Free Marc Emery

Dearest Jodie: I so loved our two visits this weekend. And what a momentous weekend it was! We got the sentencing done, and it went as we expected, and my application to be transferred back into the Canadian corrections system was delivered to the Canadian Consulate in Seattle. It will be on the Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews’ desk late next week. The Marc Emery Support Day comes at just the right time this Saturday, September 18.

 

Please emphasize to anyone that they don’t have to join a rally if there isn’t one nearby; it’s preferable that they simply make a few legible signs and hold them up at their nearest busy intersection, baseball or football stadium or well-frequented place for 2-3 hours after noon. "Google ‘Prince of Pot’ Marc Emery – political prisoner – Return Him to Canada" for Americans, and "Repatriate Marc Emery Back to Canada, Vic Toews!" for Canadians. That will help me immensely.

(Other rally signs and suggestions are found here and here.)

 

You were amazing this week, my love, doing dozens of interviews in so much media, including CNN, CBC, Canadian Press, the Seattle area news, and so many Canadian radio, TV, and newspapers. The email copies I received were over 20 different reports, and you’ve told me there were over 350 news results on Google about it. I know you were nervous beforehand but, as always, you got so much done and said. It was great seeing you in court and then visiting with me afterward.

I’ve received emails from close friends assuming I’m sad or dejected but I am not! I’m excited to be moving on. We have huge support to have me transferred back to Canada! We have dozens of elected politicians signing a joint letter to Vic Toews urging my repatriation, including MPs, Mayors, Councillors, MLAs, and Senators. Toews has received over a thousand letters so far since August 1st and I know he will get several hundred more. We must urge everyone to send in a letter to him urging my immediate approval of my transfer under the treaty that obligates the Canadian government to bring me back. As you know, I qualify under the criteria established in the Treaty for the Transfer of International Offenders between Canada and the United States – I’m not part of organized crime, I’m not a threat to national security, no victims object to my return (as there are no victims), and I’m not going to reoffend.

The Judge recommended my transfer request be honoured, and though it is not legally binding, it is of moral suasion to both governments. The District Attorney said they would make no objection. The State Department is the only body remaining to make a decision from the US. My application for transfer will be submitted as soon as I get to my designated US prison, which I hope is Lompoc FCI just north of Santa Barbara, in California. I chose Lompoc because it has email, is relatively easy for you to get there to visit me, has good weather to be in the "yard" daily, and has 2-man cells, similar to what I am used to here at the FDC. I expect to pack-out of here sometime in late October, and be at my designated FCI by late November. Then my application gets done. It’s costly, but I hope you can raise the money to pay for our treaty transfer specialist that we hired to help get my US application approval. I know I already suck up nearly $1,000 a month for commissary, phone, email and newspaper subscriptions, and you spend much more than that visiting me, but you will need to find $4,000 to pay for the treaty transfer specialist that I want hired. We need someone knowledgeable with the US application process and this woman is reputed to be very good at assisting a successful application. Please ask around and get donations and see who can help.

Of course it’s possible I’ll get sent to TAFT Correctional Institution (CI) in California, or Dalby in Texas, or McRae in Georgia, or a CI in Pennsylvania, Mississippi, or New Mexico – private prisons that specialize in deportable and "criminal aliens", as I am considered. The problem with places like these is that they are very much more difficult for you to access to visit and most don’t have email.

I won’t really even know where I’m going to end up until I actually get there, and there will be days or even weeks when you won’t hear from me while I am on the road and getting in-taken at FDC’s on the way to my final designation prison. It will be very difficult and trying for both of us, but we must get along in the process to reach my goal of being home in Canada on full parole by Christmas, 2011. That’s the point I’ll have served over 20 months of my sentence, and 20 months is 1/3 of the 60-month sentence; in Canada, for first time, non-violent offenders, that qualifies me for full parole. I have to get approval from the US and Canada for that to happen, but it is the hope that keeps me optimistic.

In the meantime, I have been very prolific this past week. I wrote my latest piece for SKUNK Magazine, I finished my chapter on life in federal prison for Barry Cooper’s new book, I made many corrections for my auto-biographical stories that are soon to show up on my soon-to-be-made www.marcemery.ca website, where my life story, my best work for Cannabis Culture, my best political writing, my best interviews, videos, and documentaries will be. I wrote up my speech to the Judge that I delivered in court, and made sure that the “Principle of Pot” documentary is going to be manufactured into DVDs in a few weeks so they will be available in October. I hope Cliff Maynard’s roach-paper art portrait of us will be available in quality prints in a few weeks (it’s not online yet, but you saw the original at Seattle Hempfest). I love that portrait. His art is so great, made with thousands of pieces of roach papers! He’s a genius, and I’m so pleased we were the first to give him coverage in our second-last issue of Cannabis Culture!

My friend Paul McKeever has a great blog post coming out that talks about my sentencing and quotes a fair bit of a conversation I had with him on email about this discussion going on about my letter to the judge where I said I won’t be engaging in civil disobedience any longer, and not advocating it. I hope the 28 arrests on behalf of the movement, and 22 jailings – including this very long one of at least 20 months and 40 more on parole in Canada and possibly 4 years to go here in the USA if my transfers are not approved – are sufficient in the eyes of my supporters to consider that I have "paid my dues". My example of successful civil disobedience, from illegally opening my bookstore on Sundays and seeing that law overturned, to illegally selling marijuana books and magazines and seeing that law overturned too, still exists and people know that I have used civil disobedience before. I just don’t need to do it again.

I was sincere to Judge Martinez too. I would not write anything insincere, even if I consider my incarceration an injustice, which of course it is. The vast part of my speech to the judge, and much of my letter to him, I spoke with pride of my many achievements I had accomplished: US ballot initiatives funded, Supreme Court challenges funded, the Global Marijuana Marches, BC Marijuana Party campaigns, the Iboga Therapy House, the overturning of Canada’s censorship of marijuana magazines, books, literature; financing the court cases that established Canadian federal medical marijuana law; and much more. It’s a staggering catalog of success and activism and I never said I regretted any of it.

At the end of my letter to the judge, I said I would not longer be civilly disobedient, but this is a practical matter. Once back in Canada, if I am released at 20 months under current Canadian law, I’m on parole for 40 months more. If I break the law, any laws, I can get sent back to prison for all or part of that 40 months. There are no circumstances that I am willing to cross that legal threshold for.

Now, as a corollary to the statement I won’t break the law, I certainly won’t advocate to others what I won’t do myself. Secondly, in order to get my transfer to Canada into the Canadian Corrections system, and ultimately release on parole, I’m promising the Public Safety Minister Toews I won’t break the law, so I can’t go back on my word to him either. My word is always good, whether it’s to a prison official, a judge, the Minister, my customers, my wife, or my supporters.

In order to travel to the United States, there’s a period of 4 years of supervised release after the 60 months of prison/parole is completed. So if I’m in the United States anytime to the year 2019, I have to honour these sentencing mandates. It would appear after I’m deported back to Canada, upon my release on parole or afterward, I may be eligible for travel in the United States, which is excellent as I am dearly wanting to speak to my American supporters in speeches and appearances. But again, breaking the law in that period can result in my immediate imprisonment. So public bong hitting, smoking pot in public, and, because I can be urine tested anytime in that 9 years in the US (and for the 60 months in Canada), no smoking pot at all, all these previously common activities are not going to be available to me for some time, likely until pot becomes legal, which I hope is soon.

If my critics – and I understand, Jodie, that there are so-called supporters on Facebook and elsewhere anguishing over my statement to the judge that there will be no further law-breaking from me – and naysayers want to honour me, then it is incumbent on them to end prohibition where they live. Until then, they are free (until they are not) to use civil disobedience if they choose that path, but I am bound up by my promises, which are necessary, not to break the law or recommend that course of action. If this criticism comes from people who themselves are too timid to do what they expect me to do, I find this hypocritical. Others, like my good friend Chris Goodwin, do not travel to the US, because he already has a criminal record and has no hope of traveling to the US. Chris is a fine activist, but there may also come a time when, because he has two children and employees who depend on him, civil disobedience may be unavailable to him as a practical option. For people like you, Jodie, oh sweet wonderful wife, you cannot disobey laws for the simple matter you need to be able to travel to the US to visit me, and you must set an example for others that your method of working in the current political environment can influence and cause change towards a just society. Others simply cannot use civil disobedience if it jeopardizes their ability to travel to the US or their employment prospects.

I did admit I was arrogant to the judge. I admitted I regret breaking the law, but that is because I dislike jail and I greatly miss you, my dear, more than anything else in this world, and you and I know how heartbreaking our separation is. I never renounced any of the results of my action; I never said I regret selling seeds. I didn’t concede I harmed anyone. I said in my speech to the judge – which will soon be available when you receive the court transcript – that prohibition harms individuals, nations, and harms even respect for the rule of law by diminishing the integrity of our Constitutions. A criminal, when being contrite, may say "I regret harming you" or "I am sorry for the damage I did". I did not do that. I was proud of the results, and I indicated so. I was regretful of my punishment and promised not to offend again, but these are practical admissions, and as it turned out, the last paragraph of my letter to the judge was what he said he needed to agree to the 5-year sentence and wish me well, rather than rejecting the sincerity of my plea and ordering me to trial, which was his alternative.

One comment I found interesting on the Facebook discussions, which are being relayed to me from my friends, was someone who said having to confess and apologize to the judge of a court where tyranny is being justified “is like a rapist demanding his victim say ‘I love you’ during the outrage". I like the metaphor, I’m not sure it’s exactly accurate, but it makes one think.

Another point I’d like to make, Jodie, is that throughout my letter and speech to the judge, I never referred to my actions as criminal conduct. I always referred to them as civil disobedience. Can you imagine how a court would react if any other defendant went in and referred to their conduct as ‘civil disobedience’? Oh Nelly, that would make a judge explode! But Judge Martinez didn’t react adversely where I used that term. He clearly had some sympathy for my predicament, wished me well, admitted 5 years is a long, long time, conceded the drug war was gravely flawed, but said, in final, my conduct was "criminal" and a sentencing judgment was no place to determine the validity of prohibition.

My lawyer brought up Karen Tandy’s statement about my politics being the true motivation for the DEA prosecution, and spoke of my original prosecutor John McKay’s recent admission in the Seattle Times that the cannabis prohibition is "dangerous" and "endangers the lives of his brave colleagues in policing" and is "futile".

My judge understood my point of view, my intent, and that’s all I can ask for, along with his recommendation to the Low Security FCI Lompoc and my transfer to Canada as soon as possible. After all, I’ve already agreed to plead guilty to a criminal violation of US law, and my promise to him is I won’t break the law again, and since my actions that broke those laws were based on a philosophy (civil disobedience), I renounce that philosophy for my future conduct, and as a corollary of that, I won’t advocate anyone else emulate that philosophy. The judge accepted that promise as accepting responsibility and I think it serves both the purposes of maintaining my integrity and the integrity of the court to have this exact resolution. I didn’t renounce all other human action by me for the cause of liberty, and I didn’t condemn civil disobedience; I simply promised I wouldn’t do it or advocate it, for reasons that are obvious, rational and consistent. I will still be giving my greatest effort to the cause of ending prohibition, but these will be lawful methods, speaking, elections, writing, etc.

I want to be by your side, my great Mrs. Emery, and this is how I must do that. We have such a great future together, meeting our people and bringing our World Liberation Tour to our supporters in Canada, the United States, Europe, New Zealand, Australia, India, and elsewhere once I am out amongst them. We’ll have my book Overgrowing The World, My Life as Prince of Pot deluxe hardcover out upon my release and we’ll tour Canada to promote it and impart our knowledge and wisdom with our people as soon as we can. In the meantime, you and I are as busy as ever promoting the movement, our activity for the cause of human freedom has never been greater, and this week was a great example of our ability to bring the injustice of prohibition to millions. Let us hope our supporters feel that way too and reward us with their contribution to my liberation back to Canada this Saturday, September 18th.

I’m very proud and humbled to have such a loving, devoted, capable and intelligent wife who gives her all for me and our cause of freedom for the cannabis culture. You are an amazing woman and I am so honoured you call yourself Mrs. Marc Emery.

