EXTRADITING THE PRINCE OF POT

Many Canadians will be tuning in to witness the fate of
self-proclaimed "Prince of Pot" and marijuana seed distributor Marc
Emery.

Emery is facing extradition to the United States, he has been labeled
a kingpin by the Drug Enforcement Administration and American
authorities say he is solely responsible for 1.1 million lbs of
marijuana, worth $2.2 billion dollars.

But the pot activist, founder of the B.C. Marijuana Party and
publisher of Cannabis Culture Magazine, who has been openly selling
seeds from his Vancouver store for over 10 years, is facing this
extradition with the dignity of a confident leader and player in the
legalization debate.

The Canadian government, now run by the Conservative Party, has
already pledged to join the U.S.'s asinine War on Drugs, and may hand
Emery over.

Since Harper took office, $64 million has been pledged in the
anti-drug fight, funding prohibition of a substance that has been
surrounded by mixed-messages and possible decriminalization during
Liberal leadership.

A UN study released in 2007 estimated Canadian pot use is four times
that of the global rate and the highest in the industrialized world, a
number that nurtures organized crime rather than combating it. The
Canadian marijuana industry is profitable. Economics professors at the
Fraser Institute estimate Canadians will spend $1.8 billion this year
on marijuana, while $2.3 billion will be spent on tobacco.

Prohibition may not be the answer and as far as Emery is concerned,
the legalization movement is one he is willing to be extradited for
and face criminal charges that could see him locked up for life.

So all eyes should be on Emery and if the Canadian courts decide to
hand him over to U.S. authorities, it should equal outrage for a man
who by all accounts has only distributed a harmless commodity,
cannabis seeds.

Perhaps a martyr for his cause, Emery is willing to take the fall for
his comrades and co-accused, as well as chart the course for marijuana
activists in the future.

Canadians may not entirely agree with his cause, but he fights for all
Canadians in the right to be prosecuted in his own courts, in his own
country.

A victimless crime does not deserve a life sentence in a U.S. federal
prison.

Kim Dick is an entertainment reporter at the News.