With Marc Emery, B.C.’s leading marijuana activist, expected to receive a five-year jail sentence in the United States this Friday, his wife and fellow activist Jodie Emery is pointing to recent developments in the U.S.A.’s legalized marijuana movement as further evidence of the hypocrisy of the American and Canadian criminal codes.
“Five years after his initial arrest you have California looking to legalize marijuana this fall [and] you have the original prosecutor in his case saying that marijuana should be legalized,” Jodie told Business in Vancouver on Tuesday morning.
Jodie, who is the director of Cannabis Culture magazine and director-at-large for B.C.’s Green Party, also continues to claim that Marc’s arrest, which stemmed from the online sale of pot seeds from Canada into the U.S., was largely politically motivated.
“You have marijuana seed sellers going in and out of the U.S. to trade shows and talking about how many seeds they sell, but they aren’t being arrested or facing any lengthy prison terms.”
In a release Monday, Jodie added that though the Drug Enforcement Administration and the media have reported that Marc “made millions of dollars,” all of the money generated through seed sales was given away to activism groups and events.
“Marc started selling seeds with the explicit goal of funding the marijuana legalization movement, which he did tremendously well, to the tune of $4 million dollars over the decade he was in business,” she said. “He paid his income tax on seed sales, and operated openly and transparently.”
She said that “Free Marc Emery” rallies are being held in up to 60 cities around the world on September 18.
While Marc’s earlier plea bargain will likely result in his receiving a five-year sentence this Friday in a U.S. federal court in Seattle, Jodie Emery is looking to maintain public awareness of his plight in order to have him promptly transferred to a Canadian prison to serve his time.
She said if Emery, who is the leader of the BC Marijuana Party, can return to Canada to serve his sentence, he could be released on full-parole as early as November 2011.