Your grateful husband,
Your bowed but hardly defeated Prince,
Marc

By Sunday we were both doing some great work to impress each other and ourselves, and became very excited to see each other on Monday to get it right. You did some great work on a personal letter to Judge Martinez, you were contacting elected Canadian politicians to sign on to a letter to Vic Toews urging my repatriation and getting commitments, you got press releases done and sent out for my sentencing on Friday, and we discussed how John McKay, the former District Attorney who originally prosecuted me and demanded my extradition here, called me an idiot in the Sunday Seattle Times while advocating legalizing marijuana.

We both thought it outlandish that McKay, who was part of the problem of prohibition (now admitted by himself in print), did not recant his actions against me. I was, after all, sincerely advocating the solution he now agrees is the necessary approach to solve the problem of organized crime. He was in the wrong, I was in the right, yet I’m an idiot and he is living life unmolested by any guilt over his tenure as D.A. while adopting the very politics I espoused as he pursued me and ripped me out of my country and happy home.

And then I did something so stupid. I knew that today, Monday, was Labor Day and we were both excited to see each other soon after 2pm. You and I have never encountered a holiday visit that changed the visiting schedule; the last holiday, July 4th, was on a Sunday and normally that’s a 2-hour visit any time between 7:30am and 2:30pm, so we didn’t think a federal holiday impacted times at all because that holiday schedule was no different than the usual Sunday schedule. So I assumed visiting started at 2pm, and you remember that child-like aphorism "Never assume, because you make an ASS of U and ME" – and I did! I didn’t look it up in my rulebook or think about it, so didn’t tell you that holiday visits are always at 7:30am, then you showed up at 1:45 to start the visiting processing at 2pm, and they turned you away because visiting was just ending!

It was so heartbreaking, frustrating, infuriating and depressing for both of us. I cried in my room, and I broke down and cried at the dinner table when I got my pathetic "dinner" of peanut butter, 2 slices of bread and white rice.

I decided to focus on the good parts of my weekend. I decided I want to turn www.MarcEmery.ca (which currently just takes people to www.FreeMarc.ca) into the website for my life story writings. I have fourteen stories in my autobiography done and I’m not particularly interested in whether it’s in published book form or not – I’d rather have a website where all my good writing can be accessed in one place. So I’m going to write a minimum of 100 stories about my life, as planned when I said the book would be 100 chapters, and I already have 14 done now. Then I want my best published pieces from other publications – like "Rastafari: The Secret History of the Marijuana Religion", which is my favorite piece I ever wrote for Cannabis Culture Magazine – included in another section called "My Favorite Writings". Others I want at MarcEmery.ca are "Prince of Pot Busted" from CC #58 [article also posted at www.CannabisCulture.com/FreeMarc] and the interview "Marc Emery: The Prince of Pot Speaks Out" from CC #16. The piece "On the 30th Anniversary of my Vasectomy & My Girlfriend’s 2nd Trimester Abortion" published at www.WesternStandard.ca will be part of my autobiography, and it’s my favorite written work on a life experience, up to some of the stories I’ve written in the last week.

I want to include the best of my original jail blogs from my imprisonment in Saskatoon in 2004 (which you transcribed from audio to post online, falling in love with me as you spent hours every night listening to my stories), but I’ll need to go over copies that you can send me in the mail. I’m really looking forward to what you think of my new auto-bio stories "Saving Roy", "Dad & Betty", "Toni Lauriston", "The Prophecy", "Breaking My Promise", "Two Years Behind Bars", "Stamp Treasure", "Bound Volumes" – and all of them. The only one that’s not really great is my first one I wrote about Cheech & Chong and “Big Bambu”, but everything else I think is very good material.

I’m surprised how good my chapter on life in Federal Prison is. It’s for a new book by Barry Cooper. It will really fully inform people who might be headed to federal prison what life is like in an FDC, including being in the ‘hole’, solitary confinement. That’s the point of Barry including the chapter: my experience there. It’s very thorough. The next chapter for him is "Life in an FCI", which I can’t write with authority until I get to my Federal Correctional Institution sometime after my sentencing this Friday. My transfer could be just three weeks after sentencing, or it could be months. I just hope it’s a place that has email (Corrlinks, which we use to communicate with each other and cherish) and that it is not too awkward for you to visit, since you don’t drive and rely on supporters to help.

I know I am asking the judge to recommend my designation be Lompoc FCI, 25 miles north of Santa Barbara in California. We have friends there you can stay with, and it’s near air routes from Los Angeles, so it won’t be as expensive to visit as many of the other places I might get sent to, which could be as far as Texas, Georgia, Mississippi, or North Carolina.

Of course, the best thing about this Friday the 10th when I get sentenced is my Transfer application, under the International Transfer of Offenders treaty, goes to the Canadian Consulate after I get sentenced. As soon as I arrive at my designated FCI, wherever it may be, I can put in my application to the US Bureau of Prisons for transfer back to the Canadian Correctional system. Under current Canadian law, I qualify for parole at 20 months of my 60-month sentence as a first time non-violent offender in the Canadian federal system. That means I could be out on parole in November 2011, in time to be with you for Christmas next year!

I just hit the 6-month (180 days) mark of my sentence today – that’s the time I’ve served awaiting extradition and my sentencing – so if I’m transferred to Canada, 20 months will be November 10, 2011. But that’s only if Public Safety Minister Vic Toews approves my transfer, and the US Bureau Of Prisons approves my transfer. D.A. Greenburg said he would not oppose my transfer in our negotiations, so that is very positive, and because there were no victims to my crime (according to my PSR report) there will be no objection from any "victims", so that just leaves the US Justice Department, represented by the BOP.

That’s why it’s important, dear Jodie, to emphasize to all our supporters, that the effort they make on Saturday, September 18th, Marc Emery Support Day, is vitally important. Canadians writing letters to Vic Toews is SO IMPORTANT; I need him to receive thousands of letters IN THE MAIL to assure prompt approval of my transfer. I need the US Justice Department to receive thousands of letters from US CITIZENS, IN THE MAIL urging my repatriation back to Canada. I don’t think enough attention has been paid to my US supporters making their voice heard at the US Justice Department for my transfer to Canada.

The Honourable Public Safety Minister Vic Toews
Parliament Hill
Suite 306, HC Justice Building
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A6
(No postage required in Canada)

204-326-9889 and 613-992-3128

•••

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

202-514-3173

I answered some questions from the Vancouver Sun’s Ian Mulgrew, who is preparing material for an article on my sentencing ["Prince of Pot prosecutor declares marijuana prohibition a bust"]. I know he has seen John McKay’s piece in the Seattle Times. My friend and great protégé Loretta Nall, in Alabama, was furious McKay called me an idiot (and tens of millions of Americans also) for using cannabis while he was the problem and I advocated the solution he now calls for, and she wrote a letter condemning his hypocrisy. But here is one of Ian’s questions with my answer:

Q: Do you have any regrets now that you’ve been incarcerated, and even put in solitary confinement?

A: I do have regrets. I regret that my methods of selling seeds to Americans put me in jail and took me away from my wife. I miss her dearly and think of her every day. I cry over it frequently in my cell or when I speak to Jodie on the phone. But then I have to consider what became of that $4 million I gave away to American and Canadian activists and lobby groups. I gave $5,000 in January 1998 to pay petitioners to gather signatures in Washington, DC for a medical marijuana initiative, which was finally implemented recently. If not for that $5,000, the signatures would never have been collected and the medical marijuana distribution scheme going into effect now (it was blocked by Congress for 10 years) would not exist. The director of the Alcohol Distribution Agency in Washington, DC actually called me on the phone earlier this year and consulted with me on protocols for running the medical marijuana production aspect of the system, of which he is in charge of. Even more significantly, in January 2000, I gave $15,000 of my seed profits to pay signature gatherers in Colorado to get the medical marijuana initiative on the ballot in that state. Without that money, the campaign probably would have failed; so Colorado, which now has over 200,000 of its citizens with medical marijuana cards and the legal ability to possess, cultivate and consume medical cannabis, would not be where it is today. Those 200,000 citizens would still be being prosecuted, instead of protected as they are today, because one Canadian cared enough and had a plan!

And Canadian governments collected taxes from me for those seeds sales. Health Canada recommended me before they started selling their two varieties of seeds. The worldwide Global Marijuana March, which sees 20,000-30,000 attendees march in downtown Toronto each year, with participation worldwide of perhaps a quarter million people in over 300 cities, was started with money from my seed sales; from 1999-2005, each year I contributed $35,000 to fund this now self-sustaining event to get it where it is today. The April 20 celebrations that go on everywhere on Earth, and attract 10,000 participants in downtown Vancouver each year, and 10,000 in Denver now too, and perhaps up to a million more celebrants around the world (but especially Canada and the USA), was started in 1995 by my co-workers and the money from my seed sales, and grew into a global phenomenon because I made it happen. The 2003 Canadian Supreme Court challenge to marijuana prohibition in Canada that took 8 years and $85,000 of seed sale money to finance would never have happened without that money. We lost 6-3, but we were only two judges’ opinion away from changing history – all because I was there with a plan to make it happen. My pioneering drug addiction clinic and rehabilitation center, the Iboga Therapy House, which blazed a trail for what is now recognized as the greatest hope for drug addiction recovery, ibogaine hydrochloride, was done from 2002-2004 with $205,000 in seed sales money.

I have hundreds of examples, Ian, of outstanding history-changing events: election campaigns, polls, rallies, clinics, court challenges, conferences, compassion clubs, legal challenges, class-action suits against the US federal government, and much more, all of which existed only because of the millions of dollars of seed money that I directed to those projects. $152,000 in seed money was contributed to the historic BC Marijuana Party campaign in 2001, where a full slate of 79 candidates participated seriously in every riding in British Columbia. It put cannabis at the front of the election and debate issues. All of these actions were peaceful and democratic and fully transparent, harming no one, for the purpose of liberating humanity and the beloved plant therapies of the Earth. To regret my actions that led to this sad and unjust incarceration would be to deny all the great good that came from my philanthropy, it would be to deny the great progress our movement has made as a result of my unrelenting and honest activism.

Do I regret being in prison? Yes. Often. I am, however, very pleased that I have made considerable progress in my autobiography. I am working hard away on my Canadian voters guide. I have a chapter completed about life in US federal prison for a new book by Barry Cooper. I have written 300 letters of correspondents to people of the world who have written me. I have been busy. I have tried to be stoic. My hero, Martin Luther King, Jr. was often called on to go to jail to force the issue of segregation before the media, courts, and politicians. To quote the book I have finished reading on King, "Pillar of Fire" by Taylor Branch: "Above all, King hated jail, which revived his bouts of self-reproach and depression. He decided to post bond the next afternoon." Even the great man himself found jail a hard thing to endure, and I have spent already far more time in jail for my cause and my people that King endured in his time.

That’s the end of that answer for Mulgrew. I share it with you, Jodie, because we both need inspiration and cheering up, and Mulgrew can only use a few lines at best.

I am still your ever-faithful husband, and I am always madly in love with you, and that makes my time more unbearable and at the same time endurable, knowing that I am still your hero, no matter what comes. It is you I rely on so much for moral comfort in my dark and sad days of loneliness that sometimes afflict me here, and when I contemplate the long, difficult road ahead, of enduring months and years of incarceration, it is your love and the legacy of my achievements that keep me from utter and abject collapse into despair.

Having finished part one and two of Taylor Branch’s fine biography of Martin Luther King, Jr., I am now reading Stephen Davis’ biography of Bob Marley, hoping I can find inspiration in Bob’s incredible rise to greatness from the most humble of origins. Of course, Leonard Howell, the founder of Rastafari, was made to suffer ridicule and persecution by the Jamaican government in his lifetime, so I have the example of the great ones in my soul, Miss, and I am cognizant that there is a fine place in history for the both of us, so let’s rejoice about our unique love, our great marriage and our incredible destiny that awaits us. Remember our world tour we will embark on upon my return and final release from prison! We will go to Ireland, England, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Italy, India, Cambodia, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil and everywhere else my supporters have invited me – let us hope that happens in 2012! Our fans will sponsor us, just as they did across Canada for our Farewell Tour last year. We have never traveled abroad because the US authorities would have had me arrested since I have been doing my revolutionary activity since 1995, so it’s been 14 years since I have been anywhere outside of Canada. Once my US time is done and this sentence is served here and in Canada, we can visit the cannabis culture across the globe – it will be the reward for all our struggles. And then I hope we will finally go on our triumphant tour of all 50 states in the USA to meet our people, and it will be glorious with cannabis legal and accepted, finally, after all these pernicious government persecutions have been declared obsolete. That is the dream!

