Pubdate: Tue, 18 May 2010
Source: Calgary Sun, The (CN AB)
Copyright: 2010 The Calgary Sun
Contact:  http://www.calgarysun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/67
Author: Jodie Emery

EMERY'S TREATMENT UNJUST

Marc Emery is a Canadian who never went to the U.S., and never grew 
or sold marijuana. He sold only cannabis seeds in Canada, did it 
openly, paid taxes on all income and used the profits to fund 
political activism. Vancouver police tried to have him charged in 
2003, but the Crown declined, so they worked with the Drug 
Enforcement Administration to indict him in the U.S. The DEA press 
release about Marc's July 2005 arrest bragged it was "a significant 
blow to the marijuana legalization movement" because hundreds of 
thousands of dollars of Emery's profits are known to have been 
channelled to marijuana legalization groups in the U.S. and Canada. 
U.S. authorities offered him a plea deal to allow him to serve his 
time in Canada if he was charged here, but the Conservative 
government refused. Marc then agreed to a five-year plea deal in the 
U.S. to avoid a life sentence. The justice minister's decision to 
extradite Marc to the U.S. is unjust. If he broke the law in Canada, 
he should be tried and sentenced in Canada, not sent to a foreign 
country to be punished under much harsher laws.

Jodie Emery

Vancouver

(Emery's made himself poster boy of the legalization movement.)
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom