US Marijuana Party

Sunday, July 31, 2005

US Marijuana Party Statement on Marc Emery's Arrest

At a time when Osama bin Laden is still hiding in a cave in Afghanistan, when we have 2000 soldiers dead in Iraq and more dying everyday with no end in sight, when our country houses 2.5 million prisoners (more than any other country in the world), when the whole country and even Congress are slamming the ONDCP because they have used their $11 billion budget to target pot smokers while meth has run rampant we somehow find the resources to invade our sister country Canada and enforce our draconian drug laws on her citizens over some pot seeds.

This action would not be justifiable even if our drug policies were working but to force another country to abide by US laws that have failed miserably and have caused untold societal damage and erosion of our constitutional rights and civil liberties defies all logic.

Is it any wonder that people all around the world sit and plot our destruction? It is this very kind of "Imperialist Intervention" in the affairs of sovereign nations that causes Americans to be targets of "terrorists".

And until we as Americans take a strong stand against it we will never be safe in this country again...nor do we really deserve to be.

I call on all Americans, regardless of their position on marijuana, to join forces and let it be known that the citizens of our country do not support the actions of the D.E.A.
We never elected the D.E.A. and they DO NOT represent us or our interests.

FREE MARC EMERY!!!

Loretta Nall
US Marijuana Party
------------------------------------------

I can be reached at 404-806-5303
cnall1@charter.net

Protest Video from BC

Supporters of Marc Emery and Canada rally in Vancouver on Saturday.
Video link is on right side of page.

WATCH HERE

INFORMATION FOR CUSTOMERS OF EMERY SEEDS

SEED CUSTOMERS WARNING/COPYRIGHT, 2005

INFORMATION FOR CUSTOMERS OF EMERY SEEDS

Facts about the DEA raids and growing pot

BY JAVIER ALTON

Marc Emery’s seed company was raided Friday, July 29, by Canadian agents acting under orders from the DEA.

The raids were a DEA operation; it is the US government that is laying charges against Emery and two co-defendants, who were all arrested.

If there ever is a trial related to these charges, the American drug warriors want it held in America.

US officials claim the investigation that led to the raid and arrests involved 50 DEA offices in many US states, especially Indiana, Florida, California, Tennessee, Montana, Virginia, Michigan, New Jersey and North Dakota.

Emery Seeds representatives say they always totally destroyed all customer records as soon as orders were filled. All efforts to ensure safety were in place. However, in today’s world where governments can intrude on even the most private behaviors, there is no total safety for people who want to grow plants.

Enemies of Emery, including some of his business competitors in the marijuana seed sales industry, are spreading information designed to frighten his customers into believing that they could be raided if they ordered seeds from Emery since the beginning of 2004, when DEA says the investigation into his seed sales began.

It’s hard to tell how reliable these reports are. The DEA itself has been known to lie, and it might surprise people to know that the seed business is seedy, with lots of backstabbing that has often involved sleazy spammers placing false negative postings on the Internet about Marc Emery in order to harm his business and activism.

On the other hand, honest warnings are in order. As ethical people who care about freedom and due diligence, Emery’s reps would be remiss not to warn people who have ordered from Emery during the past two years should consider that they might be a target of police investigations, especially if they are involved in large-scale commercial cultivation.

If you are breaking the law, the police might be onto you, regardless of whether you ordered seeds from Emery, or from his competitors such as Gypsy Nirvana (Seeds Direct), Heaven’s Stairway, etc.

If you grow plants that look like cannabis anywhere in the US and other parts of the world where cannabis is illegal, the police might be onto you, whether or not you ever ordered seeds from anyone.

"I’d guess that anybody who advertises cannabis seeds on the Internet or in a magazine, and their customers, could be a DEA target, whether they are located in Canada, England, Holland, wherever," explains an American grower. "If you buy pot seeds from anybody who has a pot seed internet site, you take a risk. It isn’t just people who bought from Emery."

If you have plants growing, and if you think you are breaking the law, you have to decide for yourself if you are at risk, and what you want to do about that risk.