Our Farewell Tour was so wonderful last summer: 30 cities across Canada in 38 days, and we never had an argument or any kind of kerfuffle! We were so in love even knowing I would be gone soon, and we traveled hours every day to get to the next speaking engagement. How is the Farewell Tour DVD video coming along by the way? I know you have the first cut, but have yet to watch it. That magnificent tour will be fully captured on DVD when you add the photographs we took in each city, along with the videos you made (and still have more to make) on YouTube, which chronicled all of the tour locations and dates.

(More videos to come – Subscribe to PotTV on YouTube!)

Paul McKeever is finally able to produce the new movie “Principle of Pot” on DVD and he told me of the packaging and the production going on. You’ll have them later this month, it’s hoped. He said he finally watched it for the first time since he produced it, about 5 months ago, and it still seemed pretty good to him! It took 17 months to do. I responded to Paul that it is a brilliant work, painstakingly put together, considering it’s available for free and he’ll never make a dime from all that work. It has so much seminal material on my life. People send me letters with my quotes from “Principle of Pot” all the time. I wonder how many views on YouTube it has now?

The "Principle of Pot" DVD will be great as a document to explain so much of my life, I think, especially when someone asks, "Who is Marc Emery?" when they see signs at an intersection or on an overpass that say "Google Marc Emery". The doc was very rationally presented, and easy to digest even though it’s four hours long as it’s very visual and entertaining. I don’t think that anything about me on video will ever be as complete or as good a job explaining the history of my wide-ranging politics and activism before, and including, marijuana.

I told Paul that the CBC documentary “Prince of Pot” director Nick Wilson got such great feedback and exposure for his debut director’s job that it’s unlikely he’ll find any subject matter as interesting or as challenging. “Prince of Pot” was broadcast over 18 times on CBC, Knowledge Network, and Court TV. I hope he will do an updated re-issue of the DVD with producer Anne Pick, reflecting my incarceration and interviewing you in your much more mature persona that isn’t captured in the original 2006/2007 “Prince of Pot” movie.

In a strange and disturbing parallel thought, I know it was my life story that propelled director Chris Doty, from my hometown London, Ontario, to end his life. Five days before committing suicide, my friend and video & play biographer Chris confided to me over dinner, looking me in the eye and saying with sadness and confession, "No one cares about the histories that you and I care about, Marc. I might end up amusing people with my historical work, and some things, like my Donnelly play, made money and were popular, but that was a fluke. People don’t care that you are one of London’s greatest sons; they ignore it. It’s all meaningless to them. This damn world of cheap, sleazy television… it makes me wistful, like I was born in the wrong time."

Then you and I went with him to the premiere of the great play about me, “Citizen Marc”, which I so loved and was proud of everything about it; I thought it was amazing. And after the premiere, Chris escorted us back to the London Armories Hotel, standing outside the front entrance, and he asked me what I thought. I said, "It’s perfect, Chris, absolutely perfect. You should film it for DVD and release it with your first documentary about me [‘Messing Up The System’], and take it on the road as well." And then he wanly smiled and said "I’m pleased to hear you say that, Marc. That way, if I died tomorrow, I could go content knowing you approved."

Those were the last words I spoke to him, the last I heard from his mouth. Five nights later, on a Thursday night in his mother’s home, he hung himself, because, I always thought, Wednesday and Thursday night’s performances hadn’t sold out like the premiere night, and it confirmed his cynical belief that people in London just didn’t care about something/someone he thought they should care about. The play Citizen Marc went on to win "Best Actor" (for the lead star) and "Best Director" in that year’s Brickenden Awards for theatre, and could probably be mounted as a successful stage play across Canada to great success today.

Many times I have wished I had lied to Chris and told him "It’s a bit rough, Chris, I think you need to work on it more to really get it right, then maybe it will be more popular." Telling him it was perfect was his moment to decide that "Citizen Marc" was the last great project he wanted to complete. Chris began his career in documentary with me, the 1993 documentary film "Marc Emery: Messing Up The System" and it won an award too, and got him his first full time job in documentary films. He believed, I think, that his life had come to its terminus, full circle from beginning to end, literally with my life story.

Today I was so sad because I had a disappointing weekend with and without you, my wonderful wife, but now I’m crying in the corner of my computer room here in the FDC because Chris Doty gave his life to get my life story out there, and I had better live up to his ultimate investment in me. Chris Doty, a great talent, gone, who got so bound up in my life that he took on an unfair, unexplainable burden of what he saw as a rejection of what I stood for, and saw the world in the wrong perspective for just as much time as it took for him to take his own life. And he so loved and respected my work and me after spending so much time in my original bookshop City Lights so many years ago.

I’m sorry I was mean and angry in my earlier messages, Miss, and I really should be braver and better. I just think of Chris Doty and his love for me and I am so grateful to be alive and to have your love, and so grateful that I have lived amongst friends who loved me so much.

I will call you in the morning, my dearest! Finally my phone is restored after running out of minutes last Thursday! Those 300 minutes we are limited to each month sure don’t go far. But Tuesday is the 7th and my commissary limit and my phone minutes get restored on the 7th of each month, so I will call you around 9:00 am to wish you my love and apologize for any harsh words I wrote to you when I was so overwrought with frustration and sadness at our visit not happening.

Goodnight, sweetheart. I can’t wait to hear your voice!
Your Humbled Prince,
Marc

Please contact the Canadian Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews (pronounced "Taves") and ask him to approve Canadian citizen Marc Emery’s prison transfer application so Marc can serve his sentence in Canada. Please be polite and respectful when contacting Vic Toews.

 

The Hon. Vic Toews
Parliament Hill
Suite 306, HC Justice Building
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A6
(No postage required in Canada)

You can also call or email Vic Toews:
204-326-9889
613-992-3128
Toews.V@parl.gc.ca
toewsv1@mts.net

Dearest Jodie: It was a tremendous visit with you on Sunday morning. I am so proud of you for doing such a great job speaking at Hempfest. I know Jeremiah is uploading the videos of your speeches to Youtube (found here), then shared on the Cannabisculture.com and FREEMARC.ca websites. I can’t wait to hear the feedback!

I had a challenging week as you know. The no-flesh diet they give me is so terribly poor, of the 14 meals I get here weekly, 5 of them substitute the meat of the others with a packet of peabnut butter, that’s it. And as you know, I don’t eat peanut butter. So I go hungry 5 meals out of 14. Then on two of the other remaining nine meals, they give me a 5-spoonful carton of cottage cheese. The other seven have soy or cheese substitutes, almost always very poorly prepared and simply reheated. It’s so discouraging. I eat all the apples, oranges, bananas I can get, sometimes the other inmates give me theirs but I have to eat them right away because we are not allowed to have food from the "kitchen" in our rooms, which causes a massive amount of waste as so much fruit & food is just thrown out because if you don’t eat it in 15 minutes at sit-down, into the garbage it has to go. The rules are absurd and cause so much waste and, in my case, hunger and malnutrition.

 

This past week we were locked down for 36 hours because one of the inmates’ stash of alcohol hooch was discovered. I’ve been breathalyzed four times since I’ve been here; the first time in my life I’ve had a breathalyzer test of any kind. That was Wednesday and Thursday morning, so I couldn’t shower, exercise or use email or the phone during the constant lock-down.

On Friday, when I expected you to be here at 2:00 pm for our long-anticipated visit that day, I did not get the call to visitation and as the hours went by I got extremely anxious about you being in an accident, or hurt, or worse, or held-up at the border. All sorts of terrifying things went through my head because you are never late or miss a visit. Yet all day the phones and internet were disabled because inmates were being moved that day and as a security measure (so they say) all phone & emails go down when a bus or planeload of prisoners is on the move; that’s BOP (Bureau of Prisons) policy. So I had no idea what happened to you, or way to contact you. I was so torn up by anxiety that I had to go and throw up and then cry around 5:30 pm, 3.5 hours after you were due here. By 6:00 pm I was pacing the track upstairs looking pale and distraught when the C.O. (Corrections Officer) called me to his office and said he saw you at 2 pm, first in line, at the front entrance when he came to work on his shift. He said that all visitation was canceled, but the inmates weren’t being told! I was the first to know! Then I cried in relief you were alright but stunned they would let me and others here go all afternoon terrified something had happened to our loved ones without informing us visitation was canceled. It seems incredibly heartless and so unnecessary. One fellow inmate had his wife drive three hours from Blaine, but she was turned away and had to drive three hours home. Others came from Portland, 5 hours away, and were rejected. And of course we get no explanation. Finally phones came on at 7 pm and I was able to call you to breasth a sign of relief. Then email came on and got your note about how crushed you were to have our visits canceled without explanation.

Of course, it was probably because the scheduled airlift of a huge number of inmates on Con-Air broke down and the inmates all had be returned for the weekend to Sea-Tac. I have never seen this place as crowded as it was this past weekend, with some serious bruisers and hardened types among the temporary residents. I have never been so anxious here as in those 4 hours when I was wondering what could have happened to you.

As you know, I am looking forward to getting my sentencing out of the way on Friday, September 10th in downtown Seattle at the federal court. If all goes as expected, I will be sentenced to the 5 years I agreed to in my plea deal (I have almost 6 months in already in accumulated time served in Canadian & US jails on the sentence) and that day I hope to submit my Treaty Transfer application to the Canadian government via the Canadian Consulate here in Seattle. Then, following that application, I am hoping my loyal supporters will show up on SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 at hundreds of busy intersections, football or baseball stadiums, or in front of Member of Congress or Member of Parliament local offices, at Canadian and US Embassies and Consulates throughout North America and the world, or just at busy intersections in your town, urging my imminent transfer back to the Canadian correctional system to serve out my sentence.

I am hoping individuals, pairs or groups of four will go to busy places anytime from noon to 5 pm with signs saying "Return Prince of Pot Marc Emery to Canada from US Prison" or "Google Marc Emery – Political Prisoner – Bring Him Home" or "FreeMARC.ca – Return Marc Emery to Canada" or "Vic Toews: Approve Prison Transfer for Marc Emery" and that sort of thing. Big king-size sheets with these messages at bridge overpasses are great too, so traffic on the highway below can see it. Wherever there will be lots of eyeballs to view the signs is a good place. I’d prefer groups of two or four spread out over several busy places, rather than one group of 10 or 20 in one mass. Encourage people to sign up at WhyProhibition.ca and use my Facebook fan page, Facebook.com/PrinceOfPot, to publicize where they will be. Have people take photographs of their action on what I am calling the Marc Emery Support Day Mobilization (though my supporters are calling it the "Free Marc Emery" worldwide rally).

I am keeping busy with letter writing, I have written 25 letters in the most recent 3 days, and am writing my 2010 Canadian Voters’ Guide and great lengths of my autobiography for Dana Larsen, who is putting it together for me. I am very prolific and busy and it’s because of you, my dear wife, and your endless love for me, and the support you generate for me, that inspires me to keep producing under this incredible adversity.

I Love You,
Great job at Hempfest sweetheart!
Marc

Today I was told I would get less time on the computer to send and read emails because there was griping by some of the inmates about my use. Admittedly, it is about 3 hours a day, but I line up like everyone else and there are others that use it even more frequently and for longer times than I. It seems I have aroused some to complain. So my use will be in the early morning, in the afternoon around 4:30 pm, and at night, for less time in total.

I will have a hard time finding the time to type & email out the chapters of the proposed book I’m writing, so I may have to just send you my notes in long hand, which is how I do my first draft anyway. I’ll just edit it and rewrite the second draft more neatly and forward it along to you by mail rather than using up valuable computer time. The chapters are much longer than my editor specified, but there’s so much to tell that I thought I’d put it down and leave it for you and him to edit. It’s better to have too much information as opposed to too little.

The first chapter deals with my first album purchase when I was 14 (up to then I bought 45 rpm single songs), which was Cheech & Chong’s BIG BAMBU album. I memorized that album, finding their voices mocking, exaggerated and subversive. I really thought marijuana smoking was a comedic form of social rebellion. I was a teenager who found my obsession with Marvel Comic books as gratifying a mind changer as I could imagine, along with my comic book business called "Marc’s Comic Room" (named so because I sold the comics originally from my bedroom in my parents house from 1971 to 1975, when I was aged 12 to 16) and my budding love of science-fiction, I had no concept of the need for "drugs" or marijuana.

