Marc Emery on extradition

Another good profile piece on Marc Emery in The Concordian. You can only get half of it for free so here's some excerpts from the rest.

The US Drug Enforcement Agency has given him the title of "kingpin" and claims he is the most important international drug trafficker in Canada, and one of the top 46 in the world. This title is more than a media catchword though, though he could receive the death penalty in the US under the Drug Kingpin legislation first enacted in 1988.

Emery thinks that if he gets extradited, no one in Canada will see him alive again. He explained that the DEA is painting such an ugly picture of him because they are afraid of him.

"They are afraid of my ability to speak and my ability to organize and get the media to pay attention," he says.

Emery believes the DEA would be in trouble if Canada ended Marijuana prohibition because they might have to follow suit. He thinks that the DEA would be unable to keep Americans from coming north for their marijuana, or from that reefer making its way south. This could then result in the DEA having its budget cut, and the same people that have been watching him would be out of jobs.

The DEA has already admitted in their press release that they arrested Marc for political reasons. This is further evidenced by the fact that several other seed vendors in Vancouver continue to operate and saw a influx of new customers when Marc was busted. Of course, none of them are Americans.

One of the vendors explains why the DEA's contention that Marc was facilitating huge grow-ops is so flawed.

He also explained why seeds would not be a good investment for large commercial grow operations such as the ones the DEA is accusing Emery of helping. He said large grow rooms could technically use seeds, but without the uniformity of clones, growers would make less money and take longer growing.

Not to mention the expense. Marc's seeds were not cheap. A big operation simply wouldn't buy seeds that way, even if they were growing from seed. Marc's US customers were clearly small time ops that probably grew only for themselves and maybe their friends in order to avoid the black market.

Once again, the DEA makes the world more profitable for black market dealers thus protecting their own prohibition based employment.