Marc Emery: The Prince of Pot:
Marc Emery, the legendary man the world has come to know of as the “Prince of Pot,” has an undisputed record of selling the most marijuana seeds worldwide.
He is a strong believer in the healing powers of marijuana and is totally against it being illegal. Many of his loyal fans see him as pioneering the movement towards legalizing marijuana.
Living in Vancouver where the use of marijuana is more acceptable, he was able to operate his business with little to no interference from the Canadian government. However, Emery’s experience with the United States has been quite different. DEA officials desperately wanted him in prison in America. He is no hero to the U.S. government. They consider him a drug lord that needed to be locked away for his role in selling drugs to the American people. Emery claims that more than half of his customers have been American.
The U.S. government sees him as nothing other than a drug dealer violating their laws. Eventually, they got exactly what they wanted, and in 2009 Emery was sentenced to 5 years in a U.S. prison for his involvement in selling cannabis seeds into the United States. Later, on March 8, 2017, Marc and his wife Jodie were arrested at Pearson International Airport and face charges such as possession, trafficking, and conspiracy to commit an indictable offense.
Emery’s Early Life
Mar Emery born in Canada, February 13, 1958, has always had quite the entrepreneurial spirit. He started his own business which he conducted in his parents’ home at the early age of 9. His business was called Stamp Treasure, and he bought and sold stamps by mail order.
Using the money he earned from Stamp Treasure, Emery was able to start another business selling used comic books making around $120 every week.
Emery’s Early Life – Image powered by Thestar.com
Emery continued this until his high school career when he dropped out to pursue a fulltime life as an entrepreneur. At age 17 he purchased a used bookstore in downtown London, Ontario named City Lights Bookshop. His business had a good 17 year run before he sold it in 1992.
During the 1979 federal election, Emery worked on the New Democratic Party’s campaign in London. He stood up for business owners fighting for better security to help protect their stores and held police accountable for their response times in certain areas. In 1980 he ran for the Libertarian Party of Canada achieving 197 votes placing him fourth in London East.
Career as an Advocate
Emery is more than just a leader for marijuana advocates. His career in advocacy included supporting merchant’s ability to sell pornography, helping business owners feel safer and breaking Sunday shopping laws in his bookstore to keeping his staff well employed. He has over 30 years’ experience as an advocate.
There have been many documentaries that featured him over the years. He is the man behind Cannabis Culture Magazine and the PotTV channel. Citizen Marc: The Adventures of Marc Emery is a play written about his life in 2006. This is one of the best depictions of what he has spent most of his life fighting for. His role in marijuana advocacy has led many to sing his praises and view him as a hero.
Career as an Advocate – Image powered by Montrealgazette.com
He was responsible for leading an urgent, volunteer garbage pickup during the London, Ontario city workers strike. Emery had no issue breaking the Sunday shopping laws by keeping his bookstore open during that time. This, of course, got him in a little trouble. Even when the laws changed to allow stores to remain open only with a few employees, this still was not enough for Emery. He made it a point to overstaff his store.
It became very clear early on that he is more than happy to risk time in jail to stand up for what he thought was right.
Marijuana Advocacy
In 1994, Emery moved to Vancouver, B.C. and opened a store he named Hemp BC. This store took the underground cannabis paraphernalia industry to the next level in Canada. Emery sold a large amount of wholesale pipes and bongs, which is illegal in Canada, and actively inspired others to open Hemp stores as well.
This fearless advocate convinced an Ontario judge to nullify the Canadian prohibition on marijuana and drug-related literature which allowed marijuana grow books and High Times Magazine to be sold in Canada. In late 1994, Emery took his marijuana movement further by selling cannabis seeds. Soon he had his own magazine which was later called, Cannabis Culture Magazine.