Then I jump to 1979 whereupon I discover Ayn Rand and the tremendous life-changing effect on my life, and how that happened. Then to December 21, 1980 when I meet Sandra, and I discover the joy of a cannabis high while falling in love with her that night. Then we jump to 1991 when I sponsor a spoken word performer (and former front man for the punk band Dead Kennedys) to perform his new CD "I Blow Minds For A living" at Centennial Hall in London, Ontario.

I had found out about Jello Biafra while doing my radio show on CHRW called "Radio Free Speech: Revolution Through Rock & Rap", and got together $5,000 to pay him his fee (of $3,000) and to rent the Hall for a night ($2,000 with sound equipment). We sold 420 tickets at $10 each, so I only lost about $1,000. In that performance of his then-current CD, there was a 15-minute segment called "Grow More Pot" about this book, by a guy named Jack Herer, called the Emperor Wears No Clothes. Biafra spoke about this conspiracy to suppress the history of the hemp plant and its incredible history in the world, and particularly Canada and the USA; that George Washington was America’s biggest cannabis farmer ever; that the Declaration of Independence was written on cannabis hemp paper, and it was mandatory to be grown in the early colonies, and in World War 2, the US Department of Agriculture urged farmers to GROW HEMP FOR VICTORY.

After his performance, I found out the book was banned in Canada, and all magazines and books about marijuana and drugs were, in fact, banned and had been banned for 4 years, since 1987. So I vowed to break the ban by selling these books and magazines over the next 10 months. I don’t get charged (unlike when I opened my store illegally on Sundays), even though I took out ads announcing my plans and sold copies in front of the police station, but I do end up bringing Jack Herer, Steve Hager, Ed Rosenthal & Paul Mavrides to London to autograph and speak about their work.

I got frustrated with everything after so many campaigns and so little change, so in July 1992 I moved to Asia with my partner Deb, and her two kids Jordon & Jeremy. While in Asia I saw in a government-banned newspaper an article about the Conservative leadership convention between Jean Charest & Kim Campbell. It came up that they both had smoked pot. This is the only article about Canada I saw in Asia in two years, and it’s all about how pot is very common in this place called the "lower mainland of British Columbia". Piquing my interest, I joked, "If we ever go broke here, we’ll have to go to BC and set up some kind of hemp revolution business." I laughed at the thought of going broke, as if it would never happen, but the idea keeps evolving in my head anyway.

8 months later, I really was nearly broke after foolishly spending $30,000 building a dream chalet on the side of this magnificent lake, Lake Maninjau, in West Sumatra, Indonesia. I got completely defrauded of my money, the house was built – a spectacular place, but I never spent a day inside it after completion, as the property owners rented it out to wealthy tourists and I was bollocksed. Crying in despair one day when my money situation got critical, I announced, pulling my head up out of my tear-strewn hands, that we are going to Vancouver to begin this hemp revolution business.

Once I arrived, I quickly got to work in this unfamiliar new city of Vancouver that I did not know. I sold “High Times” magazines and the book “Grow yer own Stone” door-to-door on the street to raise money, beginning April 11, 1994, and by July 7, 1994, I opened "HEMP BC: the Marijuana & Hemp Center for Greater Vancouver", as my first storefront sign read.

That’s the summary of the first chapter. So I’ll finish the first draft tonight, and then try to re-write it as neatly as possible by hand and mail it to you. Hopefully these issues of time use on the computer can be dealt with. If I do need more time, there are very few people wanting to use it at 8 am in the morning, when most inmates (including me) are still sleeping, but I may have to rearrange my schedule and perhaps type up my chapters in that period when there is little pressure to use the email.

I am in good health, my sweetheart, and I am working on my letters, books, and currently reading “god Is Not Great” by Christopher Hitchens, back to back with Robert Crumb’s illustrated Book of Genesis, from the Bible. The Bible is total fairy tale nonsense, albeit nicely illustrated by Crumb, but that any sentient human can find value in such a story is beyond belief – or rather it IS belief. Religion is strange stuff indeed.

I am gratified by all your great work on my behalf, and thank you for all the time you spend on my FREE MARC campaign. Without you, I would surely be so demoralized, as this is a hard place to be. I look forward to calling you tonight and especially your visit this Saturday, the highlight of my difficult existence here.

I love you immensely and long for the time when I am back at your side, as I ought to be and deserve to be. Hopefully people are writing the Minister of Public Safety and urging friends and relatives of theirs to do so also. I need thousands of letters on my behalf to flood the Minister: “Please repatriate Marc Emery at your earliest opportunity.”

I am very gratified that the opinion writers and editorialists of every stripe are condemning the escalating Conservative attempts to fill the prisons and expand the prisons. We need an election immediately and I hope you are doing your best to urge one in your writings and comments. It is essential we change governments. The country is being dragged, by the Tories, into a dark place of punishment and intolerance and irrationality because theocratic fundamentalist Christians have the government in its grip. People should read “The Armageddon Factor”, “Harper’s Team” and “Sheeple” to find out how bad it’s gotten.

I Love You so much, and goodbye for now,
Your devoted and grateful husband,
Marc

Dearest Jodie: A miracle occurred today! For dinner I received the most extraordinary meal, this great salad plate with five fresh green pepper slices, three cauliflower pieces, four broccoli pieces, lettuce, four real tomato wedges, dressings, medium cheddar cheese (grated, the real thing), and three hard boiled eggs. It was spectacular! The first real vegetarian meal I’ve had.

I don’t really know how or why it showed up; I’ve never seen anything like it before. I’m super-grateful. I’m the only one who received that extensive a salad tray as I’m the only "no-flesh diet" in the whole unit, but it was amazing. And filling, with the eggs and cheese. Most of the other inmates received a variation of it with some meat, but I know there was no cauliflower or broccoli in theirs because I was snooping to see if any left theirs so I could eat it, even in the return trays.

So I cannot say any longer that there hasn’t been any fresh vegetables. If I could even get that vegetable once a week, that would be something. So today is a good day.

I’m alarmed by the announcements today by Canadian Justice Minister Rob Nicholson and yesterday by Stockwell Day increasing the number of serious crimes in the criminal code. My friend Paul McKeever, who blogs at www.WesternStandard.ca and www.PaulMcKeever.ca, has an outstanding piece about it called "Shedding Light on Day: ‘Unreported Crimes’ Code for ‘Cannabis Offences’".

In it, McKeever, the leader of the iconoclastic libertarian Freedom Party of Ontario (which I co-founded in 1982), accurately surmises that this is all a prelude to a renewed persecution of the cannabis culture. Despite polls in Canada showing consistently that a majority of Canadians want marijuana legalized (52% in favour is the usual number), and that this November 1st, the 40-million-citizens state of California will be voting on Proposition 19 to legalize the possession, cultivation, sale, and taxation of marijuana, the Conservative government in Canada is determined to fill the prisons, build many more, fill them up, expend unprecedentedly huge amounts of taxpayer money (while running a staggering deficit for the rest of this decade) on this new pogrom of imprisoning Canadians.

This is Christian fundamentalism of the most Old Testament sort, and is one of the two policies the Tories in Ottawa really care about: making the sinners suffer & pay, and waging war! The Reform Party of 1993 has been buried in the dust, it cares not about transparency in government, nor deficit financing, nor pork barrel politics, nor the democratic deficit.

The Conservative government is obsessed with oppressing the cannabis culture through mass imprisonment and arrest, and the unbridled expansion of the military, and wish to spend many billions of dollars on these two wholly pointless programs. Both accomplish the opposite of their stated intentions. Prohibition manufactures crime where none existed, punishing those attracted to the big profits a legalized trade could not offer, and producing violence and gang turf wars where none would exist. The Canadian military hardly needs any airplanes to attack or bomb, can anyone really suggest that Canada has any targets worth a Russian or Chinese or American attack? What we need are rescue helicopters, rescue ships, and ice-breakers, more counseling for our traumatized soldiers who’ve served eight long years in Afghanistan in a futile war and occupation we should never have involved the nation’s soldiers in.

For all Harper’s soothing G20 talk about other nations curtailing their deficit financing, the Tories – as the Toronto Star so succinctly said on Tuesday – have shown not one shred of commitment to following through on the idea themselves. $14 billion on American fighter jets that we don’t need and can’t use. $9 billion (in the next 5 years) on just one "tough on crime" policy alone of filling the prisons. And more dangerous, ineffective and costly policies are proposed: ending accelerated parole for non-violent first time offenders, and American-style mandatory minimum prison sentencing laws (Bill S-10) are just the beginning.

The pointless G20 cost $1.2 billion and produced the most disgraceful 24-hour concentration camp of peaceful dissent this country has ever witnessed, while not one single policy came from the leaders who attended the event.

This Harper government is pure evil, taking their cues from the mean-spirited Old Testament and the New Testament Book of Revelations: punish the non-believing people, bankrupt them, lie & deceive them, that they might all be cast in the lake of fire that is reserved and waiting for the unbelievers. Too fantastic to believe? It’s documented, and extensively. Nicholson & Day are preeminent amongst the "End-Of-Times" Tories. Day and his supporters in part even take their cues from the Parliamentary Clock Tower’s divine signal! Oh, I’m not kidding – please read the book The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada by Marci McDonald for that whole story!

My best jail house Prison Potcast was done back in October of last year, its there on I-Tunes as well as in text at cannabisculture.com, called "Stephen Harper & The End Of Times (Of Canada As We Know It.)", you can read it at www.CannabisCulture.com.

I dare say Conrad Black’s two incredibly sensitive & brilliant pieces on Bill S-10 and the horrific US prison system of which I am incarcerated in (as he was for 28 months) are his editorials "Canada’s Inhumane Prison Plan" and "My Prison Education", which every conservative should read.

We need an election immediately. People need to empower the Liberals, NDP, and Bloc by urging them to vote no-confidence in this government. Canadians should write them or call them to ask for an ELECTION NOW. Then be sure to support the opposition party most able, in their riding, to defeat the Conservative candidate.

I’m already working on my 2010 CANADIAN VOTERS GUIDE TO DEFEATING THE CONSERVATIVES, ready in mid-September, just after I get sentenced on September 10th here in Seattle.

Your imprisoned civil rights activist husband,

Marc Emery

P.S. To buttress the intent of Justice Minister Nicholson’s claim that they are re-naming more offenses as "serious crimes", note that the Toronto compassion club CALM (Cannabis As Living Medicine) was raided again today by Toronto Police, no doubt at the behest of the Justice Minister and Ontario’s Solicitor-General. Following on the heels of the raids in Quebec several weeks back of the compassion clubs there, the Conservatives in Ottawa are staking their reputation on the continued punishment and persecution of the cannabis culture. The Tories WANT an election called, and they want it to be around marijuana & prohibition. We should engage this desire of theirs.

Jodie’s advice:

First, you need to look up the election results from the last federal election (Google "Canada Federal Election Results"), available at www.electionalmanac.com.

If your Member of Parliament is a Conservative, find out who almost beat them or came in second last time, and support and vote for that person whether they’re NDP or Liberal or Bloc, or the Greens.

If your MP is NOT a Conservative, but there is a Conservative who is close to beating them, support your MP – whatever their party – against the Conservative challenger.

If your MP is in a "secure seat", where they won’t lose to anyone, then support and vote for the Greens because every vote equals $1.95 to the party, so that really helps the most progressive party in terms of drug policy in Canada (and which I am a candidate for in Vancouver South).

Dear Jodie: I am now aware of a disturbing series of occurrences with my mail in and out of the prison here at SeaTac Federal Detention Centre. A number of items I send, and that I am due to receive, have gone missing without explanation so far.

You know that for our 4th wedding anniversary on Friday, July 23th, I sent in the mail on Wednesday, July 14th a beautiful envelope decorated on both sides in colour pencil, with a hand-done calligraphy-style written page inside. I sent it in the mail here at SeaTac FDC nine days early so you would be sure to get it in time, for you were to visit me on the day of our anniversary, arriving the Friday evening at your hotel in Seattle just down the street from my prison.

