By KELLY SINOSKI, Vancouver Sun

 

Vancouver’s Prince of Pot Marc Emery has been transferred to a low-security federal prison in Georgia for non-U.S. "deportable aliens."

 

Emery, who had expected to be transferred to a California facility, is now at the D. Ray James Correctional Facility in Folkston, Ga.

 

The facility, which had been a state prison known for violent incidents among inmates, was changed in October to an Immigration & Naturalization Services low-security federal prison for "deportable aliens," according to a blog entry by Emery.

 

In the entry, addressed to his wife Jodie on the Cannabis Culture website, Emery said the move was made to "send me as far away from you as possible."

 

Jodie said Sunday that Emery is doing all right and "trying to keep his spirits up" as he continues to apply for a transfer to serve his time in Canada.

 

Emery, 52, was sentenced by a U.S. judge to five years in prison for selling marijuana seeds to U.S. customers through his business, Marc Emery Direct.

 

Emery has been a political activist for three decades.

 

Norman Grant Smith, a marijuana activist, is urging Emery’s supporters to write to the federal public safety minister to petition for his immediate transfer to Canada.

 

Dearest Jodie: Last Thursday at 10am in Nevada Southern Detention Centre, a guard said, "Emery, roll up!", which meant I was outbound. I was taken with about 100 others to a series of tiny cells, where I waited until 3am (17 hours) to be chained with leg irons and handcuffs secured to a chain around my stomach, then put on a bus to Las Vegas airport.

 

We were at the airport at 7am but the ConAir plane didn’t arrive till around 10:30am. Still in chains, we were boarded onto the plane at around noon. I was the only Canadian. The plane first flew to Arizona and landed to let off prisoners going to Arizona federal prisons, and picked up more prisoners. The plane has room for over 200 prisoners. Then, still chained, we flew to Oklahoma City, the processing hub of the Bureau of Prisons, where we arrived around 5:30pm (central time) and were unchained during intake.

 

That was over 12 hours being chained up, often to another prisoner. Intake took about six hours of mostly monotonous waiting, and by Friday at midnight I was one person in a two-man cell in unit E5 at El Reno, OK processing. It took 36 hours from "Roll up" to arrival in my cell here, a grueling experience.

 

I have been here six days now and may be shipped off any day toward my new designated privately-run prison, D. Ray James Correctional Facility in Folkston, Georgia. It’s an INS (Immigration & Naturalization Services) low security federal prison for "deportable aliens", which are non-US citizens. It used to be a state prison, but was closed and taken over by the prison industry giant, GEO Group, and turned into an INS low security facility. I was supposed to be sent to Taft FCI in California, but the BOP has changed it to send me as far away from you as possible.

 

Still, I really would like to get there so I can receive mail, my magazine subscriptions, do my transfer application back into the Canadian correctional system, and most of all, get visits from you every other weekend. I miss you more than anything in this hard and tough existence. I have been in prison eight months now, and it’s only because of you that I have made it, I’m sure.

 

Your visits to me will stretch across as long a path across America as is possible: Vancouver to Seattle, to Jacksonville in Florida, then a drive north into Georgia from there. The cost isn’t that much greater, just the time in the air. I’m glad my friend Loretta Nall will sometimes be meeting up with you and accompanying you to the prison I’ll be at, or your friend and employee, CC ad manager Britney, will be with you. The visits are going to be like at Sea-Tac FDC, so we can hold hands and I can kiss you at the beginning and end of the visit, and they may even be all-day visits (9am to 3pm) from what I can deduce, so I am so excited to be able to do that.

 

It’s unlikely there will be Corrlinks messaging there, but I’m happy to have it here at this Oklahoma City transfer facility. Corrlinks is so vital to keeping in touch with family and friends; it really does go a long way to making prison bearable. But I will finally be settled in and able to receive and write letters in Georgia. I was able to write to six of eight people I received letters from at Nevada Southern Detention Center, and feel bad I got shipped out before I was able to write to Trevor in Pennsylvania, who helped out on the Washington DC “Free Marc Emery” water bottle campaign event on October 30 at the Stewart/Colbert “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear”, or my good friend Howard Ulep, also in Pennsylvania, who writes me wonderful letters regularly.

 

I’m pleased to see the Canucks are at the top of their hockey division (Britney wrote me with updates), but I tell you, news was scarce until I got on Corrlinks today. I haven’t seen a newspaper or magazine in a month. I miss my subscription to Macleans; it is a great Canadian magazine and kept me up to date on my own country. I hope you can have all my magazines rerouted to D. Ray James soon after my arrival. I hope they deliver USA Today, the Atlanta Constitution, and hopefully the New York Times at the prison there. Hopefully it’s not too remote to get newspaper subscriptions!

 

The food here is very poor, and I look forward to ordering commissary at D. Ray James to supplement my diet. Sea-Tac FDC was a pretty good place in comparison with my experiences since, as I always had enough fruit there to maintain good regular health. Since then, I’ve had very little fruit, although Nevada Southern had some fresh vegetables with most meals.

 

I am impressed by your terrific blog of your experience campaigning for Proposition 19 in Oakland, which you read over the phone to me, as well as Catherine Leach’s great blog on the “Free Marc Emery” water handout and info event in Washington, DC that she and her husband Keith pulled off for you.

 

Your letters to me of November 11, 12 and 13 are so wonderful in the detail you put in. They are like listening to you talk to me in loving words and details across the universe in perfect clarity. Many times, like now, when I think of you and our great love, I want to break down and cry (and I often do), but you reassure me when you can and I pull myself together and pray for the better times ahead when we are reunited once again.

 

I have read two light fiction books: “Next week will be better” by Jean Ruryk, and Alexander McCall Smith’s particularly good “The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.” The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency is about this African woman in Botswana who sets up a detective agency, and is delightfully written. The romance of Botswana is quite affecting. There are five more in the series I’m hoping you’ll send me at some point. The Jean Ruryk novel is a sort of mystery that takes place around flea markets, and since I went to estate auctions and flea markets for years from 1975 to 1985 in London, Ontario when I was a bookseller and curio dealer, I found her situational detective story taking place largely at these kind of venues familiar and entertaining in her observations.

 

Since I was connected on Corrlinks yesterday, I have read many of the articles from the CC website Jeremiah emailed me, and Russ Bellville’s "10 Lessons from Prop 19’s Defeat" is terrific. Russ Bellville is a great writer and a genuine treasure for our movement. All his writings are exceptional insights and I do hope CC continues to carry the work he writes for NORML.

 

Eight months in prison is a long and very challenging experience, but so far I have gotten through it. I hope that in 12 months from now I am in Canada, getting released on parole as the law today would apply, and able to be home with you for Christmas. For that to happen I need political support in Canada and the US for approval from both the US Department of Justice and the Canadian Ministry of Public Safety.