There are many ways to determine if you are under surveillance and at risk of an imminent raid. People who have been busted often say that they had an intuition that they were going to be raided, but they loved their plants so much, that they decided to roll the dice. They rolled, and came up with a losing gamble. They got raided, and regretted for the rest of their life that they had not been better safe than sorry, and shut down their garden before it was too late.

If you have a garden and you shut it down and you don’t get raided, what have you lost? Plants. What are you left with? Freedom.

If you have a garden and you should shut it down but you don’t, and you get raided, what do you have?

The answer is obvious.

During the press conference about the Emery bust, the DEA and their federal prosecutor allies said they wanted to shut down large grow operations and “trafficking.”

If you’re a small-time legal medical grower in a state that has legalized medpot, are you 100% safe? Probably a lot safer than somebody who has 40,000 watts worth of lights in the Midwest.

Maybe you ordered seeds and planted them outdoors far away from where you live, and you’re absolutely sure nobody is following you every time you go walking in the woods with a water bag on your back. Perhaps you’re thinking of running outside to the forest and killing all those plants, or just letting them grow on their own and never visiting them again.

Every grower has to decide what level of revolution they want to partake of, how much risk, how much they’re prepared to gain and lose, how much worry, stress and pressure they can take.

Emery was always blunt about it. He knew he could be arrested at any moment. He said that people who grew plants were “overgrowing the government.” If you try to “overgrow,” or even “overthrow” a government, even if you do it peacefully (how much more peaceful a revolution than one that consists solely of growing plants?), you might get hurt. Everybody should have known that, right?

Only you can decide how much hurt you can handle. If you have a family, lovers, children or others who can be hurt by your choices, you have to be extremely ethical in your calculations of risk, reward, and penalties.

After hearing of Marc Emery being arrested, a grower wrote to tell us that he was harvesting his Northern Lights crop one week early, selling it fast, and sending all the money to pay for Marc’s legal fight to defeat the US extradition order.

This was a big crop, folks, and the grower was going to donate all but a few hundred dollars of the proceeds that had been counted on to pay for car repairs, medical bills, and a short vacation.

That’s how some good people have reacted to the most devastating attack on marijuana culture in history.

Others have reacted by applauding the arrest. There are some marijuana websites, such as www.overgrow.com, where people who claim to be marijuana users celebrate Emery’s demise. Funny that these so-called potheads say the same things about Emery that DEA agents have said. Some of them might be DEA agents. When people are on internet sites using fake names, they can be or say anything they want.

The bottom line is, if you are involved in revolutionary plant growing, you are at risk. Deal with it.

In regards to growing marijuana from a variety of seeds available from worldwide retailers, it is illegal for everyone involved.

If the DEA wants to shut down ALL marijuana seed retailers in the world, and screw a lot of growers, for sure they can do so. They have the power, they have the intent, and they have the guns.

It is very likely that the DEA, in alliance with the worldwide police state, is monitoring every website related to freedom, including cannabis seed websites. The US and Holland just entered into an anti-marijuana agreement. In the case of Marc Emery, the US ordered Canadian police to enforce American drug laws. If the American drug warriors can do all that, they can do anything, including ruining the ability of people to safely buy marijuana seeds from internet or in person retailers in the same manner they’d buy DVD’s. It was good while it lasted, eh? We’re not sure yet, but those days may be over.

And if they are over, you just have to go back to the way it was in 1970, long before Marc Emery created the worldwide marijuana seed industry.

How was it? Like this: people shared seeds, bred them, hid them, traded them.

Instead of killing your male plants, separate them from the females, gather their golden pollen, put it on a small, sterile paintbrush, put the pollen on the female flowers, and breed your own seeds.

Keep safe the genetics of all the herbs that our Creator has given us, and try not to let the drug warriors, the assholes who hate Marc Emery, or the evil governments scare you so much that you give up on being free.

That’s the best advice we can give you.