The envelope was decorated on the front with two beautiful roses on each side of a brilliant red heart. Across the heart was a ribbon drawn with the neat calligraphy words "Happy 4th Anniversary" on the ribbon (drawing) across the heart. Around this trinity of red was a textured blue for the rest of the envelope, like the infinite sky, the sky I cannot see, trapped in here. The blue sky surrounding the woman I know whose heart is always full of love. On the reverse side of the envelope was another heart with two roses beside it. But this heart has jail bars inside it, and that of course, is my heart, my love held in bondage here until such a time as our supporters appeal to my jailers and have me released to love you in the flesh once again. Two hearts kept apart, symbolized by being on opposite sides of the envelope, with 4 roses to represent our 4 wonderful years of marriage. On the flap of the envelope was calligraphy that read "Our triumphant rapturous love will conquer all".

Inside was the headline: "Idealism is the Testament of True Love" because the willingness to risk one’s liberty, to live with the burden of my knowing daily that – for the cause of principle and for the benefit of our cannabis culture and the future generations that may benefit from my sacrifice – the absence of my great wife is indeed an act of true love. Revolutionaries like Malcolm X and George Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, and Martin Luther King, Jr., those great American men you know I have read about and studied since the very first days you began to know me, 9 years ago, all describe the struggle for the right of peaceful men and women to live without persecution as being the greatest act of love one man can offer his fellow beings.

Below the headline was my most famous quote in my activist career, from an essay I wrote in 2004 while imprisoned at Saskatoon Correctional for three months (for passing one joint to a university student in the park after my speech at the University of Saskatchewan).

“It is the height of moral conscience to refuse to obey an unjust law. To obey an unjust law is to give credence to its oppressive power. To obey a law that punishes where no crime exists is to surrender to tyranny and, by acquiescence, endorsing the oppression. The only righteous place for this kind of man is the jail cell. He must break the bad law openly and without apology, and without any victim but the pride of the state, it will be soon apparent to all that an injustice has taken place. Gradually, eventually, a crisis in the public confidence occurs, and in this vacuum, in this opportunity, change will come.”
– Marc Emery

That quote is from my original jail blog I kept in those days of incarceration, the days that ultimately prepared me in some small part for my greater and longer challenge in this period of captivity. Those were the days you have told me you fell utterly in love with me, painstakingly listening to my voice for hours each night as you transcribed my phone-call jail diary audio reports for Pot-TV (before YouTube or "podcasts" existed). I would call the office and read my notes to Chris Bennett of Pot-TV and he would record them for online, then he would put the recording on CD and then give it to you. Then, each night, you would toil for 3, 4, 5, sometimes even 6 or 7 hours taking every sentence I spoke and typing it up and putting it out on the internet as my jail blog, so people who couldn’t listen to the Pot-TV video/audio report were able to read it instead. Since my job at Saskatoon Correctional was the janitor of the Administration Center, I often saw the staff reading my daily jail blog and was satisfied to know the even my jailers were captivated by my words you had transcribed while they held me in captivity physically. In Canada, of course, one does not go to solitary confinement for doing audio podcasts or recordings as I was cruelly punished here with solitary confinement for 21 days for doing far, far less. Such is my life in the "land of the free".

The earnest hope was that you would receive this beautifully hand-done gift letter at home, and then when you arrived at your hotel, only a few blocks from your beloved behind these bars, you would find 4 beautiful scented rose in a vase with a card from me reading: "Our triumphant rapturous love will conquer all".

It was all meant to be such physical poetry, the flowers of the material word after the greeting on stationary, in colour, of the metaphysical world, to be my gift to you. But alas, the letter never arrived, and I don’t know if you or I will ever know where it went.

Previously, two photographs taken of me here by the jail photographer, and paid for by me, were sent to you three weeks ago, and they too did not arrive. Additionally and curiously, numerous letters sent to me here have not arrived. A film script and lengthy letter from my Vancouver friend Mahara sent 25 days ago did not arrive here. Photographs sent to me by ExpressPost two weeks ago by CC editor Jeremiah Vandermeer, of the July 1st celebration at the Art Gallery, did not arrive. If items sent to me are refused by the FDC, I am supposed to be informed with a notice from the mailroom, but I have received no notice of any refusal.

Letters to me from others have been returned to the sender inexplicably. My supporters “The Individuals”, the African-American musicians from Chicago, had their letter to me, correctly address to Box 13900 here in Seattle, returned to them with a sticker that read "FORWARD TIME EXP RTN TO SENDER" with this return address printed on a yellow sticker:

Mothers and Brothers Inc.,
199 Melrose Ave. E. Apt. 407,
Seattle, WA 98102-5562

I know of one other who also had their letter returned with the exact same "FORWARD TIME EXP RTN TO SENDER" and the Mothers and Brothers Inc. return address. Can you please investigate who Mothers and Brothers Inc. is and why they have mail intended for me? I have already put a COP-OUT (the name used for inquiries or requests from an inmate to staff here) request to the mailroom here at FDC for explanation. I will also speak to my counselor Mr. Erickson tomorrow to see if he has any explanation that would satisfy me or make sense. If this problem is not resolved I will have to appeal to our lawyer Richard Troberman to make a more official request for an explanation. That my mail to you is being stolen without notification, or that mail to me is being obstructed, I am sure is not legal without proper explanation. (If your mail is returned with that "Mothers and Brothers Inc." label, please email Jodie@cannabisculture.com)

As you know, I rely on letters from you and my supporters to sustain me here, and unlike the telephone, email or commissary (which are described as "privileges" the prison can take away whenever they interpret a breach in the so-called rules) the delivery and receipt of mail is a right, not a privilege.

Our supporters are many and varied. Eric Hafner of Red Bank, New Jersey is on a roll; for example, he’s had 3 letters to the editor posted in his local paper, The Two Rivers Times: "Let’s End the Drug War", "A win-win situation" where he suggests a recently shuttered municipal building be turned into a medical marijuana production facility, and "Legalize Alcohol for 18-20 year old non-drivers". And all those just this month, and he says I inspired him to do it! How wonderful! Eric sent me copies of his three published letters. This is a great example how anyone in our culture just taking time to read the news can begin to incite local debate on important issues.

This one is a “small world” story. My supporter and “Students for Sensible Drug Policy” organizer on his campus, Tyler Markwart of Pullman, Washington, went to a Simply Stoopid concert in Spokane in late June. The band Slightly Stoopid, you will recall my dearest, we included in the first issue of Cannabis Culture you and I edited together, CC #55. It was just a one-pager article by our music journalist Jennifer Zimmerman, from the South by Southwest Music Festival. She convinced us these proud stoners would be big one day. Well, that day, 5 years after we printed a page long piece about them, is here. But that’s not this story – although I’m glad we know how pick ’em! The story is, Tyler went to the Slightly Stoopid concert with a FREE MARC EMERY sign, went to the front of the stage during the concert and flashed the FREE MARC EMERY sign throughout the entire performance, to the band on stage and the audience behind them. The band was videotaping the audience and the film crew trained the camera numerous times on Tyler holding up the sign.

Then, a few days ago, Rick Saris of Idaho wrote me to say, "I was at a Slightly Stoopid concert in Spokane a few weeks back and I was packed in the middle, and near the stage a guy and girl were holding up FREE MARC EMERY signs throughout the whole show. That was awesome, and me and others cheered when we saw it."

That’s what I’m talking about! Concerts are a great place for people to wear their FREE MARC t-shirts and hold up FREE MARC EMERY signs. I hope at the Canucks games in Vancouver this upcoming season some fans think of a "Go, Canucks, Go" sign that has FREE MARC EMERY on the reverse or underneath it. The possibilities are endless.

K.C. of Charlotte, North Carolina wrote a sentiment about you, my magnificent wife, similar to those I get in letters every day: "I have an illness related to Crohn’s Disease (a bowel wasting occurrence spurred by an auto-immune system disorder). I have watched you on YouTube, MSNBC, and on cannabisculture.com. Your wife Jodie is amazing. I am inspired by her love and conviction, as a woman. I can feel her passion when she speaks. I guess I can say because of your wife, I am becoming an activist. I used to watch the Big Government run over the everyday person. I am now learning how to stand up for my rights. Thank you both."

Most first time letter writers emphasize to me that it is largely your passion for me and our great movement that inspired them to write me or even to activism. I wrote K.C. back and asked her what ACTION she intends to take and offering her some suggestions, as I try to do with everyone who writes to me.

Send Marc Mail: www.CannabisCulture.com/SendMarcMail

By the way, a brief interruption: Someone named Middleton put $25 in my commissary. Jodie, if you ever find out who did that, be sure to thank them. That $25 will pay for 7 hours of my email, which costs me $3.50 an hour to use. And I also got an incredible donation of $300 from someone named Lew – that’s really generous and will help me out for a long time, and it means you can spend your money on visiting me instead of sending it to my commissary. Money goes a long way in here; I have to buy my deodorant, razors, soap, paper and stamps, phone and email time, and I can get snacks like nut mix, and extra food items like mayo, spices and tuna – additional things that I desperately need in addition to the "meals" they give us.

Send Marc Money: www.CannabisCulture.com/SendMarcMail

The best thing I have read lately was Radical Russ’s great article "Proposition 19: Word-For-word Analysis", which was on the front page of Cannabis Culture. If there any naysayers to Prop 19 left, I hope they read that terrific piece of real journalism. Keep up the fine work, Russ!

Perhaps the most intriguing pieces of mail I have received are the 42 letters from each student of the "Critical Thinking & Ethics Project" at Sannasastra University in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia. The professor, Ray Christl, has had two classes with his students all about the extradition of myself to the United States. Each student had to watch some parts of the documentaries “Principle of Pot” and “Prince of Pot”, as well as my Wikipedia page. From there, the students each wrote to me, by hand, in English, which is their second language after their native Khmer. These students are from the upper classes, merely by the fact their parents can afford to send them to University, so I am writing each student back individually, one per day (among the 5 – 8 letters I send out daily). They may end up as civil servants, teachers, businesspeople or professionals or simply influential, so I would like to have an impact. Mostly, I answer their questions, many of which are similar or identical (I think with a little prompting by Professor Christl) with assertions like this:

"I believe that all humans have a right to put plants and drugs in their own body. Each human owns their own body and mind. It is wrong for government to punish individuals for peaceful and honest behaviour and actions. It is important for all individuals to question authority. The government’s purpose should be to provide physical infrastructure like roads and sewers and drainage. Government has no moral authority to determine the contents of our bodies. I am in jail because of my peaceful politics. The chief of DEA Karen Tandy says ‘Marc Emery is leader of legalization groups. Marc Emery gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to legalization groups operating in United States.’ It is important for all citizens to QUESTION AUTHORITY!"

Lots of that goes to each of them in my letters to them. That’s a lot of 98-cent stamps I have to buy! (And I have to buy all of my stamps, so make sure no one sends any in the mail or they get refused.)

Each letter from the students is accompanied by a small portrait photograph of the student. Some of their questions verbatim (spelling and grammar not corrected):

Chlim Vitadane asks: "Why they put you in jail? How can American government put you in US jail when you are Canadian citizen? How do you feel, are you sad or angry? My teacher says you are a just person who sell seeds. Maybe you are bad person and you do something bad and this is why they put you in jail."

Sopheakna writes: “Hello Mr. Marc I am sorry you are in prison in USA. As I know you are Canadian citizen and never went to USA, why are you in prison in USA. The law in Cambodia says persons shall be punished for growing and marijuana seeds, because its illegal medicine that will cause many bad sectors of instability of society and effected the people’s health. So our society will losed the human resources for developing the whole country in the future."

Touch Matin writes: "I feel so sad and sorry for you. My professor say you sell seeds to make the medicine to help humans for good health, that’s not a mistake. I wonder why they got you in prison. Where is the ethic? It is not a mistake to help human beings."

Keo Pichta writes: "For me, I don’t know why police put you in jail. Can I know it? How many times that you have a shower there? Are the people in jail bad to you?"

Mab Chanthey writes: "How well the guard prisoner treat Mr. Marc Scott Emery in the prison or will you be mistreated because you are well educated guy of the world, not just for Canada? I am afraid that prisoner in democratic country is mistreated in prison as what Cambodian prison police do to Cambodian prisoners. Even though the constitution of democratic country should protect you, the guard men may not follow the proper ethic. One more thing, I am afraid you would be raped as what happened in the prison."

