B.C. POT ACTIVIST TO FACE U.S. CHARGES

Marc Emery, the leader of the Marijuana Party, is scheduled to appear in
B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver this morning, following a weekend in a
Halifax-area jail.

Emery was arrested Friday in Nova Scotia. He was in the province for a
speaking engagement at a rally for the use of medical marijuana.

His office and storefront on Vancouver's Hastings Street was also raided by
police and two others were arrested on request of U.S. authorities, who
want all three of the individuals extradited.

They face American charges of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana,
distribute seeds and engage in money laundering.

Also arrested was Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek, 34, financial agent for the
party, and Gregory Keith Williams, 50, an employee of Pot-TV.

Emery, known as the "Prince of Pot", runs a mail-order website that
distributes marijuana seeds to clients in a variety of countries, including
the United States.

While selling marijuana seeds in Canada is also a criminal activity, nobody
has been prosecuted here for that in approximately a decade, says Emery's
lawyer John Conroy.

As for the money-laundering charges, Conroy called them a "bit peculiar."

"I don't know what the basis for that offence is at the moment but
presumably they will say the money he received was somehow concealed as
being monies of seed sales," said Conroy.

Rainey-Fenkarek is out on $25,000 bail, but Williams is still in custody.