Canada’s self-proclaimed “Prince of Pot” Marc Emery returned home on Tuesday, vowing “political revenge” after spending more than four years in a US prison for selling marijuana seeds by mail across the border.
The ardent advocate of legalizing marijuana was met by his wife, Jodie, and supporters in Windsor, Ontario, before embarking on a speaking tour.
“It does smell like a party,” Emery said as smoke appeared to waft at a televised press conference. “I will say I fought long and hard for that.”
Photo: Reuters
The US Drug Enforcement Administration heralded Emery’s initial arrest in Canada almost a decade ago as a “significant blow” to the pro-pot movement.
US justice officials said he sold more than 4 million marijuana seeds over the Internet, three-fourths of which were mailed to customers in the US.
However, during his incarceration, calls for softening marijuana laws across the Americas have grown louder, including a New York Times editorial last month comparing the US federal ban on cannabis to Prohibition.
This year the US states of Colorado and Washington became the first to allow recreational pot sales. That prompted the presidents of Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica and Belize to demand a UN review by next year of current strategies against drug trafficking.
Uruguay, the first country to fully legalize production, sale and distribution of marijuana, meanwhile called for bids this month from private growers who want to farm cannabis in a public field.
The US attorney who drew up the indictment against Emery has also come out in favor of legalization.
“It was annoying at first,” Jodie Emery told Maclean’s magazine. “But it’s nice to have your enemy admit that they did wrong.”
In Canada, the attorney general has said Ottawa is considering amending the law to allow police to fine pot smokers for possession of small amounts of cannabis, instead of laying criminal charges.
An estimated 1 million out of a total 35 million Canadians regularly smoke marijuana, according to recent surveys.
Opposition Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, who admitted smoking pot since being elected to parliament in 2008, has said he favors legalizing marijuana use.
He is now leading in the polls ahead of next year’s elections.
Marc Emery said he will campaign over the coming year against the Conservative government of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, while Jodie Emery seeks a Liberal nomination.
In jailhouse interviews Marc Emery contended that Canada — which has never charged him with drug offenses — should not have handed him over to the US. As well, he criticized the ruling Tories for delaying his return to Canada.
“My own government betrayed me and I’m going to wreak an appropriate amount of political revenge when I get home,” he told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp earlier this year.
At the Windsor press conference, he sounded a battle cry.
“So help me God, we are going to bury this prohibition next year in this federal election coming up,” he said. “And I want to remind everybody, legalizing it [means] no one ever goes to jail for marijuana, including for selling seeds.”
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
RSS