Leng Han writes: "Why a Canadian citizen who was prisoner brought to jail in United States? Is Canada a subjugated state of the United States? … In the Buddha’s life, the cannabis seed was used by him as food for life."

Sok Naroeum writes: "In my country, we grow ganja and no one goes to jail, even though it is against the law. Law in this country does not focus to that kind of plan. Why the US government have the right to bring to jail a Canadian citizen?"

War Anasojie writes: "This is first time ever writing letter in English to anyone. What is American jail like? What did you do with the money from your business? In my country, prisoners are bad persons or criminals. Dr. Ray says "Marc Emery is good person, he is in jail for telling the people to plant the seeds" he said. Unfortunately, you are in jail but do not give up. I don’t think what you did is wrong. You must be strong, no giving up. Moreover, your friends and family are miss you and waiting for you to be free, for sure. You have pretty wife who loves you. Be strong for her."

Eng Sokunthea writes: "Through the internet, I have realized that you are a businessman since you were eleven years old, a young boy, and now you are great Canadian representative for the world…It was very awful when you were not allowed to meet your wife face to face when you are in the solitary, the Hole. However you are a prisoner, you should still have a right to see family face to face even in solitary. I are told United States is a democracy and believe in fundamental human rights, so why they treat you like this? Is that a legality?"

And finally, Ros Sereysophea writes: "I did come to realize your great kindness and compassion towards the less fortunate than you by watching the documentaries and reading about you. I do know you are highly respected in your community and profession, and you good works have changed the lives of many. The people are truly fortunate to have you as a role model. Please pass on my deepest sympathies on your activities, and to your family."

I love letters of depth, activism and substance; I hope people will keep sending mail.

I love you, my dear wife, and pray for you every day that you may stay safe and healthy.

I remain your devoted husband,
Marc

Dear Jodie: What a wonderful day-after-our-4th anniversary visit! After we kissed goodbye, I went into the anteroom where I get stripped down and take all my clothes off, I’m asked to riffle my fingers through my hair, open my mouth, move my head from side-to-side and bend my ears, show my underarms, lift up my “sac”, turn around and show the bottoms of my feet and – there’s no other way to say it – spread my ass cheeks, to make sure I have not taken any contraband from you (though it would be impossible). My clothes and shoes are checked, and then I’m clear to get dressed and I’m brought back to my unit, Delta Bravo as it’s called, or DB.

 

It was a wonderful two-hour visit. I had all my freshly ironed clothes on, my brown visitation t-shirt under my khaki smock, my khaki trousers pressed so sharply, just for this visit. I always save my best clothes for when you come, and I hang them in my locker so they keep all the fresh sharp creases from the ironing they got on Wednesday. I love the passionate 30-second kiss we’re allowed to have when we first meet, and I love lifting you up and holding you with my arms while we kiss. You always look so attractive in your beautiful dresses. After our kiss, which is so electric to me, we sit opposite each other and our eyes are usually only 6 inches away while we talk up a storm, pretty well non-stop for two hours. It’s amazing how we get all the politics, social, reminiscing, your business, the people you work with, your challenges and difficulties, as well as many amusing vignettes and anecdotes covered, all in that two hours. Holding your hands and rubbing your arms as we do is so satisfying, you almost purr when I rub your arms. And then the lovely goodbye kiss at the end and your beatific smile that is so reassuring to me. Unlike so many other prisoners here, I have the committed devotion of a completely loving, faithful wife who once vowed when she was 16 that "One day I’m going to work for Marc Emery, or marry him, or both!" Oh, my sweet wife, what a brilliant prediction that was 9 years ago. So glad I made such a good impression. When we fell in love three years later, I had hopes, but little could I predict that we would become the dynamic couple we have been since – and you, such a brilliant public speaker, compassionate and remarkably intelligent leader of people, the perfect loving wife, and a truly liberating voice of the oppressed and marginalized.

 

Knowing these things about you makes my time here more bearable. My 5-year expected sentence is officially pronounced on September 10 in the Seattle federal court. That means, with 135 days served on my sentence already (65 days here at SEA-TAC FDC and 70 days at North Fraser in Canada awaiting extradition), and in anticipation of 270 days of time off my sentence for good behaviour (54 days off each year), my expected released date if I spend every day of my sentence in the US penal system is June 16, 2014. I have 3 years, 10 months, 21 days to go. The only way I could endure such an ordeal as it already is, is with the kindness, sincerity, devotion, sweetness and competence of your love and your skills. You are my saviour, Mrs. Emery; you are the greatest person to ever come into my life. I often think it’s because of your clearly sincere devotion to both me and my life’s cause in your blogs, videos, and public statements, that people, especially women, have taken to admiring my work and what I represent and who I am. They trust your judgment, Jodie, and they know that a woman who believes in me like you do after over six years together with me, almost 24 hours a day 7 days a week, cannot be fooled. They see your total devotion and they see a love like few others, like out of a romance novel, like out of a epic tale like Tristan and Isolde, or like Robert & Elizabeth Browning, a love for the ages, a love uncorrupted, a love based of principles of noble idealism. Your unmistakable sincerity in your love for me makes people believe in and want to help me, because they want to assist in that kind of pure love. It’s their way to be part of a romance, part of noble cause, something the universe wants to be done. You are doing God’s work, my sweet beautiful Jodie, and people can see that. They tell me so in the letters I get daily. "Your wife loves you so much," "Jodie’s blog about visiting you made me cry," messages of that nature are in those heartfelt letters I receive here in my cell every day.

 

My daily routine begins at 5:40 am when the C.O. (Corrections Officer) unlocks my cell door. I share a 12′ x 7′ space with a "cellie", as my cellmate is called. Our cell has a bunk bed; I have the top bunk. It is narrow, about 28 inches wide, and six and half feet long. I bound out of bed and head to the inmate "computer room". I am always the first one there at 5:45 am, but the computers begin to operate at 6 am. The only function of the keyboard is to type; the control and alt functions do not have any purpose on the keyboard. As the Bureau of Prisons screens all emails, they have to hire an army of censors and reviewers to review all emails inbound and outbound. Therefore they charge me $3.50 an hour to use the Corrlinks Inmate email service. I use the email 3 to 4 hours a day! I am allowed 30 contacts maximum. I have my lawyers, my dear wife, most of my close friends like Dana, Jeremiah and Jacob, your mom, my sister, Tommy Chong, and more activist friends among my 30 email contacts.

 

Each night you send me a lovely note describing what you did that day, and I see it first thing at 6:00 am as the email program kicks into gear. I love reading about your previous wonderful, challenging busy day. It used to be my life too, before my principles and activism got me put in this grim place. The way you write in detail of your decisions, your worries, your interviews, our supporters, the political situation, the sit-ins and MP office occupations, and, of course, your deep abiding love for me, both relieves me and saddens me. Last week was the most challenging week for me so far. I cried many, many times uncontrollably when I read your notes and wrote to you. Tears streamed down my face on probably six occasions, and then once the tears rolled out, my nose runs too… Normally I can cope with this estrangement, this terrible ache in my heart, always missing you in this alien place where I am the "criminal alien" (more about that term later), but sometimes it becomes emotionally difficult.

 

On Friday night (July 23rd) five inmates came over to my cell and asked what the matter was. I said, “it’s my 4th wedding anniversary and I’m so missing my wife. She’s everything to me," I told them, "and the thought of years without her is just too much to bear". I then started to cry again – I couldn’t help it – right in front of them. Then the unexpected happened. Each one added, "I’ve certainly been there, it’s okay to cry." My cellie said, "I was crying last night, didn’t you notice?" I said, no, I hadn’t. "I pulled my hat over my eyes and turned up the radio,” he said. “I was just sobbing." A big fellow named Kodiak (after the big bear), whose job before here was "collections", let’s say, added, "I’ve cried many nights here, we all have". All of them chimed in with their stories of many times crying. An African-American inmate came by and spoke to me at length in a most profound way, saying, "I wish I had someone who cared for me as much as your wife cares for you, I’d be so grateful to cry because I miss her. If you can cry, if you can keep your humanity, then when you get out of here, you’ll still be a human being. If you get hardened, and you lose that humanity, and lose that part of yourself that is real, that is of the real world, then prison has defeated you. When we get hardened by this awful place, we lose as human beings. I sure wish I had someone to cry over. Be grateful you aren’t on the phone screaming, ‘You dirty bitch!’ after you find she’s had sex with your brother or best friend, like my woman did". It’s true, Jodie would never be unfaithful. And indeed, all of my fellow inmates were in more sad situations than I, and I was grateful they all took some moments to reassure that all is normal and I’ll get through it. No one held it against me that I cried, and I was thankful for such kindness in unexpected places.

 

After the email program comes on, I am on that until 6:40 am when it’s morning lock-up. Normally breakfast is at 6:00 am, usually milk, an orange, and cereal (like corn flakes) or porridge. I pass on breakfast so I can read emails from Jodie and my friends from 6 am to 6:40 am. Then we are locked in our cells from 6:40 am to 8:00 am. I got back to sleep in this period, and when our cell door is unlocked at 8 am, I go out to the showers that are available from 8 am to 10 am (and also 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm, and 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm). By 8:30 am, I’m showered and shaved, in clean clothes. We get all our kit of clothes washed on Tuesdays: 7 pairs of underwear, 7 pairs of socks, 6 t-shirts, 3 smocks, and 3 trousers. The socks and t-shirt are pale pink/salmon coloured, the trousers and smock are khaki. I have one pair of white socks and a brown t-shirt, which I wear as my dress clothes for your visits, as I did today! I hope the 5 photographs we took when you visited me on the 4th of July come back in the next week, and I will send them to you so you can remember what I look like when I am in my "Sunday best" clothes. I am looking forward to seeing those photos myself; they should be back any day now!

 

For the rest of the day I read and write. I get 3 newspapers daily – the NY Times, The Seattle Times and USA Today – so I read them and stay well informed. I have 9 magazine subscriptions: Reason, The Atlantic, National Geographic, Harper’s, Mother Jones, Rolling Stone, The Economist, and MacLean’s. I enjoy MacLean’s because even though they can be jingoistic police-loving Conservative-Party fascist sympathizers, it’s nice to get a round up of all things Canadian. When my MacLean’s subscription started, I was in solitary confinement, and I was so desperate for reading material, I was grateful the subscription had started. I got to page 12 of the June 24 edition and was reading about Alanis Morrisette’s wedding, the new prime Minister of Japan, and lo & behold, I was the next item. Yes, indeed, I was in solitary reading about me being put in solitary. A nice little moment that put a smile on me in that grueling 21-day punishment (June 4 to 24). In fact, today is a special day because I got my phone access restored! Along with being put in solitary for 21 days, I lost all email, phone, and commissary privileges – in fact, all privileges. You can’t even get a visitor or a phone call to your lawyer while you are in solitary. You get indifference and 24 hour lock-up. Thank goodness I had a radio and earphones to make it bearable, but barely so (listening to music and radio ads takes up some time, but I had 24 hours of isolation every day to get through). But after 52 days without phone privileges, my phone access is on again, starting today. I called Jodie right away and woke her up! You get 300 minutes each month maximum. Calling a Vancouver number is 35 cents a minute. Normally that’s 10 minutes a day, but the days when Jodie visits (8 times a month), I don’t call her, so its just about 15 minutes each of the other 22 days a month. Today is an exception, as it’s the day after our anniversary and I haven’t used the phone for 52 days, so I’m excited. I’m going to splurge and call her for 15 minutes tonight!

 

Along with my newspapers and magazine subscriptions, I get letters from supporters. When Jodie’s evocative blogs spoke about my struggles dealing with solitary confinement, I received up to 30 letters a day, peaking on June 28 (I got out by then) at 45 letters that one day. Now it’s about 7 letters a day. But I wrote back to each and every serious thought-out letter of support. In the last 30 days I have written 165 thorough handwritten substantive letters to correspondents, and I still have about 85 to catch up on. A University class of 40 students has even written me 40 individual letters with each having attached a photograph of themselves to it, sent from the Critical Thinking project at Sannasastra University in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia. I’m trying to get to one student every day and explain to them what I am doing here, why my cause is just, and what I believe. They all write in charming English, as my language is their second language, after Khmer.