America Targets Emery



America targets Emery

A London friend says U.S. authorities want to make an example of the pot activist.
Sharon Ho, Free Press Reporter 2005-07-31 02:35:23

The arrest of Canadian pot activist Marc Emery is being used to advance the agenda of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, a London friend charges.

"Someone needed to made an example of (him) to further the agenda of the American drug enforcement agency," said Teresa Tarasewicz, co-owner of the City Lights Book Shop.

"He's a pawn in the politics of drug enforcement between the two different countries," she said. "It'll be interesting to see whether Canada holds fast or hands him over."

Tarasewicz bought the bookstore from Emery, a former Londoner, in 1992. She last spoke to him about a month ago.

Emery was arrested Friday by RCMP in central Nova Scotia after Vancouver police raided his pot seed and paraphernalia store and arrested two others, Gregory Keith Williams and Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek.

They are wanted in the U.S. on charges of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana, conspiracy to distribute seeds and conspiracy to engage in money laundering.

A conviction on the charges carries a sentence ranging from 10 years to life in prison.

Emery, leader of the B.C. Marijuana Party, was in a Halifax-area jail yesterday waiting to be returned to Vancouver, while U.S. authorities try to extradite him.

The U.S. Attorney's Office has said the three were indicted by a U.S. federal grand jury in May after an 18-month U.S. police probe of the sale of marijuana seeds on the Internet and by mail.

Emery moved away from London in 1992, but was well-known in this city for his various campaigns. As owner of City Lights, he wanted the downtown business improvement area organization dismantled and fought its right to levy a charge on his store.

The high school dropout founded the Freedom Party with Robert Metz, its current president. The two later started two-short lived newspapers -- the London MetroBulletin and the London Tribune.

"If you want to change the law, you have to be prepared to break the law," Metz once said in describing Emery's philosophy in life.

Emery became known for his pot activism in 1994 after moving to Vancouver from Indonesia.

In Vancouver, he started the Cannabis Cafe, a meeting place for marijuana smokers, Hemp BC, a supply store, and Little Grow Shop, a seed and plant outlet. These places were raided a few times and eventually closed.

For the last 10 years, Emery has been selling marijuana seeds on the Internet. He's made more than $2 million from the business.

"He's receiving attention because he's successful at it," Tarasewicz said.

"Whatever happens, he's not going to go quietly. He'll raise awareness (of the marijuana legalization issue). The business wouldn't be profitable without the support of regular folks."

Emery has been convicted in the past of trafficking in marijuana seeds.

He spent three months in jail last year for passing a joint at a Saskatoon pot rally in 2004. It was Emery's 11th drug-related conviction, but the first time he was sentenced to jail.

Yesterday, City Lights customers were asking for Tarasewicz's reaction to Emery's situation. Londoners tend to think of him as someone regularly "raising controversy and trouble," she said.

Churchill Inaugurates the Battle of Britain

The History Channel provides audio of Winston Churchill's "finest hour" speech in which he calls upon his countrymen to defy the Nazi invaders.
This should provide inspiration to our Canadian brothers as they struggle to defend themselves against U.S. Imperial aggression.

Armageddon Gets No Press

Paul Craig Roberts




What has become of the print and TV media watchdogs who hounded President Nixon from office because he lied about when he learned of a minor burglary of no consequence in itself?





What became of the watchdog media that bayed after President Reagan because some low-level neoconservative officials sold arms to Iran and diverted the money to anti-communist insurgents in Latin America?




President Clinton was impeached by the House, though not convicted by the Senate, for lying about a sexcapade with a White House intern.







Now that we really need them, the watchdog media has hired out as public relations and propaganda shills for the Bush administration and the neocon network.








The entire Bush administration—not merely the president—is involved in the most extraordinary lies and fabrication of false intelligence claims in order to lead America into an unwarranted and illegal invasion of Iraq, an invasion that has cost the US taxpayers $300 billion and resulted in the deaths and maiming of tens of thousands of people.




