

Some find Emery's style unnecessarily confrontational. Vancouver
Mayor Larry Campbell, for example, says he has nothing against Emery
but questions his tactics.

Campbell said he supports legalizing marijuana and controlling it in
much the same fashion as tobacco and cigarettes, including taxing it
to the hilt. The taxes should be dedicated, he added, to pay for
health care for addiction services.

Still, he adds, "Marc thinks he's more than he really is. ... Marc
thinks he's the Mahatma Gandhi of the movement. ...

"You keep poking a stick in the eye of the DEA, something's going to
happen, and effectively, that's what he did."

The Case Against Marc Emery

What: A federal grand jury in Seattle has indicted Marc Emery,
Gregory Williams and Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek on charges of
conspiracy to manufacture marijuana, conspiracy to distribute
marijuana and conspiracy to engage in money laundering. All relate to
Emery's Vancouver, B.C.-based marijuana-seed selling business.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration described Emery's business
as one of the U.S. Attorney General's "most wanted" international
drug-trafficking targets. Conviction could result in life
imprisonment; the first two counts each carry mandatory 10-year
minimum sentences.

What's next: All three defendants are Canadian nationals who were
arrested under a legal-assistance treaty with the United States. They
are resisting extradition, a process that could take up to two years.

The defendants are expected to argue they were selectively prosecuted
as a result of political activism to spread marijuana.

Emery's Web site: www.emeryseeds.com