 

 

I’m hoping my American supporters will arrange meetings with any elected officials they know well and urge them to join the letters prepared for the governments in Canada and the US, and also have Canadians meet with their representatives for the same purpose. I dearly need their help in this regard if I am going to be able to be repatriated back to Canada. I’m hoping former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson and Texas Congressman Ron Paul will endorse our request for my return to Canada, along with other Congressmen and legislators in America, in addition to the many Canadian public officials who are already signatories to these two letters. I know you will do all you can for me to get home!

 

I hope you will be visiting me soon. My dearest wish is to see you.

My sweetest love, to my great soul mate,

Your husband

Marc

 

 

By Catharine Leach, Cannabis Culture

 

Our campaign to hand out FREE MARC EMERY waterbottles and information at the Rally To Restore Sanity and/or Fear was a huge success thanks to the hard work of a small but dedicated group of volunteers. This blog will show you what can be accomplished when just a few people work together, and hopefully inspire you to invent your own campaign against the failed drug war.

 

Preparations Leading up to the Rally

 

The Week leading up to Oct. 30: I had posters made at a copy store by splitting the image files into a 16-panel (16 11” x 17” pages) document and then tediously trimmed with an exact-o-knife and cutting board the white edges off and then taped the panels together – this huge poster cost the price of 16 color copies and 1 roll of clear packaging tape!

 

We organized the printing of the www.PixelDreams.com designed post-cards and waterbottle stickers to be printed down in West Virginia where our West Virginia University SSDP volunteer, Matt, was able to pick up the labels and water. He then had his friends strip and re-label the 2,016 waters at his house!

 

We reserved a U-Haul for him (also in WV) and arranged for the rental and mileage, gas, and toll money, as well as the needed Sam’s Club Membership and the water order and payment. There were 63 cases of 32 16.9 fl oz bottles – it was an entire pallet worth and took two trips with a volunteer’s pick-up to haul it back to the house.

 

Road Trip Begins / Our Video-Blog ‘MarcCantSpark’ / Red Bull Vending Machines

 

Friday Oct. 29th: I was up at 6am sharp and off to work by 7:30am. Worked late, got home around 6:00pm. Packed with Keith, ate, filled up and hit the road by 8:00pm from Rhode Island heading down 95 South to Washington DC. We used our cell phones to upload videos to YouTube while on the road – Keith thought up MarcCantSpark for the YouTube Channel’s name.

 

Another friend helped with acquiring the web address www.MarcCantSpark.com and used his wonderful creative talents to make it much more exciting than the video blog actually turned out….it just got sillier the later it got.

 

By the way: Red Bull Vending Machines along the highway here on the East Coast REALLY DO EXIST … Keith, my ever-dependable co-pilot, was always looking for signs of drowsy-driving and insisted on rest and refuelling before going on.

 

We traveled from Rhode Island to Connecticut, to New York, to New Jersey, to Delaware, to Pennsylvania, to Maryland, and then on to DC. We traversed 7 States, plus the District of Columbia – 420 miles in 8 ½ hrs with two tanks of gasoline.

 

Marc Calls us on the Road / Rendezvous with the U-Haul in D.C. / Headquarters Start-up

 

We had the great honor of receiving a collect phone call from the Famous Marc Emery himself around 11:30pm in Connecticut, and we told him how things were going and what our plans were once we arrived. He reinforced some tips: "Remember: tell them to TAKE ONE, people take orders, if you ask them if they want one, they will always say no."

 

Marc Emery is such a leader, whether from Cannabis Culture’s HQ in Vancouver or from a Federal Penitentiary in the USA. He wished us safe travels and said he’d call again Saturday to see how it went. We uploaded a video blog right afterwards, being so excited to have talked with the Prince of Pot himself!

 

While I drove, Keith worked on the Hemp Wicks to hand out at the Rally. We bought a roll of it for $25.00 at our local head shop, Ethnic Concepts on Wickenden Street in Providence. He’d cut a 3-4 foot length of it and wrap it into a bundle with a label. They were homemade return address sticky-labels designed and printed from a computer with the Free Marc logo, and read "SPARK FOR MARC!" and "www.FREEMARC.ca" on them. We had our volunteers hand them out at our water stations to supporters.

 

Saturday Oct. 30th: we met up in DC at a McDonald’s Parking lot with our WVU SSDP volunteers, Matt and Jamayla. They had the U-Haul loaded and ready to go into town. I eagerly had Matt open the hatch of the U-Haul so I could photograph a pallet’s worth of water for an amazing logistical and political feat that would hopefully be an inspiration to all by the time I could reflect on its impact. I worked on the early morning phone calls to the volunteers that had contacted me throughout the week and arranged to meet them at Metro Center Station around 7:30am. Text Messages, Google Chat, email, and phone calls all from the palm of my hand at 6:30am thanks to a Smartphone…more on THAT dependency later…

 

We were all sleepy and hungry so we headed out for a breakfast joint open at 5:30 in the morning … we found a little hole in the wall 24-hour diner with an Obama Mural painted on the side of it (and a Hitler moustache scribbled on it…) called Steak ‘n’ Eggs. We ate, Sparked for Marc in the parking lot, chatted with the help taking out the trash from the diner, then headed into town. We plastered our 16-panel FREE MARC Poster onto the U-Haul – The Marc-Mobile was rolling!

 

We followed Matt and Jamayla because he knew the city very well from living and working there before. It was still early on a Saturday, so we thankfully found parking meter spots right in front of the Metro Center Station on the 12th and G Street Corner! We parked, unloaded quickly and started getting things going right away. My phone went off constantly all morning until so many people were in the city that we lost all cell service for many hours. We had our volunteers meet us at the Metro Center.

 

The Volunteers Pull Through / Water Station Drop-Spots / Police Interest

 

Our first volunteer bright and early was Jacob. Matt quickly had him ride shot-gun in the U-Haul to the Smithsonian Museum Station on the National Mall. They unloaded two large towers of the 32-case waters, the Post-Cards, the Hemp-Wicks and then got politely kicked out by a vendor selling water nearby. (I’m surprised yet grateful this was the only time it happened!) So he moved a few blocks down and stayed there with no problems and still plenty of foot traffic. Meanwhile Matt had returned with the U-Haul to load up MY car’s trunk with more water for the next water station and volunteer.

 

Our next volunteer, Heather, showed up at Jacob’s station and helped out with the waters and fliers and headed into the crowds with the Post-Cards and her friends when the March to Keep Fear Alive started.

 

Our 3rd Volunteer showed up around 8:00 am, Nick, and he was dressed as an exuberant Uncle Sam ready to don his Free Marc tee and get right work. He had so much enthusiasm and energy despite it being so early and chilly in the morning, it perked ME right up! People were now pouring out of the Metro Center station to walk the 2 blocks to the National Mall for the Rallies.

 

Keith was questioned by a Police Officer on bicycle.

 

"What do you have going on here today?" he asked. "Oh well we’re here today for Marc Emery a political activist imprisoned here in the US – we are giving away FREE water to raise awareness."

 

"That’s the word I wanted to hear," he answered, meaning "FREE", and Keith asked, "Would YOU like a Free Marc Water?" and he politely said no thanks and took off.