Marijuana Advocacy – Image powered by Bbc.com
The city of Vancouver revoked the license for Hemp BC in 1998 after a few incidents of the police raiding his store and being charged with selling marijuana seeds and related items. At this time, Emery was making headway in the media with his channel Pot TV gaining popularity.
Over the course of several years, Emery paid as much as $600,000 in taxes as a marijuana seed vendor.
According to Emery, he played a major role in supporting all pro-marijuana endeavor in North America, which included spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on the Canadian, Vancouver and B.C., Marijuana Party campaigns.
Politics
Emery joined the Marijuana Party of Canada that stood for making marijuana completely legal. He joined forces with a few others to start and eventually lead the British Columbia Marijuana Party.
Politics – Image powered by Vancouversun.com
He went on to finish 5th as a Marijuana Party candidate in the Canadian House of Commons 2000 federal election. In 2005, he ran for the British Columbia Marijuana in Aldergrove but unfortunately did not succeed.
To top the cake, Emery attempted to run for mayor of Vancouver in 2008. In 2016 he was very supportive and endorsed Maxime Bernier’s nomination for the leadership of the federal Conservative Party.
Trafficking Conviction, Arrest and Jailed in the U.S.
While Emery was in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, someone claimed to see him smoking a joint which led to him being sentenced to 92 days in jail. His loyal fans set up a vigil outside the courthouse that lasted until he was released.
The DEA’s ongoing obsession with arresting Emery for his involvement in drug trafficking in the U.S. lead to the Canadian police raiding the BC Marijuana Party Bookstore in Vancouver and his arrest for extradition while he was in Nova Scotia. Several people on his team were charged with conspiracy to distribute marijuana seeds, marijuana, and money laundering. However, the Canadian government had no interest in placing charges despite the fact that this all occurred in Canada.
Emery and everyone charged all faced 10 plus years imprisonment in the United States if they were convicted. The plea bargain was for Emery to serve 5 years in both a Canadian and U.S. prison. However, this did not work due to the Canadian government not agreeing to follow through with this. In 2008, Emery decided to accept a guilty plea to drug distribution and would serve 5 years in a U.S. prison. In 2010, he was officially sentenced to 5 years imprisonment.
After serving his sentence, he was released in July 2014.
Trafficking Conviction, Arrest and Jailed in the U.S. – Image powered by Marijuana.com
Emery did not escape trouble with the law for long. Even though it is still illegal to sell marijuana in Canada, Marc and his wife, Jodie opened several Cannabis Culture marijuana locations in Montreal, Quebec. Emery believed that this was his way of gracefully opposing Canadian marijuana laws. On December 16, 2016, his stores were raided, and he, his wife and 10 other people were arrested at some of the locations.
Jodie was released that night, and Marc was allowed to go the next day. As usual, this did not stop Emery from working towards his goals of opening dispensaries all over Canada. As soon as he was released his next move was to open more dispensaries in Ottawa and Hamilton.
In March 2017, both Marc and Jodie were arrested once more at Toronto Pearson International Airport. Emery is now facing 15 charges that include trafficking, possession of proceeds of crime and conspiracy to commit an indictable offense.
After his arrest, five dispensaries were shut down.
The police confiscated about $250,000 from these locations. Cannabis Culture was labeled as being linked to organized crime because of a large amount of marijuana these stores contained. Despite all of the allegations and raids, several stores reopened the very next day.
Out on bail a couple of days later, Marc and his wife Jodie were banned to consume or possess marijuana unless they had a prescription. They also had a bar keeping them from being at any of the Cannabis Culture dispensaries, and neither of them could play any role in the shops whatsoever.
There is no doubt that Marc Emery is one of the greatest pioneers of the marijuana legalization movement and his unwavering, fearless commitment has greatly inspired many. Marc and Jodie’s supporters stood by them 100% of the time. His wife’s undying support has by far helped his journey. His desire is for the government to collect their taxes and allow them to continue to grow, sell and distribute marijuana effectively as they have been doing without trying to change the industry.
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