Supporters rally as Vancouver pot crusader Marc Emery taken to U.S.

By Stephen Thomson, Georgia Straight

 

Vancouver’s so-called Prince of Pot is off to the United States to face a potential five-year prison term for allegedly using an on-line business to sell marijuana seeds to customers across the border.

 

Marc Emery, who was expected to arrive in Washington State today (May 20), will plead guilty as part of a deal reached with U.S. authorities, said his wife, Jodie Emery. He could be sentenced in the next two to three months, she added.

 

The hope is that he will then be sent to a low-security federal prison in California and seek a transfer back to Canada, she said.

 

Marc Emery was arrested in 2005 as part of an effort that united U.S. and Canadian law enforcement agencies. He turned himself in to authorities last week in Vancouver as his period of release on bail had expired.

 

Meanwhile, supporters marched through the streets of downtown Vancouver today to protest the high-profile pot activist’s extradition, which Canada’s federal justice minister Robert Nicholson approved last week. On Saturday, a worldwide rally is planned to call for his release.

 

“We’re not going to stop until Marc gets home and until we get rid of this Conservative government and until we end prohibition,” Jodie Emery told the Straight today.