 

It was great to see the Street Vendors setting up shop alongside us and asking who Marc was and why this had happened to him. Street vendors talk to folks all day, they can be a great source for word-of-mouth telling of Marc’s story. As an immigrant himself, the vendor I spoke with empathized with the fact that Marc was taken from his own country and forced to serve time in a foreign one. He agreed that there is no justification for this. Everyone – whether you believe in what Marc stands for or not – should realize the absurdity and atrocity that has taken place by this extradition and 5-year sentence. Marc is now serving time for having and using his political voice for drug-policy change. By the way: Marc didn’t have to pour millions into OUR [United States] marijuana law-reform movement – he chose to – and is a martyr in a cell for that like so many others right now, thanks to prohibition.

 

Another volunteer, Jeff, showed up next, so we packed up the Saturn again, now plastered with FREE MARC posters covering both sides’ rear doors, and headed out to a new water station; We found a perfect spot right on Jefferson (appropriate) and dropped about a dozen cases and Post-Cards and taped a Free Marc Poster to the utility box on the sidewalk. Jeff is a seasoned marijuana activist and participated at the July 4 Freedom March in DC; “FREE WATER! FREE WATER HERE! FREE MARC EMERY – FREE WATER!” he shouted loud and clear and got a crowd in seconds. I snapped some shots, jumped back in the car and fought the heavy traffic back to the Headquarters at Metro Center.

 

Trevor was our next volunteer and he brought along his two friends, Nico and Syd to help. We gave them their shirts and put them to work right away; Trevor works for a printing shop and was able to get permission to use all the left-over paper stock from past orders to print out Free Marc double sided handbills! He brought them along to the water station. We rolled out, headed for another densely-populated spot on the Mall and decided that H Street at the White House end was perfect. I put on my hazard lights and pulled over to the curb to let Trevor out and unload. A DC Police Cruiser pulled up behind me and over his loud speaker called “MOVE YOUR VEHICLE NOW – MOVE YOUR VEHICLE NOW!” so we managed to unload 2 or 3 cases and I was forced to roll-out. Trevor rocked it, despite undercover and uniformed officers watching his every move from then on. He bumped into a group from Vancouver, BC, and they expressed their gratitude that folks here in the states were fighting for Marc Emery, their Prince of Pot.

 

Meanwhile I was rolling out from Trevor’s spot with coffee for the other crews and fresh supplies. The DC Police Cruiser followed me down 13 all the way to the National Monument and then got stuck at a red light as I turned left onto Jefferson. Jeff had already given away all the waters, donned his werewolf FREE MARC t-shirt wearing costume and headed into the crowds with his backpack loaded with Free Marc Post-Cards to hand out. I pulled over, grabbed the trash, grabbed the poster, and headed on to Jacob and Heather’s station at the Smithsonian to load him up again with supplies and give Jacob a hot coffee to stay warm. Jacob said his favorite part was watching people’s reactions when they tried to give him money for the water and he refused saying they were free for Marc. He said most folks he talked to that day were responsive to Marc’s case, and eagerly asked questions about Marc and our water campaign.

 

The March to the National Mall / Prison for Pot RANT / Torontoist Journalists

 

I headed back to the HQ at about 11:00am and the trains were so backed up that folks were pouring out of Metro Center Station to get out of the overcrowded subways. Our HQ was busy like a hive, and we were down to 2 cases by 11:30am. Once the water was gone, we loaded up with Post-Cards, Posters, and T-Shirts, and marched into the National Mall to rendezvous with the crowds gathering for the event.

 

Nico and Syd held the fort at Metro Center, and made sure that any other volunteers trickling in got their shirts and post-cards and posters to hand out to amongst the massive crowds. Nico and Syd ROCKED ALL DAY! I’m telling you – they showed up so early, and yet stayed till the cows came home passing out SO MANY Free Marc Post-Cards, and delegating the volunteers into the crowds. They even helped me roll my car from one side of the street to the other side’s curb when my battery died from its hazard lights…and yes, the car was ticketed multiple times for the crappy parking job. They requested it be towed – all while we were busy downtown so I had no idea!

 

We marched down to the National Mall from 12th St. and the crowd just got more and more thick the further we marched. We chanted and handed out Post-Cards, paused at good traffic areas to talk and pass them out, and then when interest waned we’d grab our posters and march on to a new spot. We were looking for TV cameras but I couldn’t even find a Port-a-John the entire day.

 

The crowds were UNREAL. It ended up getting so thick that we were ass-cheek to elbow and stuck in a sea of people unable to move. We wormed our way north a block carrying signs over our heads and double-tasking with Post-Cards in the other hand. It’s amazing how ambidextrous one is forced to be in these types of situations. I managed to hang my son’s old Easter Pail off my purse, allowing a hand to constantly reach down into the bucket and hand out to people passing me. Keith would reach in the pail behind me and do the same thing. He had the tact to stick them in people’s bags passing by.

 

We talked to so many people I can’t recount them all, but like I said earlier, the main reaction was empathy, then disgrace, then wanting to ask more. There was a couple with a 6-year-old at one of the spots along our march that asked many questions and then patiently explained it to their son. It reminded me of the frank and honest conversations I have with my own 6-year-old about prohibition.

 

We were scouted out by the Yahoo Ask America team to do our Marc Emery “Rant” on their AskAmerica.Yahoo.com "soap-box" with their megaphone. (It can be seen on our YouTube Channel “MarcCantSpark” albeit sideways because there was some miscommunication on how to film with the cell phone.) So I followed the staffer to their news van, waited my turn and did my Prison for Pot rant!

 

We sat and rested there for a while and spoke to folks that listened to my speech and passed out the Post-Cards to the crowds gathered at the news-van.

 

We then headed back to the Metro Center station to wrap up our day. On our way back to the car and U-Haul, out of 215,000 people, we managed to bump into three Journalists from Torontoist.com! They asked where we were from, took down our names and interviewed us about our Free Marc campaign! The news article can be found here.

 

We gave them each a Post-Card, got free Torontoist pins, wrote their names down, and marched on. We chanted, answered people’s questions, passed out Material, took photographs, and made it back to the cars by about 4:00pm. Nico and Syd were still rocking the Metro Center Station with their posters and Post-Cards, wearing their T-Shirts with pride, and hitting up every passer-by!

 

A Rally for All Rallies / Packing up and Heading Out / Another Call from the Prince of Pot

 

THIS rally was a Rally for all Rallies. I saw some of the funniest signs and slogans I’ve ever seen, and the mood of the crowd was joyful, silly, and free-spirited. I saw lots of "Legalize Pot" signs, "Yes on 19" signs, and one that read "Retired CIA Analysts for Sensible Drug Policy" being touted by a man in his 60’s with a big pot-leaf on it. I saw "Legalize Everything" signs and "Just Say Now" signs, and the random "God Hates Snuggies" sign or "WHY AM HERE?". It was amazing, and I am so grateful I can now say we were there! (I seriously would like to see this become an annual event.)