Send Marc a letter! Get the address at www.CannabisCulture.com/SendMarcMail

I write 5-7 letters daily and sent out. Then I have books to read. I have enough books so I don’t require any more for now! I’m at page 300 of Christopher Hitchens’ Memoir “Hitch-22”, a very erudite and delightful book from the contrarian current events commentator, formerly of England, now an American based in Washington DC. It’s very good and charmingly written. I’m halfway through “The Armageddon Factor” by Marci McDonald. This is a book about the Christian fundamentalists and their very successful attempt to co-opt and takeover the Conservative Party of Canada. Even Stephen Harper, Canada’s bloodless and ice-cold Prime Minister –whose 2009 press secretary Kory Teneycke implied he hoped I got raped in the showers while in prison in the USA – is claimed to be "born-again". If you are known by the company you keep, the Prime Minister and the former press secretary are opportunistic sanctimonious religious scumbags of the worst sort. I know Christopher Hitchens (also author of “God Is Not Great”, which I also have here and must start soon) would approve of that assessment. Speaking of our Prime Minister, how come his wife has an affair with an RCMP officer assigned to her security detail, and no one in the press reports it? If the Prime Minister is getting "high with a little helps from his friends" like cocaine party-boy Rahim Jaffer, and the 37-years-married Minister of the Public Safety Vic Toews impregnated his 18-year old assistant, and Mrs. Harper is boinking an RCMP officer and not living with her husband, what is all this talk of Conservative party family values? Go figure!

 

I’m also reading “To Kill A Mockingbird”, and although it’s nicely written, it’s slow to get going. I still don’t know what it’s about yet, after 50 pages, other than people of Alabama in the ‘30s were poor and often ignorant, but sometimes not. So far, no conflicts have been introduced, and having long ago seen the movie with Gregory Peck, I know that eventually some innocent person gets accused of something heinous at some point. Boo Radley has to figure in with the heinous crime because these kids stalk him for the first 50 pages. Still to read is Robert Crumb’s “Illustrated Book of Genesis”, Alan Moore’s “Swamp Thing” and Top 10 graphic novels, along with “Tom Gordon Volume 2”. I am at page 300 of Taylor Branch’s excellent history of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the struggle for civil rights from 1954-1968; the first volume, at 1,000 pages, called “Parting The Waves”. So I am in the midst of 4 books with many others in the on-deck circle.

 

This keeps me busy all day until we are locked in our cells at 9:40 pm. From that time on my cellie and I have some serious discussions about life, our wives, our dreams (of getting the hell out of here), our families, and our thoughts, and I often write letters and he reads. At 11 pm, he has usually fallen sound asleep and I read one of my books with a little battery-powered book light bought from the commissary.

 

Occasionally I play dominoes with my friend Robert, a 62-year-old African-American Vietnam veteran. I am also part way through writing a biography of Robert’s time in Vietnam and his youth from age 14-18 in West Philadelphia. I have taken many notes about his year in Nha-Trang in South Vietnam and his teenage years from 14-18 leading up to it. He lived a few blocks from where American Bandstand was broadcast, and even went there and danced. The Philly group The Delfonics used to practice on the streets of West Philly when Robert was 15, 16, 17, just before he shipped out in 1967, the same year The Delfonics got big on the R&B charts. The Delfonics were used extensively in the Quentin Tarantino film soundtrack for Jackie Brown. I’m hoping to get seriously to work on his story this week; all my background interviews and research are done. I have drawn a detailed map of his immediate neighbourhood he grew up in with every store, newsstand, pool hall, EL Train station, and building represented. I want to see if I can bring his childhood ghetto to life in my writing, and convey the drama and chaos and fear in a young 18-year-old soldier in the throes of the Vietnam War. This era of 1966 West Philadelphia is also the setting for a four-season-run half-hour NBC drama series, now re-run in syndication, called American Dreams. (2002-2005)

 

Typically though, I don’t take much time for amusements, I never watch TV and since out of solitary, don’t listen to the radio, although there is an excellent World News Report station here, 91.7 FM, that features hour long blocks of programming from CBC Canada, BBC, Radio Australia, National Public Radio (NPR), Radio Russia and other world radio services. The last time I listened to CBC was two weeks ago to hear anthropologist Wade Davis deliver his one-hour 2009 Massey Lecture called “The Wayfinders: What Ancient Wisdom Holds For Modern Society.” Davis is brilliant, and while he spoke, I said to myself, “I’ve heard this before,” and indeed I had – both Wade Davis and I spoke at IDEA CITY in Toronto in 2003, and he was a featured speaker a few hours after I was. That day his speech was the same subject, but only 20 minutes long, so by 2009 he had fleshed it out to an hour for the Massey Lectures. It was a nice moment when I realized I was granted similar status as the great Wade Davis for one afternoon in 2003, as well as the many great individuals who attend IDEA CITY every year. Davis originally hails from Vancouver, and may still call it home, but teaches at Harvard.

 

So my day stretches from 5:45 am to 1 am when I turn off my book light, and by then my eyes are weary and I’m exhausted, so I fall easily to sleep.

 

 

 

I’ve been keeping myself very busy since being let out of solitary confinement on June 24th. I have many books, magazine and newspaper subscriptions, and letters to keep me occupied, so the days sometimes fly by as I read and write back to people.

 

Inmates here who have family come visit from out-of-state are allowed to apply for extended visits, of 3 to 5 hours (visits are normally 2 hours long). It took a while for me to get a response from my application to have Jodie get extended visits, since she comes from out-of-country, but I finally got a response on July 14th; I can have an extended 5-hour visit with Jodie one day every month, but only if I don’t have any other visits for the rest of the month. Well, I’ll certainly take two two-hour visits every week instead of one 5-hour visit a month!

 

One day, the C.O. (correctional officer) on our range was sarcastic about all my mail. I came to his office in the middle of the range and asked him a question, and he said "You’ve got no time for that, you’d better get to all your mail and deal with that." He had to make four trips delivering it all to my cell: first the batch of newspapers, then the magazines, then two trips with ExpressPost envelopes and then regular letter mail. He later came to my cell and said, "Emery, do I look like your mailman? Do I? Tell all your people they can only send you letters on Saturdays." I said, "Yes, sir". There was a long pause, then he said, "Emery, I’m messin’ with ya’!" Well, they certainly can "mess with" inmates, because we’re under their authority in here.

 

I was showing an artistic inmate some of the photos of Jodie and I together for him to draw. He decided to draw a picture of us smiling at the camera in the sunlight at a rocky beach in Vancouver, with the caption "Fun in the sun at Acadia Beach". In the final drawing the inmate did, I look way too young; he took my age lines out, but I actually like how I look at 51 years old in that photo (it’s from last year; I’m 52 now). The C.O. who joked he was messing with me over being "my mailman" saw the drawing and asked me, "Is Acadia Beach a nude beach?" I explained about Wreck & Acadia being the two clothing optional beaches in Vancouver, one immensely popular (Wreck) and the other very small and private. He said he went to a nude beach in Spain, which he very much liked. So, conversations with a C.O. can range quite widely here.

 

Jodie’s wonderful love for me and activism has opened up my supporter base of family folks, children, grandparents, especially mothers – a great many letters to me are from women, mostly mothers with children, who admire me and Jodie and find common ground with us. That’s very good to read! Only a minority of letters are from "stoners". I have 8 pictures of families with kids, so people obviously feel I am a representative for their children, to bring about a world of peace and liberty so they can grow up in safety and freedom. It’s darn flattering people think of me as their representative for their rights and the good cause, so I really appreciate that, possibly more than any other accolade.

 

On June 20th, the Sunday edition of the Calgary Herald ran a full-sized FREE MARC logo on the front page of section 3, with the article from the LA Times taking up a whole page inside. It was incredible! Wowzer! That blew my mind. The inmates loved it here; they started a "Free Marc and his friends!" chant, and I had to shoosh them! I’m so pleased with the clipping I received of it. That’s prime media space we could never afford to purchase.

 

These two guys in Newfoundland, Colin and his dad Terry, have printed up 5" x 8" maxi-cards with the FREE MARC logo on one side and GOOGLE MARC EMERY on the other side. Colin said that hearing I was in solitary made him angry, so he printed up 1,000 cards that he puts in "price holders" on the shelves of supermarkets and stores. He made 250 fridge magnets of the FREE MARC logo, 1,000 giant postcards that he puts in peoples mailboxes as he walks down various streets in St. John’s (I spoke there at Bannerman Park on my Farewell Tour with Jodie last year), and 6 giant outdoor FREE MARC EMERY and GOOGLE MARC EMERY outdoor banners. They put the Free Marc fridge magnets on restaurant fridges and even made giant magnet images (12" wide!) for the sides of cars and fast food restaurant drive-thru signs. They’re quite excited to help out, and wow, that is some serious Newfie activism going on!

 

On July 1st, we got locked down and had a surprise inspection of everyone’s cell (which has happened a few times since). The whole morning was taken up with that, a lot of C.O.’s going from cell to cell and looking through everything, while we were all in the gym area waiting for them to finish. Any rule you broke you were reprimanded or lost something; I was told my cell was very good (clean, no contraband), so nothing happened to me.

 

It was really hot in the prison in early July, but they fixed the air conditioning so now it’s not nearly so overwhelming. With no fresh air and limited air circulation, it’s good to have the AC on when the summer heat hits. They also fixed the ice machine, so I can cool down the water I drink. I never have soda pop or any juices, because everything except water makes you thirstier!

 

Here is our daily prison routine:

 

5:40 am: Cells unlocked

6:00 am: Breakfast, free range time*

6:45 am – 7:30 am: Lockdown

7:30 am: Cells unlocked, free range time

10:45 am – 11:15 am: Lunch

11:15 am – 11:45 am: Out of bounds**

11:45 am – 12:30 pm: Free range time

12:30 pm – 1:15 pm: Lockdown

1:15 pm – 3:30 pm: Free range time

3:30 pm – 4:30 pm: Lockdown

4:30 pm – 5:00 pm: Dinner

5:00 pm – 5:30 pm: Out of bounds*

5:30 pm – 9:40 pm: Free range time

9:40 pm: Lockdown

 

 

I did my Pre-Sentencing Interview on July 6th. The lady from Court Services came by with my lawyer Troberman, and asked me questions about my past. None of it involved the actual "crime" of selling seeds, it’s just background information like family, addresses where I lived, my siblings, my criminal record, my history of (non-)drug use, my education, my income, etc. Pretty dull stuff really. I thought it was all about what I did and why I did it, but it was so she can prepare a report for the court at my sentencing hearing on September 10th. I can’t imagine it being controversial or even that interesting. It’s boring because I own very little, have massive debts, my family is "ordinary", I haven’t got a big criminal record – there’s nothing very interesting about it on those levels.

 

I wrote a letter to my childhood best friend Roy, but instead of telling him about this place in a straightforward way, I wrote a funny sarcastic review as though it were a bad hotel with the worst shopping and restaurant service. I raved about the "21 day all non-inclusive Special Housing Unit" for a spa, and "the clothing store where you can buy the exact same style as everyone else". After a lot of mockery I ended with, "The motto of New Hampshire is ‘Live Free or Die’. Apparently ‘Live Free or Die’ is on the state license plates. In unsurpassable irony, the license plates are made by prisoners at the state prison in Corcord, New Hampshire. I guess the state motto isn’t worth the license plates they are printed on." Writing about this place in the form of a package-tour holiday from Hell might be a fun idea. Sections like "Vitamin D is over-rated", "Special Housing Units: because you’re Special", "The Sea-Tac Slim-fast diet… as seen on Oprah", "We’re Known by the Company We Keep", "Playful Supervisors Keep the Fun & Games Going 24/7", etc. I think its got endless potential!

 

Jodie wrote in her July 5th blog about our visits on July 2nd and 4th. On the 4th we got to have photos taken together. I bought five photo tickets, so we were able to get five pictures of us in the visiting room, which I’ll send to Jodie once they arrive (it takes 3 weeks, they say). On the 2nd, I had to take a drug "breathalyzer" test before my visit. I got through 52 years of my life to get to my first drug test! It felt kind of accomplished to blow 0.00. It’s strange though, because I’m not sure how it would detect anything, or how any inmates can possibly get drugs – I haven’t seen any here, and it’s maximum security, so I don’t know how anything could get in.