The sordid affair has been revealed in leaked top-secret Downing Street memos, which were prepared for UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and his cabinet. Unlike the Nixon episode, there is no need to search for a "smoking gun." Smoking guns have been printed all over the pages of the London Times. Yet hardly a peep from the watchdog media.




The August 1 issue of The American Conservative reports that Vice President Cheney has instructed the US Strategic Command to prepare a plan to spread the war by attacking Iran with tactical nuclear weapons in the event of another terrorist attack on the US. Appalled US Air Force officers have leaked the story, but you have not learned of it from the tamed media.

A federal prosecutor seems to be closing in on Karl Rove, president Bush’s right-hand man, and on Scooter Libby, vice president Cheney’s right-hand man. The two are suspected of leaking the identity of a covert CIA agent, a felony. Both have had to hire lawyers. But there is no demand for accountability from the US media.


American civil liberties have been trounced by the "Patriot" Act. Torture of detainees is now a routine practice of the US government and defended by the attorney general. Senators and military officers who try to place constraints on the inhumane treatment of detainees are stonewalled by the White House.

The mainstream media has been co-opted as propaganda organ for the Bush administration. How did this come about?

It came about through media concentration. There are no longer independent voices in the mainstream media. American news reporting is a corporate operation run with a view to advertising profits and the accommodation of government in order to protect holdings of valuable federal licenses. For reporters and editors, knowing what to say and not to say is the main qualification for job security.

A person who wants to find out anything must go online and spend time learning the sites that are trustworthy.

The Internet, thought invaluable for spreading news, hasn’t the impact on the public of a story pounded over and over on TV news or newspaper front pages. Exposure on the Internet doesn’t have the same embarrassment factor as exposure on TV news and the New York Times front page.

The public is still socialized into taking its cue from the old TV and print media. This media is now heavily controlled, partly through job fears of editors and reporters.

This raises the question whether government officials who have broken the law and betrayed trust will be held accountable.

Consider the implications if the Bush administration escapes accountability:

The executive branch will have established itself as above the law.

The executive, armed with a compliant media, will have war-making power subject only to successful PR spin. It means the final end of the people’s right to declare war via elected representatives in Congress.

The few remaining restraints on the executive’s ability to detain people indefinitely without charges will be removed. This power will silence the Internet.

Spiteful neighbors, employees, former spouses, whomever will gain the power to report any disliked person. The anti-terrorist apparatus needs victims to demonstrate its effectiveness, and as warrants, hearings, and evidence are no longer required, Americans will simply disappear like Soviet citizens in the Stalin era.

The "imperial judiciary" will disappear overnight. No checks and balances will remain.

Gentle reader, you can continue with this theme in "How the Worst Get on Top," a chapter in F.A. Hayek’s classic, The Road to Serfdom. You might as well learn what it is going to be like as you are already half way there.

The worst rise rapidly as the honest depart the corrupt system. Two US Military prosecutors, Major Robert Preston and Captain John Carr, resigned after denouncing rigged Guantanamo trials of detainees as "a severe threat to the reputation of the military justice system and a fraud on the American people."

Altogether now, let’s yell, "I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any longer."

Search Warrant

The full search warrant for Emery Direct Seeds is posted in this gallery at marihemp.com. (scroll down)

Marc Emery (Google news search)

Saturday, July 30, 2005

Canada Now Officially 51st State

EMERY EMPIRE RAIDED AT REQUEST OF UNITED STATES

Famed cannabis activist and two others arrested

By Jennifer Garner

Canadian police acting under orders from US officials raided the headquarters of the British Columbia Marijuana Party (BCMP) in Vancouver on the morning of Friday, July 29.

The search warrants were authorized at the highest levels of the provincial government in concert with a cross-border US-Canada law enforcement pact created by a US-authored Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters treaty (MLAT) between the US and Canada.

The US has issued extradition orders for Marc Emery, who was arrested while traveling in Halifax to a hemp festival; two other Emery associates, including the media icon known as “Marijuana Man,” were arrested in Vancouver.