 

We packed up, cleaned up, thanked out volunteers, took the tickets off my car, and decided to chance cranking the car despite the dead battery – low and behold the Ganja Gods smiled on us and the old Jalopy started right up! We fought the heavy traffic and pedestrians out of the center of the city to a quiet park and parked our car to rest. We still hadn’t slept since Thursday night!

 

Marc called us while we were resting and we told him all about the busy amazing day and the joy in his voice immediately solidified our effort in my heart. We told him about our MarcCantSpark site and the video blog and how 14 people volunteered for us all day. We told him about the posters on the U-Haul and the sea of Marc Posters and T-Shirt wearing volunteers who worked HARD for his cause all day. He was so grateful and so excited. We arranged with him to send the photos and news articles to him at his detention center right away so he could see how wonderful and amazing it was!

 

We slept at the park for an hour. Then Keith woke me up around 6:30pm to head out of the city and find a place to sleep. I was very tired, seeing double, getting behind parked cars thinking they were in traffic, Keith saw the signs of my exhaustion and insisted we stop in a quiet dark parking lot to sleep. We got on the highway and it was totally jammed. Everyone must have went out for dinner after the rally and decided to go home all the same time. It was horrible; my car was overheating; I was so tired; we struggled to the Greenbelt MD exit ramp and pulled off into a CVS parking lot. We got some chips and dip and soda, ate to our delight, and drove on for a dark spot to sleep.

 

We made another video blog before going to bed, Sparked for Marc again, and drifted off to sleep; Keith in the passenger seat brought down flat and me in the back seat with our son’s bed’s comforter to keep warm. The night passed quickly and other than a couple times Keith woke up cold (I am a notorious blanket-stealer in bed), we slept fine. We woke up at 5:30 am and headed out for breakfast and fuel. We stopped at a gas station in Maryland and got the Sunday edition of the Washington Post. The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear had made the front page. I sent the article to Marc after reading it with excitement and delight and an overwhelming sense of purpose and satisfaction. We made great time driving back, didn’t get any traffic jams other than at a couple toll booths, and rocked our “GOOGLE MARC EMERY” sign in our rear window for the 8-state, 420 mile trip home. We stopped to pee off the highway and left Free Marc pickets in the ground alongside the interstate before heading on.

 

Thanks and Props / Persistence and Diligence / Impressions and Reflections

 

I want to thank Marc for having this amazing idea and for pushing me and Jodie to pull it off. I want to thank PIXELDREAMS for designing the wonderful Free Marc Waterbottle Stickers and the Free-Marc Post-Cards self-addressed to the US Dept. of Justice. I want to thank Jodie for helping with the cash needed to pull this off. I want to thank Dana Larsen for coming to the rescue when we were down to the wire for paying for the printing of the Stickers and the Post-Cards. They would not have been paid for and printed in time without his quick action and generosity and TRUST. I want to thank Matt and Jamayla, our West Virginia University Law Students-slash-Anarchists (go figure) that stepped up to the task and made sure everything was ready and paid for and loaded and transported to DC in good time. I want to thank his WVU SSDP volunteers, Jamayla, Anthony, and Jhesse, from Morgantown, West Virginia for their hard work. I want to thank my Husband of 11 years, Keith, for all his love and support. I want to thank Steve, a seasoned D.C. resident who helped me with the logistics of the city and the train stations there. I want to especially thank our volunteers: Panama, Heather, Jeff, Jacob, Trevor, Nico, Syd, Oliver, Brian, Nick, and one girl dressed as a devil (you know who you are!) for all their amazing work and efforts in making Marc’s dream a reality.

 

It’s now been a week since the rally and it is finally starting to sink in as to the magnitude of this accomplishment. Overall I was reaffirmed of my belief in the amazing will-power to gather and fight for a cause we Americans are capable of. We had volunteers from Ottawa, Canada, Austin, Texas, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, West Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Georgia, Florida, Massachusetts, Washington, D.C., and Maryland, plus Keith and I from little old Rhode Island. This campaign was organized, planned, coordinated, and paid for within two weeks of October 30. It was coordinated and communicated and led between Jodie in Vancouver, Matt in West Virginia, Marc from Prison (unit he was transferred and our communication was cut-off) and Keith and I in Rhode Island.

 

This whole campaign started with a pen hitting a paper, and writing Marc a letter. My husband and I were watching the Colbert Report when the March to Keep Fear Alive was first announced, and my husband said, “We should go and hand out Free Marc fliers!” so I casually mentioned the idea to Marc in one of my letters. Look what came about from that choice to write a letter with a simple idea. We are capable of this. We just need our hearts in the right place. Everything else follows from there – as long as our drive is persistent, our communication consistent, and our goals crystal clear.

 

I have only more enthusiasm and drive after this event. I won’t stop until Marc is home with Jodie for Christmas again. I hope we can all share that goal and fight for it in our own creative ways. We all can make a difference, one drop in the pond at a time, and this rally was proof of what can be accomplished when people work together. Complete strangers, now friends forever, linked by a Canadian who fought for and is being punished for what we all believe: Marijuana Prohibition Must End! Free Marc Emery!

 

By Mike Howell, Vancouver Courier

 

Ever wonder what local marijuana enthusiast Marc Emery is thinking as he spends his days in a federal prison in Washington State?

 

I asked that question after reading a piece in the New York Times Sunday about the Proposition 19 ballot initiative to legalize and regulate marijuana in California.

 

The vote was yesterday, after the Courier’s deadline.

 

As expected, Emery is his effusive self on the issue, stating his opinion on what he has dubbed "Marc’s prison blog." His writings are available for all to see at cannabisculture.com.

 

"I hope people in our movement did not buy into the propaganda put out by the treasonous miscreants I call ‘Traitors Against Proposition 19,’" Emery wrote in his latest entry from SeaTac prison. "The self-serving prohibition profiteers who have been telling people to vote ‘no’ are disgraceful for trying to defeat what will be the greatest single opportunity for progress in our movement ever. I hope there are more people out there saying ‘vote yes on Proposition 19’ so we can see victory–California becoming the first state to legalize cannabis anywhere on earth!"

 

Had Emery not been convicted of selling marijuana seeds over the Internet to U.S. customers, you know he would surely be in Oakland, the epicentre of the campaign to legalize weed. He will, however, be involved–by marital extension.

 

His wife Jodie is in Oakland and has volunteered on the campaign since Sunday, according to Emery’s blog. Cannabis Culture editor Jeremiah Vandermeer joined Jodie on her trip and was expected to be webcasting live Tuesday night from Yes on Prop 19 headquarters in a marijuana trade school dubbed "Oaksterdam."

 

If the initiative passes, it will be legal for anyone in California over 21 to possess and cultivate small amounts of marijuana but would leave many of the details concerning the sale, production and taxation to local governments, according to the Times article.

 

A victory for Emery and his fellow potificators (that’s my word) will undoubtedly have an effect on illegal B.C. bud shipments across the border.

 

Some cops say it will increase shipments, while criminologists predict a positive vote will put a dent in the province’s marijuana trade.

