MARC EMERY RELEASED FROM SASKATCHEWAN JAIL

SASKATOON -- Marijuana activist Marc Emery was released from jail Monday and
kissed the cannabis-leaf flag his supporters flew for the duration of his 61
days behind bars.

The 45-year-old president of the B.C. Marijuana Party was sentenced Aug. 19
to three months in jail after pleading guilty to passing a joint at a pot
rally in a Saskatoon park last March.

After his release, he immediately launched into a contemptuous diatribe
against what he called Saskatchewan's intolerable attitude and promised to
try to change it.

He said he plans to establish a chapter of the Marijuana Party in the
province within three months and offer a full slate of candidates in the
next election.

Emery, the self-proclaimed "prince of pot," was released from the Saskatoon
Correctional Centre after serving two-thirds of his sentence as required by
law. He stood in driving winds and snow to thank about 20 people who
gathered to welcome him back to freedom.

"I was joking with some people [prior] to jail, saying that going to jail in
Saskatoon was like being sent to Siberia. Now I get out and it is exactly
like Siberia," Emery said.

"This is a rough place to start out. It's one of the most inhospitable
places on Earth . . . If you had to choose somewhere in Canada to live,
you'd really need a good reason to live in Saskatchewan . . . There is no
beacon of tolerance and enlightenment that makes you overlook everything
else."

As well as leading the B.C. Marijuana Party, Emery owns a marijuana seed
store and Internet business in Vancouver and also operates a therapy house
to treat chemical dependence.