From ‘Prince of Pot’ to ‘Prince of Prison’: Marc Emery begins serving U.S. sentenceBY DAMIAN INWOOD, POSTMEDIA NEWS SEPTEMBER 11, 2010
Vancouver’s Marc Emery has gone from “Prince of Pot” to prison pauper with a five-year U.S. prison sentence for mailing marijuana seeds south of the border.
Photograph by: Bill Keay, PNG Merlin ArchiveSEATTLE — Vancouver’s Marc Emery has gone from “Prince of Pot” to prison pauper with a five-year U.S. prison sentence for mailing marijuana seeds south of the border.
The 52-year-old cannabis activist spent part of the first night of his sentence holding hands with his wife Jodie, during a two-hour Seattle jail visit Saturday.
“He gets very emotional when he thinks of being away from me for so long,” Jodie, 25, said.
“He said that when he comes back to Canada, if he’s not allowed smoke cannabis, he won’t, and he doesn’t care. He doesn’t miss it — he just misses me and wants to get home.”
Emery was slapped with the five-year jail sentence in a plea-bargain deal after fighting for more than five years to avoid a U.S. prison term.
Jodie said her husband was pleased that District Court Judge Ricardo Martinez agreed to a defence recommendation that Emery be transferred to a prison in Canada to serve his sentence.
“His application for transfer was dropped off at the Canadian consulate, so that will soon be at (federal) Public Safety Minister Vic Toews’ desk and he can approve it almost immediately,” she said.
“Marc will likely be moved to a different institution somewhere in the U.S. in four to six weeks. He’ll still be called the ‘Prince of Pot’ but some people have joked about him being the ‘Prince of Prison’ and things like that.”
Until he is moved to Canada, Emery hopes to serve his time at a minimum-security prison in Lompoc, Calif., but he could also be sent to a jail in Mississippi, Georgia, North Carolina, Texas or New Mexico.
If Emery does get a treaty transfer to Canada, he could be on day parole as early as next summer and full parole by November 2011, said Jodie.
She said her husband will pass the time behind bars writing an autobiography and working on a Canadian voters’ guide to the federal election.
Jodie said she has been able to visit Emery twice a week.
When Emery was sentenced in Seattle Friday, he got a tongue-lashing from U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg.
“This is a very serious sentence for a very serious crime,” said Greenberg. “At the time of this investigation, Mr. Emery was the largest distributor of marijuana seeds in North America.”
He said Emery sold millions of marijuana seeds which were grown into millions of plants in the U.S. Emery sold the seeds by mail order and telephone to anyone who placed an order, “regardless of their age, regardless of their criminal association and criminal past,” Greenberg added.
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