 

Even if the initiative fails, the groundswell of support–a Gallup poll released last week in the U.S. found a record 46 per cent approving of legalizing marijuana–is expected to stoke the marijuana movement in other states.

 

Either way, Emery will eventually get a better sense of how Californians feel about legalizing marijuana when the self-proclaimed Prince of Pot is transferred to Taft Correctional Centre in California, about 90 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

 

By: Jeremiah Vandermeer, Cannabis Culture

 

The Free Marc Emery Legal Fundraiser Moneybomb was a smoking success – really smoking: supporters donated a total of $20420 and thousands tuned-in to our 24-hour LIVE continuous blazing session.

 

Marc Emery sold a heck of a lot of cannabis seeds and made a heck of a lot of money, nearly every penny of which was spent on efforts to legalize marijuana and bring change to drug policy in North America and internationally. This included the founding and publishing of Cannabis Culture Magazine and Pot-TV. Marc was raided and arrested by US and Canadian authorities in 2005 for his political efforts, extradited to the US, and sentenced to five years behind bars.

 

We here at CC miss The Prince of Pot very much, and are doing everything we can to bring him home to Canada. Unfortunately, with no seed company to generate much-need cash for legal fees, it was looking like Marc would not be able to afford the cost of hiring a lawyer to facilitate the Treaty Transfer process, which if successful would allow him to serve his (possibly reduced) time in Canada.

 

 

In early October we put out a call for financial support in the form of a one day Moneybomb, a concept used originally by Ron Paul supporters to raise money for his 2008 presidential campaign.

 

At midnight on October 16, with our LIVE webcam rolling at Cannabis Culture Headquarters in downtown Vancouver, the donations started to pour in. And man, did they ever pour in.

 

It was amazing. The phones were ringing off the hook. Credit card and electronic transfer accounts started to fill up.

 

The response at that early hour was more than we were expecting; then it got really busy. CC accounts manager Tia worked tirelessly all day and night adding numbers and giving us the tallies.

 

The live webcast was a blast. A lot of blasting, actually – blasting joint after bong rip after vapor bag continuously with a large group of friends and family. CC’s Advertising Manager Britney and I anchored the program, and there were many who dropped by to say hello to viewers through the thick cloud of sweet smoke, including former CC editor Dana Larsen, super-activist David Malmo-Levine, Marijuana Man, Jacob Hunter, Nicole Seguin, Bubbleman, The Weed Guy, members of the CCHQ and BCMP staff, and Jodie Emery via Skype connection.

 

Using the USTREAM video streaming service, we embedded our show into the front page of CC and on FreeMarc.ca. Thousands tuned in to peep the smokefest and hundreds logged in to chat directly with us via the Cannabis Culture USTREAM Page.

 

The totals grew as we gave the audience regular updates on reaching our desired goal of $8500. By 12 noon, only halfway into our webcast, we had already surpassed the goal by about $50 dollars. Over the rest of the day, the cash kept coming, and by the time the clock struck midnight we had received a whopping $20420. Talk about an explosion of support!

 

BIG HUGE thank-yous to those who donated their hard-earned dollars to help bring a Canadian hero home! Marc will now be able to afford the legal support he needs to get the Treaty Transfer paperwork signed and get the process started. All additional funds raised will go directly to Marc’s legal fees and the FREE MARC campaign.

 

The Moneybomb was a fiery example of the old adage that there’s power in numbers. Thanks to the contributions – some small and some large – of so many wonderful supporters, Marc has a real chance to come back to Canada and hopefully have his sentence reduced. We couldn’t have done it without each and every one of you.

 

If you wanted to donate to the Moneybomb but missed your chance, you can still donate to the FREE MARC campaign, our ongoing drive to spread information about Marc Emery and the fight to legalize cannabis. If you can’t afford to donate, please send a letter to Canada’s Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews or your local MP, hold a sign on a busy street corner that says "Google Marc Emery", spread message online, or do one of the 75 things on this list.

 

Every action no matter how seemingly small makes a real difference.

 

For more information about Marc Emery, please keep visiting FreeMarc.ca.

 

Jeremiah Vandermeer is editor of Cannabis Culture. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

 

 

By Marc Emery, Cannabis Culture

Dearest Sweet Wife Jodie: I was going to write a historically accurate but bitter screed about the genocidal tendencies of our American and Canadian rulers, regarding the meaning of Columbus Day (Monday in the US) and Thanksgiving Day (Monday in Canada), and you’ve already got half of it in a letter I wrote you in that theme… but it’s just not how I’m feeling anymore. I’m optimistic and in a much better mood now!

Today marks my 210th day – 7 months now – in prison on this sentence, and I’m feeling very sharp mentally. I’m reading good books, educating myself, and I’m completing the New York Times crosswords and the other newspaper crosswords in short order. I feel I’ve never been so mentally adept, and I do have much to be thankful for, so I’m in a great mood. The food here has even improved in the last 10 days; there has been more variety and the quality of preparation has noticeably gotten better. All the inmates think so, not just me. I thought the idea of things improving in a prison was an impossibility, but it’s actually happened. They say the food services supervisor has been in making changes, and they are noticed! I’m going to put in a thank you to food services, although I wonder if that’s the opposite of what I should do. Sometimes I think telling them anything that makes life better for an inmate will provoke them to reverse any decision that brought that about!

I’m so excited you and Jeremiah are going to Oakland in California to witness History in the Making, the Proposition 19 vote of Tuesday, November 2! After you visit me on Saturday, October 30, you’ll be heading to Oakland that afternoon to volunteer for three days on the campaign on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday (election day), and Tuesday night at the vote counting celebration – or wake, depending on how it goes. I hope people in our movement did not buy into the propaganda put out by the treasonous miscreants I call Traitors Against Proposition 19. The self-serving prohibition profiteers who have been telling people to vote "No" are disgraceful for trying to defeat what will be the greatest single opportunity for progress in our movement ever. I hope there are more people out there saying "Vote YES on Proposition 19" so we can see victory – California becoming the first state to legalize cannabis anywhere on earth!

Cannabis Culture editor Jeremiah will be there to report in to www.CannabisCulture.com several times daily to give people the story of history being made in real time. How I envy you, but how pleased I am you are going, and that the incredible Richard Lee is welcoming you to join them at their headquarters. You’ll have to work long days, Mrs. Emery, 12 hours either on phones, or giving out literature, or whatever they need done. Please encourage everyone on Facebook and CC – especially young people – to register to vote by getting the form at any postal office before Friday, October 15; that’s the deadline for Californians to register for this vote. All our cannabis culture will want to be able to say they showed up for the historic moment marijuana was first legalized in North America. You know how I always say that political influence is often about "just showing up"? It has never been more true than this vote on Tuesday, November 2. People can register to vote online by going to www.YesOn19.com – the link is on the lower right-hand side!