Emery’s arrest was coordinated by Vancouver and Halifax drug agents working together with RCMP (Mounties) and DEA to surveil Emery’s cross-country movements minute by minute, according to statements made by Halifax police officials.

US officials claim that the investigation that led to the raid and arrests involved 50 DEA offices in many US states, as well as local and federal Canadian police forces.

In a major press conference held in Seattle, American officials accused Emery of “conspiracy to produce marijuana and distribute marijuana seeds, and money laundering."

The DEA and other agencies are claiming that by selling seeds to pot-growing Americans, Emery engaged in a criminal enterprise with the growers. In the eyes of his accusers, providing marijuana seeds is the same as selling marijuana produced from those seeds.

"Their activities resulted in the growing of tens of thousands of marijuana plants in America," claimed US federal attorney Jeff Sullivan. "[Emery] was involved, allegedly, in an illegal distribution of marijuana in [the United States.] He is a drug dealer."

Sullivan and DEA official Rod Benson, whose Seattle, Washington DEA office headed a nearly two-year investigation of Emery, claim that Emery’s seeds produced tens of thousands of marijuana plants grown by personal use growers and commercial growers.
Benson referred to the joining of Canadian and US police in the MLAT attack as an “aggressive partnership of law enforcement and intelligence gathering.”

The use of MLAT to take down Emery implies that Canadian Minister of Justice Irwin Cotler, who has been harshly criticized by Emery and his employees due to Cotler’s refusal to back American-born marijuana refugee Renee Boje in her bid to avoid extradition from Canada to the US to face cultivation charges, signed off on the MLAT operation.

It is likely that the highest levels of the Canadian provincial and federal governments were involved in setting up the MLAT investigation and raid, which raises obvious issues of Canadian sovereignty and reveals to Canadians in a very stark way that Canadian law enforcement can sometimes be a tool of US drug agents.

Emery was secretly indicted by a US federal grand jury in May, 2005, officials said, after an investigation that began in early 2004.
The raids were apparently timed to coincide with Emery’s visit to a Nova Scotia hemp festival; during the visit, he was arrested by Mounties and local police acting under orders from the DEA and Vancouver Police.

The DEA and US federal prosecutors hope to bring Emery and his two co-defendants to Seattle for trial in the US. If they are convicted there, they could be sentenced to a minimum of ten years in prison, but maximum penalties include life in prison for the 47-year-old activist sometimes known (and described in official DEA records), as the “Prince of Pot.”

Of particular interest for customers of Emery’s seed site is the DEA claim that they have traced Emery’s seeds to illegal grows in Indiana, Florida, California, Tennessee, Montana, Virginia, Michigan, New Jersey and North Dakota.

While it is not known if these claims are accurate, or what action if any the DEA intends to take against people who have grown marijuana using Emery seeds, prudence would dictate that people who have ordered from Emery during the past two years should consider whether they might be a target of investigations, especially if they are involved in large-scale commercial cultivation.

People who have ordered from other internet seed sellers should also be concerned, said a cannabis grower in the US, noting that although viable marijuana seeds are legal in some countries, sending seeds to North America is not.
“I’d guess that anybody who advertises cannabis seeds on the Internet or in a magazine, and their customers, could be a DEA target, whether they are located in Canada, England, Holland, wherever,” he said. “If you buy pot seeds from anybody who has a pot seed internet site, you take a risk. It isn’t just people who bought from Emery.”

Vancouver Police spokesperson Howard Chow admitted that Emery’s selling of marijuana seeds “is not enough” for him to have been arrested by Canadian authorities acting on their own, and confirmed that the arrests came solely because the DEA had provided motivation and information that led to the raids.

US officials indicated they had been studying Emery’s website and political statements, which contain candid and forthright information provided by Emery about what he sees as a way to use seed sales to fund a political movement.
US Federal Attorney Sullivan, seeking to counter the assertion that Emery is a political activist being prosecuted only because he valiantly fights against marijuana laws, mentioned Emery’s magazine (Cannabis Culture) and his political party, and then specifically asserted that the raids had nothing to do with those media-political activities.