 

I was sent a transcript of Jodie’s speech at the Cannabis Day rally in Vancouver on July 1st. Cannabis Day is our celebration on Canada Day, and it’s been happening since 1996 at the Art Gallery downtown. Between 5,000 and 10,000 people take part, with music and speakers, tents and booths selling pipes, bongs, and every type of cannabis and cannabis-infused product imaginable. It’s always a wonderful time! This was the first major marijuana event in Vancouver that I was not part of, but my wife did an incredible speech in my absence. I wrote to Jodie, "I hope many, people see that barn-burner of a speech on YouTube.com/PotTVNetwork. I hope that is put on CC home page right away. Promote that heavily on Facebook & MySpace. Put ‘Marc Emery says Mrs. Emery is a wonderful speaker, and this is a beautiful, touching, urgent, loving speech to all Canadians and the Canadian Cannabis Culture.’ Way to show me how it’s done, Mrs. Emery. This is a good one, you do 5 minutes better than anyone I know, including me. You are incredible!"

 

Jodie will be speaking at Seattle Hempfest this year on August 21st and 22nd, just as she did last year. It will be interesting for me to be so close to the biggest marijuana and hemp event in the world, but while locked up in prison; I’ve never even been to Seattle Hempfest. Jodie will visit me on Friday the 20th, and again in the morning on Sunday the 22nd, so she’ll be able to tell everyone there that she’s seen me and spoken to me that very weekend!

 

Commissary arrives every Wednesday, along with laundry. Every week we get our commissary form to fill out, and I buy stamps, envelopes, writing paper, and any snacks I want to get, like tuna packs and trail mix nuts. I’ve bought a variety of spices, garlic sauce, other sauces, so I’ve been zesting up the food we’re served. I never eat chips or chocolate, because junk food makes me feel uneasy. Mondays are always a good day because mail comes, and a flood of newspapers from the weekend (Jodie has me subscribed to the New York Times, the Seattle Times, and USA Today). I get fantastic reprints from our wonderful friend and activist supporter Chris Goodwin in Toronto. He sends me these amazing dense printouts with hundreds of neat facts and trivia that are like 200 lines of pure information, and several pages of it. I find them mesmerizing. If I were to go on Jeopardy, they’d be just the thing to read in the warm-up room. That’s what they need here: Inmate Jeopardy, and if you win, you get 6 months off your sentence. That’s a bankable idea!

 

I’m reading "Hitch 22" by Christopher Hitchens, after finishing "The Armageddon Factor" about Canada’s evangelical Christian government and how the fanatical religious right has infiltrated our Canadian media and legal system. Hitch-22 is a beautifully written memoir; his charm and wonderful use of the English language is very entertaining, seductive and inspiring. He is so clever and "charming" keeps coming to mind. I’d certainly love to have dinner with the guy, that’s my first and constant impression. You just love every sentence this guy writes. The Armageddon Factor is revealing and informative, but I don’t think we have reason to fear (Jodie is always very anxious and worried about it) – we just have to demonize Prime Minister Harper & His Band of Punishment Freaks appropriately at all opportunities. Harper is cold as ice. He’s a lot like Nixon, a lot of getting back at enemies, revenge and punishment; he has no friends, and power/manipulation is his only lust. His wife isn’t living with him anymore after having an affair with an RCMP officer, because he doesn’t care about sex, love, friends – only power over others. He is full of hate. He has no joy in life other than seeing his enemies flail. Nixon was the exact same. Both have and had contempt for virtually any free thinker. We absolutely must get rid of the Harper Conservative government in Canada.

 

Another book I just received is "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colourblindness". A number of the black inmates want to read it after I’m done. It’s all about how blacks make up a huge proportion of incarcerated drug offenders. Chris Goodwin sent me a lot of poetry from a book of black poets, lots of Tupac, Black Panther stuff, so the African-American guys think I am different, obviously, from the usual white inmate. One fellow is getting me to read his urban autobiographical work of ‘fiction’ he’s writing. More of them are calling me Prince without sarcasm, and one guy put me in his cool rap song. My "cellie" (cell mate) says all his kids and and their friends are super impressed I’m his cell mate; they all know of me, he says. Many inmates have family and friends who are fans of my work and excited to be able to say their friend or husband/boyfriend/brother is imprisoned with me. Even visitors have recognized Jodie and are eager to share their stories about how they know of us.

 

I hope my supporters are continuing their efforts to end prohibition and free all the peaceful, non-violent drug war prisoners. As I have said before, as far back as 2004, "Let my incarceration galvanize you to action". And remember, one person can undo the evil of several thousand people. You should never underestimate your power. Plant the Seeds of Freedom and Overgrow the Government!

 

At 6:00pm on Thursday, June 24th, I was finally released from solitary confinement after three weeks of isolation.

The Disciplinary Hearing Officer was very gracious (in so much as I was in solitary for 21 days) and agreed that the phone use infraction – the podcast to supporters that was never released – was minor in the big picture. He made it a "397" which involves no loss of good time (the discount of 15% a year on my sentence). He also said "Everyone here knows you are famous and it was a shout-out to your supporters that was not harmful, and we know you didn’t criticize the Federal Detention Centre, but you can’t do third-party political lobbying over the phone." So lesson learned. I don’t have phone access until July 25th, but at least I can "email" Jodie through CorrLinks and have visits in person, instead of the cruel "video visits" they’ve recently designated for inmates in solitary confinement.

The staff here are acknowledging me more than before as a "famous" person of repute. I was always friendly and polite to the guards, never hostile, angry or sarcastic. I always said "thank you" when they brought me food or un-handcuffed me. Eventually they said, "you’re welcome" in response. 21 days in the hole toughened me up, made me appreciate things. I have no interest in anger, defiance or protest from within these prison walls. I was totally polite and along with the program all my time in solitary. I am not interested in breaking rules or causing trouble in here. I’m just so relieved not to be in the torturous SHU unit. That’s plain mind-bending, being in isolation…

I received 30 letters on Thursday, and 28 the day before. There are some heartfelt ones I will respond to when I get more stamps. On Friday I got 35 letters – I’m very grateful that people are writing to me, and I will spend time writing back to as many as possible. I was under incredible strain and mental duress for those 21 days in "the hole", but now I am swamped with work once again: so many letters to respond to, all of books to read now that I have access to them again, and many ideas to develop. I couldn’t sleep my first night back in general population, unit DB, "Delta Bravo". I ate a huge lunch Friday! Other inmates gave me their extra salad and salsa, and I ate everything they poured on my tray. I could tell they were thinking, "Look at him eat, holy Jeezus!" I lost 15 pounds or so since I’ve been imprisoned, but I’m eating more now that I’m out of isolation and have access to bigger food servings.

One interesting thing happened in solitary on Monday June 21st, when the first MacLean’s magazine of my subscription arrived (thankfully I was able to get newspapers and magazines, but they ultimately took up very little of the constant 24-hour deprivation each day). I devoured the whole issue in one day and, as I was reading about the new prime minister of Japan and Alannis Morrisette’s wedding and other news items on page 12, I came across a news blurb about me being put in solitary confinement – which I read as I sat right there in solitary confinement! That made my day, knowing that people are still following my story. Same with the June 13th issue of the Seattle Times; I got that and, wow, a full page about me! The Disciplinary Hearing Officer said, "everyone here knows you are famous," and indeed they do know. That’s probably what created the crisis; they really didn’t know what to do with me. They ended up boosting my reputation and the FREE MARC campaign in a way that would otherwise not have happened. 21 days in solitary is near torture for any ordinary innocent human being.

In newspapers, I saw photos of how Toronto looked leading up to the G8 and G20 security. They make Toronto look so ugly with all those fences and para-military. It’s insane to spend $1 billion on "security", and scares away tourists. These meetings accomplish nothing. How come with all those cops in Toronto can’t stop the one thing they are supposed to do, and prevent street mayhem and disorder? I mean, there must be cameras everywhere, surely the cops could move in and arrest these hooligans – unless, as many suspect, the "Black Bloc" vandals are really cops acting as agent provocateurs. But even then, if it’s cops, it still shows that for $1 billion they still can’t stop or deter street disorder, so they may as well have not spent any money at all. Either scenario undermines the rationale for spending $1 billion on security.

Jodie has been sending me news stories about the blatant police abuse and assaults in Toronto. The police seem to go crazy at these G20 or G8 events. I’m sort of glad that journalists and media were scooped up so perhaps people can see what Canada is like in Harper-vision. I sure hope Canadians are very disturbed and will punish the Conservative Party in the next election by supporting and voting for the candidates who can unseat the Conservative members of Parliament. The Conservatives are at new lows in the polls of 30%, and the Greens at 12.5% (which is close to the vote they got in the last election, yet they unfairly did not get any seats – what a "democracy"!). Let’s have an election, for goodness sakes! The speculation that the Liberals & Conservatives form a coalition is absurd. The Liberals can govern fine with the NDP in a coalition with the support of the Bloc. The Conservatives have burned those bridges by playing so dirty the last 4 years.

My cellmate likes to read late, which is good since I also have a lot of reading and writing to do. It may be possible to get my own cell, because a large number of inmates currently here are being shipped out next week. The only thing is, I would likely get a cell mate eventually, and my cell mate now is probably as good as you could get for a "cellie" (as they’re called), so I’m not sure that’s preferable in the longer run.

When lunch was served on Saturday, I was very hungry. They haven’t made my diet "no flesh" (vegetarian) yet, as they haven’t transferred instructions from SHU (Segregated Housing Unit, "the hole"). Lunch was chicken and potatoes and mixed frozen-type vegetables. I saw from the return trays most people left various parts, as the quality is very poor, but I devoured it all: threw all those mixed vegetables in, added the potatoes, stripped the chicken off the bones, added the gravy, and ate that down like a starving African. I would have eaten the other guy’s meal, too! Go to solitary for 3 weeks and you don’t complain about food much after that. You can’t wait for mealtime. I actually had an apple on Sunday (it was a Red Delicious; in solitary you just got unripe Granny Smith apples) and banana Saturday; any fruit is definitely appreciated. My stomach had shrunk from the reduction in food volume while in "the hole".

On July 4th, Independence Day here in the USA, Jodie is coming to visit and we’ll be able to have a photo taken together! She’s coming for the weekend, which she will hopefully do every weekend with the generous support of fans and friends. So we get to see each other on Friday the 2nd and Sunday the 4th (visits are only allowed every other day). I found out that inmates who have family come from out of state are able to apply for extended visits once a month, so instead of 2 hours per visit, which is the time limit, Jodie and I can spend 3 or 4 hours together each day for one weekend each month! On July 16th and 18th she’ll come see me and we’ll get up to 7 hours of holding hands and talking. Even though visits take place in a very large, crowded and noisy, guarded room, it’s priceless to hold my wife’s beautiful hands and look into her loving eyes and hear her voice. I know she feels the same way!

I have to get back into writing Robert’s life story (the African-American senior Vietnam draft veteran I wrote about in my earlier blog posts), but first I’m going to write letters to the fans who wrote me. I will get a staggering amount of mail on Monday June 28th, probably over 50 letters, plus 8 newspapers (from the weekend backlog) and a few magazines, so I’m busier now than I was at the beginning. Robert’s story is going to be really good though, so I’ll have to commit to 1-2 hours a day to that by Wednesday. My old cellmate here, the Iranian Jew/Canadian who’s got an odd and unjust case, is not nearly as happy with his other cellmates. He liked having my intense cross-examinations, which all my cellmates here and in Canada do – people rightly regard my interest as caring. I help them analyze their lives and address the problems that led to their imprisonment. It’s clear I want nothing from them and I’m not a criminal, so they are always eager to download their life stories and listen to my advice.

Ending up in solitary is being blamed on Nicholson and the Prime Minister, as though torturing me in a US prison was what they had in mind all along. That has turned out to be more than they anticipated. I heard about how Nicholson has hired private personal security (on the taxpayer’s dime, of course) for "undisclosed" reasons, though the news article mentioned he has been running away from any FREE MARC activists and signs. My supporters are not dangerous or threatening – it’s free speech and exposure of his cruelty that Nicholson truly fears. The L.A. Times article really helped boost my US support, and the libertarian and anti-prohibitionist media are using me to ratchet up the campaign to repeal prohibition, which is exactly what I want from my imprisonment. Let my incarceration not be in vain; let it galvanize you to action!

Free from isolation, but still a prisoner in a maximum security facility as I await my sentencing in the US federal system… Marc Emery #40252-086

– Blog posts are compiled and posted by Marc’s wife Jodie Emery