I hope you can get east coast supporters to go to Washington, DC on Saturday, October 30 on the Mall when Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert will be hosting "dueling" events that will attract about 250,000+ people. My supporters should wear FREE MARC t-shirts and hand out FREE MARC literature, available at www.FreeMarc.ca – and it would be terrific if we could get FREE MARC water bottles made to be distributed for free, as it will be a long day and people will get thirsty, so it will be good to have those bottles of water for people to stare at all day long. We’d need to have those labels made quickly, and we’d need some manpower in the DC area to put them on the bottles and give them out at the event all day. It’s a promotional opportunity that shouldn’t be passed up, as the people attending are the activist demographic we need to reach, so I hope they contact you at Jodie@cannabisculture.com if they want to take part, and you can send them to someone in charge of organizing.

I started writing letters to my supporters again after a break. In the last 4 days I have written about 15 letters. I took some time off, but so many good friends who’ve been so supportive and kind have sent me letters, and are deserving of a response, so I had to buckle down and get to it. Each one has an illustrated envelope with their letter too, done by inmates here in SeaTac prison, so every piece of mail from me is unique on both the outside and inside of the envelope.

I have so much to be thankful for, as today is the Canadian Thanksgiving. First and foremost, I have our sacred, unbreakable love which is better than any other state of existence, in prison or out. You are simply the greatest companion, wife, and protege imaginable. You bring me joy in every way – and you are going places, Mrs. Emery! You work so hard, your heart is with the people, and you inspire everyone with your savvy, love and commitment to me, our cause and our people. Virtually every letter I receive from correspondents reminds me how amazing everyone thinks you are.

I have such dedicated, loyal and earnest supporters all over this wonderful planet! How can I not be grateful to be loved and respected by the hundreds of thousands throughout the world who write letters and hold signs on my behalf, wear my FREE MARC t-shirt, speak to friends about me, contact the media, and keep the liberation of our cannabis culture foremost in their actions. I have wonderful friends like Dana Larsen, who sends me books and helps us out so much; and great folks like the band ZZ Top, who gave us an autographed guitar to sell to raise money so you can visit me at Taft when I get transferred there; and our dear supporter Tommy Chong, who wears a FREE MARC t-shirt for every TV appearance he makes; and all the media scribes who write and report glowingly about you and I.

So, I feel the love and support from so many people, Miss, and that’s why I have no reason to be miserable and many reasons to be grateful. It’s a wonderful world when I can feel like a ‘somebody’ because of people who value the work I have done for our people over the last thirty years!

I hope I get a good response on the "Marc Emery Legal Fundraiser MoneyBomb" this Saturday, October 16th to raise funds for me to get home to you. Please remind all my supporters on Facebook, and at www.FreeMarc.ca and www.CannabisCulture.com that it’s a 24-hour hour fundraiser to pay the US lawyer who is a specialist in prisoner transfers, as the fee she requires is $8,500. Once I am at Taft Correctional in the California desert, 90 miles northeast of Los Angeles, the paperwork should be done immediately – but the lawyer will need to paid by then. I can be packed out of here at any time, though it may take two to three weeks of travel and detention centers before I actually get to Taft. I know there is a MoneyBomb page at FreeMarc.ca and I know it will be updated regularly throughout the day on Saturday October 16th so people can see how the donations are coming in. Let’s hope people have $5 or $10 or $25 they can donate via Paypal or credit card, as it will all really help. I hope people will contribute to me in my time of need knowing about the millions of dollars I generated and gave to the movement when I sold seeds.

My enthusiastic supporter Taralee Gerhard in Ottawa has a rally in support of me on Parliament Hill this Saturday, October 16th too! Be sure to promote her Facebook page about the rally and help her in any way you can. Let’s hope Taralee can gather 50 or so people to hold signs, do some FREE MARC chants, and hand out literature from 2pm to 5pm at the steps in front of the Parliament. I really want to encourage these kinds of independent actions from my supporters because they are so helpful in increasing awareness of my situation, especially my needs in regards to writing the Public Safety Minister Vic Toews and the US Department of Justice asking for my repatriation to the Canadian correctional system.

I love my fabulous wife, and am so thankful for you on our Thanksgiving! Can’t wait to see you next Saturday!

Onward to Victory and our future World Liberation Tour, oh wonderful wife!

 

Your grateful husband,

Marc

 

P.S. I hope we can find some supporters in the Bakersfield, California area to help you when you come to visit me at Taft correctional federal prison about 30 miles away from Bakersfield. I know now that there is good bus service daily to and from Bakersfield and the Los Angeles airport, so I’m assured you can get to Bakersfield in a timely manner, where you’ll be staying. You must check up if there is a bus going to Taft from Bakersfield in the mornings when you are going to be seeing me on Thursdays, Fridays, & Saturday every 2 weeks, and if there is some kind of bus or shuttle service from Taft to Bakersfield once our visit is concluded. Since I could be moved to Taft soon, possibly even the day the voters of California legalize marijuana on November 2 (making a superb irony that will surely show up in the movie that will be made about me), I’m a bit anxious that you find out these details. Have any supporters from the Bakersfield area contact you yet?

By: Marc Emery, Cannabis Culture

 

Dear Jodie: I was saddened to hear the tragic news that Michelle Rainey is possibly just weeks away from dying from her melanoma and lymphatic cancer, which has now reached critical proportions throughout her body. She’s only 39. Melanoma is such a vicious cancer, and cancer has been terrible on her brother, killing him young, and affecting others in her family. Considering Michelle battled Crohn’s Disease since she was a teenager, it’s a bitter blow for her, this life of suffering she’s had.

 

Michelle was my #1 partner in so many of my great triumphs, which I hope she regards as her great triumphs too. Considering the considerable pain her health has given her, she was heroic in so many ways, in so many campaigns that helped so many and represented the movement with class and clout.

 

With Matthew Johnson, Michelle and I ran the legendary and historic full-slate election campaign of 79 BC Marijuana Party candidates in the 2001 BC general election. You had to be there to believe it: in the campaign HQ, gathering all the candidates, getting the 40 signatures in each riding to qualify, having Richard Nixon’s old campaign bus tour the province with BCMP leader Brian Taylor (now Mayor of Grand Forks) on board. We nicknamed that old bus the "Cannabus", and that campaign was when you got into politics, Jodie, going to your very first rally in Kamloops the day that bus came by Riverside Park.

 

That campaign, with our 54,000 votes, 3.5% of the total cast, would never have been possible without Michelle. When we didn’t have a candidate way up north in Peace River South, Michelle volunteered to be the candidate and went up there to Tumbler Ridge and Dawson Creek, getting signatures at The Alaskan Hotel in Dawson Creek. You know how Charles, the owner of that cool old museum of a hotel, is always so nice to us there, Jodie? That’s because Michelle smoothed the way for us in that community. Michelle was a great campaign manager with Matthew, she was like Mother Teresa, Houdini, and Vince Lombardi all rolled into one: cajoling, guiding, and making impossible things happen in the last play of the game for that campaign.