Emery claims to make $3 million a year from selling marijuana seeds online and by mail, along with selling equipment for grow operations, such as fertilizer, lighting, and other products that help people grow plants, according to US officials.
“The fact is, marijuana is a very dangerous drug,” Sullivan said. “People don't say that, but right now in America, there are more kids in treatment for addiction to marijuana than every other illegal drug combined."
Sullivan said Emery is facing a maximum sentence of life in prison, explaining that his government has requested that Emery not be granted bail and remain in custody for the “six months to two years” before Emery would actually be sent to the US to face charges, if the extradition request is successful.

The DEA said it mounted an 18-month undercover investigation during which Emery sold seeds to undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agents, by mail and in person. DEA spokespersons noted that Emery was the world’s largest and most professional marijuana seed retailer, offering 600 strains from dozens of suppliers.
Rod Benson, the DEA's Seattle special agent in charge, told a news conference here that Emery showed "overwhelming arrogance and abuse of the rule of law,” and added that many marijuana growers would be negatively affected if they are unable to buy seeds from Emery, who is generally acknowledged to have pioneered the worldwide cannabis seed market.

Emery's websites at www.cannabisculture.com and www.emeryseeds.com were temporarily disabled during the raids, but were functioning again soon thereafter.
Search warrants were executed on Emery's home, his office and other businesses, Sullivan said. Court documents listed "Prince of Pot" as an alias for the activist.
In 1994, Emery opened a Vancouver-based store called Hemp BC selling marijuana paraphernalia and seeds. Police raided the store in 1996 and again in 1998, confiscating his entire stock. Undaunted, Emery founded the BCMP and expanded his seed empire across the world.

The raid took place at 11 am. According to witnesses, police chained the BCMP doors, put barriers on the windows, and are dismantling the store to seize business records, seeds, computers, and other materials. Police seized cash, employee records and computer records. Vancouver police (VPD) were in charge of the morning raid on the legendary BCMP store in the heart of Vancouver's "Vansterdam" district.
VPD spokespersons attempting to justify the raids in light of the fact that they’ve known about Emery’s seed sales for many years, admitted that complaints from American officials prompted the raids.

“The DEA came to us about a year ago surrounding Marc Emery and asked for our assistance in the criminal investigation that had to do with trafficking a controlled substance,” said a VPD spokesperson. “It just comes in terms of resources and priority. We get information and we act on it and we deal with it at that time. You can expect that anybody who engages in criminal activity on a high profile, such as Marc Emery does, is not going to expect to do it forever before you have to account for your actions. It's an ongoing investigation. There may be further charges that come out of this.”

Chris Bennett, manager of Pot-TV who was onsite when the BCMP center was raided, said he is particularly angry that Vancouver police and other Canadians were acting as enforcers of American drug laws against Canadian citizens.

"They're taking him down to face charges in the United States of America, where sentences are much harsher that one would face in Canada," said Bennett.

Emery has been arrested for marijuana-related "crimes" many times before, but those other arrests involved local Canadian charges and jurisdictions. Today's charges are far more serious because they involve US federal laws that stipulate mandatory minimum sentences of 10 years, with life imprisonment a possibility.

Last year, Emery served 91 days in a Saskatoon, Canada jail for passing a joint.

American officials are seeking Emery's extradition, but extradition battles can take many years in the courts. Emery now becomes yet another high-profile cannabis activist seeking to fight off American attempts to prosecute him in the US.

Renee Boje, whose husband Chris Bennett works for Emery at BCMP as manager of Pot-TV, has been fighting for years to quash a US extradition order. Her legal costs have been funded by Emery.

The bi-lateral law enforcement treaty (MLAT) that snared Emery and his compatriots is part of a controversial global American network of treaties allowing the US to use foreign police agents to investigate and arrest foreign citizens on behalf of the United States.

MLAT's help the US violate civil rights protections and other constitutional protections that would normally be afforded to citizens by their own countries.

