Freaktan
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An extradition hearing for a Canadian marijuana activist known as "the prince of pot," indicted in Seattle on charges that could send him to prison for life, is set to begin Sept. 16.
Marc Emery, 47, and co-defendants Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek and Gregory Keith Smith were in British Columbia Supreme Court on Thursday as a judge set the date.
Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm granted a request from lawyer John Conroy to have $15,000 (US$12,600) of Rainey-Fenkarek's bail returned so she could retain her own lawyer.
Emery, leader of the British Columbia Marijuana Party, is accused of selling pot seeds to U.S. citizens through the Internet and by mail, conspiracy to manufacture marijuana and conspiracy to engage in money laundering.
He, Rainey-Fenkarek and Smith were arrested July 29 after police raided his pot paraphernalia store following an 18-month investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
In an indictment issued in U.S. District Court in Seattle, investigators wrote that three-fourths of Emery's seeds had been sent to the United States and had been linked to illegal marijuana growing in Indiana, Florida, California, Tennessee, Montana, Virginia, Michigan, New Jersey and North Dakota.
Emery called the DEA "a Nazi-like military organization" and said he had been selling marijuana seeds for 11 years, a period in which he said he donated $4 million (US$3.4 million) to various organizations in Canada.
Among the beneficiaries was Jack Layton, national leader of Canada's New Democratic Party, because his Internet-based Pot-tv solicited support for the party, Emery said.
"Everybody took the money, from the income tax departments representing the province and the federal government," he said. "I've never received a written complaint or a phone call in 11 years, and I have a listed phone number.
"So if I get taken away for the rest of my life to a United States prison, then every Canadian has let it happen because they have tacitly and complicitly condoned my behavior."
Selling marijuana seeds is also illegal in Canada, but no one has been arrested for years.
Canada's justice minister, Irwin Cotler, has resisted demands by Emery and other marijuana activists to deny extradition on the grounds of tougher U.S. penalties and enforcement of anti-pot laws.
DEA, Emery said, is "in the business of putting the marijuana culture away in prisons for a long time. As the leader of the marijuana people around the world, they have targeted me, and when I go to the United States - if I am extradited - you will never see me alive in Canada again."
Newshawk: Freaktan (420times.com)
Source: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Copyright: 2005 The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Contact: editpage@seattlepi.com
Website: https://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&slug=CAN Prince of Pot
Author: Staff - The Associated Press
Marc Emery, 47, and co-defendants Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek and Gregory Keith Smith were in British Columbia Supreme Court on Thursday as a judge set the date.
Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm granted a request from lawyer John Conroy to have $15,000 (US$12,600) of Rainey-Fenkarek's bail returned so she could retain her own lawyer.
Emery, leader of the British Columbia Marijuana Party, is accused of selling pot seeds to U.S. citizens through the Internet and by mail, conspiracy to manufacture marijuana and conspiracy to engage in money laundering.
He, Rainey-Fenkarek and Smith were arrested July 29 after police raided his pot paraphernalia store following an 18-month investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
In an indictment issued in U.S. District Court in Seattle, investigators wrote that three-fourths of Emery's seeds had been sent to the United States and had been linked to illegal marijuana growing in Indiana, Florida, California, Tennessee, Montana, Virginia, Michigan, New Jersey and North Dakota.
Emery called the DEA "a Nazi-like military organization" and said he had been selling marijuana seeds for 11 years, a period in which he said he donated $4 million (US$3.4 million) to various organizations in Canada.
Among the beneficiaries was Jack Layton, national leader of Canada's New Democratic Party, because his Internet-based Pot-tv solicited support for the party, Emery said.
"Everybody took the money, from the income tax departments representing the province and the federal government," he said. "I've never received a written complaint or a phone call in 11 years, and I have a listed phone number.
"So if I get taken away for the rest of my life to a United States prison, then every Canadian has let it happen because they have tacitly and complicitly condoned my behavior."
Selling marijuana seeds is also illegal in Canada, but no one has been arrested for years.
Canada's justice minister, Irwin Cotler, has resisted demands by Emery and other marijuana activists to deny extradition on the grounds of tougher U.S. penalties and enforcement of anti-pot laws.
DEA, Emery said, is "in the business of putting the marijuana culture away in prisons for a long time. As the leader of the marijuana people around the world, they have targeted me, and when I go to the United States - if I am extradited - you will never see me alive in Canada again."
Newshawk: Freaktan (420times.com)
Source: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Copyright: 2005 The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Contact: editpage@seattlepi.com
Website: https://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&slug=CAN Prince of Pot
Author: Staff - The Associated Press