 

Michelle was an all-inclusive mother, household manager, and business partner, and while both of us attended to our own spousal relationships, we were a powerful and dynamic duo six years from 1999-2005, the greatest period of activism Canada had seen in our movement. Michelle lived with me pretty well from 1999 at the house on 9th Ave. on the Sunshine Coast to January 2003 at the apartment on Nicola in Vancouver, over three years, and worked from sunrise to late every night making sure I looked great and presentable every day, keeping my house clean, all the employees paid, the seeds out on time, the producers paid and happy, the media fully informed, Pot-TV running smoothly, and Richard Cowan (who lived with us on the Sunshine Coast for over a year) taken care of – it’s amazing, all the incredible accomplishments she got done.

 

Michelle was my great team mate at the 2001 and 2003 IDEACITY in Toronto where I spoke about our incredible work to end prohibition and save the world. The 2003 IDEACITY is where I announced, for the first time, on stage, that I was going to smoke out the Toronto Police Station the next day as the first demonstration of what became the wildly successful Summer of Legalization Tour, proving that cannabis possession laws did not exist at that time. Michelle made sure she introduced me to everyone of importance there and indeed, many of the speakers said they thought our work was important. Romeo Dallaire, Henry Morgentaler, Wade Davis, Dianne Francis, Jaymie Matthews, and so many other great Canadians complimented Michelle and I on our great determination to end the suffering caused by prohibition.

 

The greatest celebration of cannabis I have ever experienced or ever heard of in the annals of cannabis culture were Michelle’s fabulous Toker’s Bowls of 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, hosted by Cannabis Culture Magazine. There has simply never been any presentation honouring the cannabis culture as classy, considerate, cannabinoid, warm, and loving, as Michelle gave love to every attendee for the whole glorious four-day affair. There were the boat trips, the bus trips (with the ever helpful Reverend Herb as the driver!), the 20-25 kinds of incredible pot for each judge, the nightly parties, rented restaurants, the entertainment, the prizes, the bubblehash, and the gracious and thoughtful Michelle making everyone ever so comfortable and welcomed. And Michelle had to work so hard to earn the money to cover the losses that each Tokers’ Bowl had. They were the greatest parties our culture ever experienced, but they didn’t make money, and Michelle had to work months to pull them off.

 

We had the greatest cannabis seed business ever known, that revolutionized the world, because Michelle, known fondly as Denmother, put love and care into every order. A medical cannabis user herself, struggling with Crohn’s, she fully appreciated how our seeds were helping thousands of people. I certainly gave away millions of dollars to all those great and good causes, like the 2003 Canadian Supreme Court challenge to legalize marijuana ($85,000), the 1999 class-action suit of the US federal government in Philadelphia to bring back the compassionate use program of medical marijuana ($28,000), the 2000 Canadian Marijuana Party election campaign($22,000), the 2001 BC Marijuana Party campaign ($152,000), the Iboga Therapy House treatment facility for hard-drug addicts ($205,000), the Worldwide Global Marijuana Marches of 1999-2005 ($35,000 each of those 7 years), ballot initiatives in Colorado in 2000 ($15,000) and Arizona ($10,000) – all of those expensive projects and hundreds more which was paid for by mine and Michelle’s hard work.

 

Michelle did what virtually no other human being could do or did, except her and I. She was an engine for great change in the world, committing money, her health, and her whole soul into this great movement that is forever in debt to her – just as I am in debt to her, for everything she has done for me and our cause. The whole movement, but especially the Canadian movement, may never know how much of our progress in the last decade is attributable to Michelle’s perseverance in the face of great pain, stress and financial pressure. Everyday we had tremendous demands on us for monies we had committed to activism, to our suppliers, to our many employees. Every day we knew we risked a run-in with the law, and all these combined pressures certainly took their toll on her.

 

Michelle is dealing with this critical juncture in her life with modesty and privacy, but before it’s too late, Michelle needs to be recognized as one of the greatest activists this movement has ever had. Michelle may have literally given her life to the movement, and when people think about what they can do for freedom in their lifetime, Michelle’s life is a shining example of how much is possible, even under great duress.

 

I wish her a miracle, as she certainly deserves one. I salute her as my great comrade in arms who brought honour, passion, and achievement to our movement, and I can confidently say that the lives of thousands of people are and were forever improved by Michelle being there for them, and for me.

 

 

 

The Hon. Vic Toews
Parliament Hill
Suite 306, House of Commons Justice Building
Ottawa, ON 
K1A 0A6
Canada

204-326-9889
613-992-3128
Toews.V@parl.gc.ca

Please also contact the US Department of Justice and ask them to approve Marc Emery’s transfer request to serve his time at home in Canada. Be polite and use the facts about Marc Emery to help you explain why he should be transferred.

U.S. Department of Justice
Criminal Division, Office of Enforcement Operations
International Prisoner Transfer Program
JCK Building, 12th Floor
Washington, DC
20530
USA

The US application requires more work, so that’s why Marc is hiring a US transfer specialist lawyer. She is highly recommended and gets the job done quickly and properly. Her excellent work comes at a cost of $8,500 – and that’s why we need your help!

The Marc Emery Legal Fundraiser Moneybomb is on Saturday, October 16th. We have already received some donations in advance ($1,000 in total as of October 2nd) and people are able to donate at any time. We’re putting all donation money aside for this lawyer and we’ll add it to the moneybomb on Saturday, October 16th!.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why do we need help paying legal fees?

People sometimes ask, “Marc Emery made millions of dollars selling seeds, so why are you asking for money?”

 

The answer is, Marc has no money, savings, assets, stocks, bonds, property, or anything of value. When he was arrested in 2005, he had $11 to his name. He didn’t sell the seeds to make a personal profit; the entire point of selling seeds was to make money for the movement, which he clearly stated on a regular basis and on his websites.

Since Marc began selling seeds in 1994, he never kept any of the money made – he has never cared about owning anything. Marc used all of the profits from the seed sales to finance the movement, which he was very well-known for doing. He gave over $4 million to activists groups, drug policy conferences, state ballot initiatives to legalize medical marijuana (including Colorado, Washington DC, and Arizona), class action lawsuits against the government, compassion club legal fees and start-up costs, opening hemp stores, worldwide rallies and marches (such as the Global Marijuana March every year, and the original April 20th “420” rally in Vancouver), drug policy organizations (including Marijuana Policy Project, NORML, Drug Policy Alliance, and more), political parties (such as the BC Marijuana Party, Canadian Marijuana Party, US Marijuana Party, and other state/provincial parties), media outlets (Cannabis Culture Magazine, Pot TV), drug rehabilitation clinics (the Ibogaine Therapy House), medical fees for cannabis patients, and so much more.

Even if Marc had kept the money, the police and DEA would have seized it all, so he never saved anything. The only people who claim Marc “made millions” are the DEA. But even the DEA knows that Marc has nothing of value, because he was not made to pay fees when sentenced to prison in the USA due to the fact that they know he has no money. In fact, Marc only has personal debt, mostly to Revenue Canada for owed income tax as he paid over $580,000 as a “marijuana seed vendor” from 1999 to 2005 and, after being busted, the interest on the $120,000 owed amount ballooned into nearly $300,000.

