Vancouver, British Columbia: Canadian law enforcement officers, acting on a warrant issued by federal officials in Washington state, arrested longtime cannabis activist Marc Emery and two others late last week for violating US marijuana laws. American officials are seeking to extradite Emery to the United States, where he could face ten years to life in prison on charges that he distributed cannabis seeds to various individuals within the US.
For nearly ten years, Emery had openly operated an online cannabis seed bank in the Hastings neighborhood of Vancouver, where he maintained a high profile in the area’s business and political community as publisher of the magazine Cannabis Culture and founder of the BC Marijuana Party, among other activities. Vancouver police disregarded Emery’s seed sales; however, a federal grand jury in Seattle indicted him in May on charges of “conspiracy to manufacture marijuana, conspiracy to distribute marijuana seeds, and conspiracy to engage in money laundering.” US law enforcement officials claim to have linked Emery’s seeds to marijuana seizures in numerous states, including Florida, Indiana, and New Jersey.
Canadian law enforcement officers executed the arrest warrant against Emery and two colleagues, Gregory Williams and Michelle Rainey, on Friday in accordance with a US/Canadian treaty allowing for “mutual assistance on criminal matters.” All three individuals have been granted bail and are expected to be free on bond imminently.
Extradition hearings for Emery, Williams, and Rainey could take up to one year or longer. None of the three defendants have been charged with violating Canadian drug laws.
NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre questioned why Canadian authorities would be willing to extradite Emery for activities that had been consistently ignored by local law enforcement and are punishable by little, if any penalty in his native country.
“Why are Canadian authorities, who had chosen not to prosecute Emery for his Internet seed business, now cooperating with US efforts to extradite and try him under America’s far more stringent federal laws?” St. Pierre asked. “It’s as if Canada has relinquished its sovereignty in regards to drug law enforcement to become a lapdog of the US Drug Enforcement Administration.”
For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre or Keith Stroup of NORML at (202) 483-5500. Additional information on Marc Emery’s arrest and extradition is available online at:
http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6624