‘Prince of Pot’ Says Officials Conspiring Against Him
March 27th, 2009 by Rick
Marc Emery, dubbed the “Prince of Pot” by the American media, says he is being run out of Vancouver by the City Hall and the police department. He already has a political campaign office (B.C. Marijuana Party), a magazine (Cannabis Culture) and a retail store based on West Hastings Street in downtown Vancouver, but when it comes to obtaining a license for another business (a convenience store across the street from his other businesses,) he can’t get passed the red tape.
For anyone who’s heard of Marc Emery this news isn’t so surprising. He’s apparently had a target on his back for a while — since the DEA began investigating another business of his — selling marijuana seeds on the Internet. Emery did this for a decade before he was even on the radar of the United States government. If it wasn’t for his marijuana activism, he may have even stayed under the radar.
The U.S. government claims that his seeds are responsible for over 1,000,000 pounds of pot being grown in the United States. Emery is currently fighting extradition to the United States, where he may face a long sentence in a U.S. Federal prison. The only thing with that is, the US can’t extradite a Canadian citizen for political reasons due to a clause within the extradition treaty. With Emery’s “Overgrow the Government” movement and marijuana activism it puts him in a grey area.
It’s curious to note that since zeroing in on Emery, the DEA has had offices opened in Canada, including Vancouver. They claim they have no jurisdiction and are just there in a laison capacity. Could Canada be reversing it’s stance on marijuana? If the DEA is in town, that lax attitude towards marijuana may be replaced with busting down doors and dragging people into jail. If that’s the case the tourism in the Vancouver may just come to a halt. It might become a ghost town if Emery closes his busninesses and marijuana is recriminalized under Canadian law.
In the past all the businesses were registered under the B.C. Marijuana Party, but Emery said all that has changed.
Emery said:
We’ve complied with every government order, renovation order, health order, safety order. We are completely compliant every time they have a request.
They can’t say we are a bad business, but they are just looking for every possible reason to deny us a licence to get rid of us in advance of the Olympics.
This [the Olympics] is why all this pressure is on. The police are trying to get rid of all their antagonists. This is all police-driven.
He was rejected because he has a criminal record for a marijuana-related offense. City Hall then demanded he get business licences for his other enterprises, but he was denied, Emery said. He is appealing those rulings.
We have millions of supporters. We draw thousands of tourists to this block. So in the days leading up to our licence application we are going to make sure the phones at City Hall are flooded days in advance.
Naturally, no one from Vancouver City Hall was available to comment on the case.