Additionally, Marc is not allowed to be employed while imprisoned, so he has no income whatsoever. His wife Jodie Emery owns and operates the “Cannabis Culture Headquarters” store, Cannabis Culture Magazine online, and Pot TV; only the store makes money. As such, we rely on supporters for help in paying the legal fees of our lawyers to help get Marc home.

Thankfully, Marc gave so much to the movement, inspired countless thousands to become activists, and helped thousands of people grow their own medicine, so there are many people who want to give back in his time of need. Thank you for the support!
 

By Jodie Emery, Cannabis Culture

 

There have been two recent updates in Marc’s situation. He’s been moved to a new unit in SeaTac FDC in preparation for his transfer to an FCI (US Federal Correctional Institution) because SeaTac FDC is for pre-trial inmates and Marc has been sentenced. He will be shipped out soon, but we don’t know when. However, we do finally know where he’ll be: Taft FCI in California.

 

Marc said he expected Taft even though he wanted Lompoc (also in California), because Lompoc has “Corrlinks” email messaging, and we both depend on that so much for constant communication all day, every day. But once he’s at Taft, where they don’t have Corrlinks, Marc and I will only get one 10-minute phone call a day, and our visits twice a month. We’re still so grateful for the relative closeness, though, because Texas or Mississippi or Georgia, or any of the other options, are much further away.

 

The other positive aspects are that he’ll be in a Low Security section, which means he will be able to go outside and get sun and fresh air! He’ll also have better selection from commissary, because there are vegetables on the list that he can buy and eat. Taft FCI is a privately-run prison, so the regular daily meals are very poor, but with commissary Marc will be able to have some healthy food. He’s very excited for the prospect of sunlight, fresh air, and fresh food – what precious simple things we all take for granted.

 

Once Marc arrives at Taft, he’ll be able to submit his application to the US Department of Justice asking for transfer to Canada. The United States and Canada have an agreement called the International Transfer of Offenders Act, and it requires that prisoners be allowed to serve their time at home if approved by the governments of both countries as not being a threat to national security. Canadian citizens also have a Charter of Rights and Freedoms right to come home, under Section 6: Mobility, which allowed Canadian citizens the ability to leave, return to, and stay in Canada.

 

The US has been approving Canadian prisoner requests as usual, but since 2006 when the Conservative government was elected in Canada, the Conservative Public Safety Ministers have been delaying and rejecting transfer requests. The US recently admonished Canada for failing to hold up their end of the treaty agreement, and even more recently, the federal court in Canada said the Conservatives erred in not bringing back Canadian drug offenders in US prison. So those were both good news!

 

Marc’s application to the Public Safety Minister was submitted the same day he was sentenced, September 10th. He received confirmation that the Public Safety Minister does have the paperwork, and he can approve it at any time. Please call and write to ask him to approve! For those who are at a loss about what to say, here is a letter you can send if you’re unable to write your own. There’s no postage required in Canada!

 

The US application process is more complicated, and for that reason we need to hire a specialist lawyer who takes care of Canadian prisoner transfer requests. She’s highly recommended and gets the job done, but her bill is going to be $8,500 – so we’re doing a Free Marc Emery Fundraiser with a one-day mega-drive moneybomb to help hire this lawyer and get Marc home to Canada!

 

Saturday, October 19th is the day we’ve chosen, and it has some special significance: when Marc was imprisoned for 2 months for passing a joint in Saskatoon, back in 2004, he was released on October 19th. I was right there outside the prison, in the middle of a prairie snowstorm, to meet Marc upon his first moments of freedom. I can’t tell you how anxiously I await the day when Marc is free from this imprisonment, and I can run up and jump on him and squeeze him and kiss him until I can’t breathe anymore!

 

I sincerely hope people will contribute to this moneybomb on Saturday October 19th, because we rely on supporters for the expenses related to this unjust case. Thankfully, because Marc helped so many people with money, seeds, and even just inspiration in the decades he’s been fighting for freedom, we have received such kind messages of support and know that people out there care, and want Marc to be sent home!

 

The October 19th “Free Marc Emery Moneybomb” will be announced and explained more thoroughly soon at www.CannabisCulture.com. However, if you’d like to donate now in advance of the moneybomb, we are earmarking all donations made online to the legal fees for the US transfer specialist and will include it in the total for the fundraiser moneybomb on Saturday October 19th. You can donate at the Cannabis Culture online store in the FREE MARC section here.

 

We believe that the Canadian government has no reason to refuse Marc’s request, and so far the indications have been relatively positive. A few months ago, some supporters met Public Safety Minister Vic Toews and asked him to bring Marc home, and he first said nothing, but then said that he wouldn’t object as long as Marc promised not to break the law anymore (an obvious requirement for transfer, and something Marc has already agreed to, as required at sentencing and for transfer).

 

More recently, a friend of ours met Toews at an event in Toews’ constituency in Manitoba, and presented him with a neat and tidy information packet about Marc and cannabis facts. Dan Grice asked Toews to bring Marc home, and Toews said he didn’t have a problem with it as long as Marc doesn’t “piss off the Americans” anymore. Here’s the exchange they had, as reported by our friend:

 

 

So that’s a good sign, because Marc will not "piss off" the American government the way he did with his seed sales because he doesn’t plan to sell seeds or break the law again, so he should be able to come home. But we still need support and pressure to make sure Marc gets home! Please write to Vic Toews and the US Justice Department saying that Canadian Marc Emery should be sent home to serve his sentence because American taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for his imprisonment and because he has a Charter and treaty right to return home to do his time close to his family.

 

Also, please watch and share this video, where I update everyone on YouTube about Marc. It’s been so long, but finally, I went over all the news and what’s coming up next.

 

The wife of Marc Emery, Jodie, brings us up to date on how Marc is doing in US federal prison, and what lies ahead for him. He will be moved to a new prison at some point in the near future: Taft FCI, in California. Read Jodie’s latest blog for more information. (Correction from the video: Marc Emery Legal Fundraiser Moneybomb is Saturday October 16th, not the 19th.)

 

Marc was ordered extradited from Canada on May 10th, was formally removed from Canada and taken to SeaTac FDC in Seattle on May 20th, and was sentenced to 5 years in prison on September 10th. Information about the sentencing is found at www.FreeMarc.ca and www.CannabisCulture.com

Marc’s Canadian transfer application to return to Canada to serve his sentence is now with the Public Safety Minister of Canada, and we need help to get him to say YES! Marc will soon be sent to Taft FCI in California to serve his sentence, and will apply to the US government for transfer to Canada. We need people’s help to get them to say YES too! We also need to fundraise $8,500 to hire the US transfer specialist lawyer, so please join our fundraising moneybomb on Saturday, October 16th!

So to help FREE MARC EMERY, please go to www.FreeMarc.ca and www.CannabisCulture.com

Also subscribe to Cannabis Culture’s YouTube account at www.YouTube.com/CannabisCultureMag and Jodie Emery’s account at www.YouTube.com/JodieEmery