The first US bilateral MLAT, between America and Switzerland, was entered into in 1977. The treaties are seen as a powerful tool of US foreign policy and hegemony, but have rarely been used against marijuana defendants. Dozens of countries have entered into MLAT's with the US since 1977; the treaties are seen as a way for US police and prosecutors to arrest people no matter where they live, even if they are not guilty of a serious or arrestable crime in their home country.

The MLAT treaties favor prosecutors and police, and make it virtually impossible for defense attorneys to advocate for clients snared by MLAT operations.

MLAT's have been criticized in other countries. Critics say US MLAT actions against foreigners violate international law, compromise human rights, and violate national sovereignty.

The Irish Human Rights Commission has complained about a US-Ireland MLAT that allows CIA agents to secretly question Irish citizens on Irish soil.

The MLAT signed by Irish Minister for Justice Michael McDowell and US Ambassador to Ireland James Kenny gives sweeping powers to US authorities operating in Ireland, including the right to seize documents, check bank accounts and carry out searches of property.

The Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC) said it would be examining the agreement, which was pushed through with the promise that it would only be used to assist the US "war on terror."

Human rights activists in Ireland are particularly concerned that CIA interrogations of Irish citizens will be carried out in secret and that the costs of CIA operations in Ireland will be paid by Irish taxpayers.

The cross-border MLAT efforts sometimes involve enforcement of the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances that was finalized worldwide on November 11, 1990.

It is possible that Emery and his associates would be charged with violating this Convention. In past years, UN officials have condemned Emery by name.

The raids leave many questions unanswered.

Although Emery is the highest profile marijuana activist in the world, who publicly airs reality television shows portraying all aspects of marijuana culture and who hosts marijuana connoisseur events like the Toker's Bowl, he is by far not the only person selling marijuana seeds across international boundaries from downtown Vancouver.

Vansterdam insiders note that while police were raiding Emery's store on West Hastings Street in downtown Vancouver, other marijuana seed businesses in the BCMP building and across the street were still open for business, and people were smoking marijuana while watching the raid.

The issue of selective prosecution is also raised by insiders who note that US and Canadian officials are aware of massive cross-border organized crime operations that involve guns, hard drugs, and other illegality on a scale that dwarfs Emery's marijuana-only, politically-inspired seed business.

Few if any of the many hardcore cross-border violent criminals who are well-known to police on both sides of the border have been pursued with the ferocity evidenced by today’s raids on Emery and BCMP. The use of MLAT to attack a non-violent symbol of marijuana activism seems like unprecedented overkill to Vansterdam denizens, and is a sign that the drug war has created an unprecedented, troubling alliance between US and Canadian police, prosecutors and politicians.

Anti-marijuana Canadian politician Randy White applauded the raids, saying that Emery has been arrested many times and not sufficiently punished for his marijuana activities.

“Marijuana crimes are serious and that's why they [the U.S.] are doing something about it. Our government tends to sit back and wait for a catastrophe,” White said.

Libby Davies, a Vancouver-area Member of Parliament who represents the progressive NDP political party, countered that the arrests go against the views of most Canadians, who support decriminalization of marijuana and who had not demanded that Emery’s marijuana businesses be shut down. The head of the NDP, influential federal politician Jack Layton, has appeared on Emery’s television shows and publicly supported virtual legalization of cannabis.

"I think it's very disturbing that the Vancouver police department is raiding a local business and arresting people for the U.S. war on drugs," Libby Davies said. “It feels to me like the long arm of U.S. enforcement reaching into Canada.”

Protesters have been holding vigil and staging protests at Emery's store in Vancouver. Long-time Emery friend and cannabis activist Dana Larsen said a rally for Emery and BCMP was being planned.

“The real reason the US police want Marc Emery behind bars is because he is an outspoken and politically active advocate for marijuana legalization,” Larsen said. “Please help protest this attack on Canadian sovereignty and waste of police resources. It’s time to end the war on pot.”

Emery has provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in bail money, attorneys, and other support for many marijuana arrestees. He now finds himself in need of support, caught in the talons of the US government agents and its Canadian law enforcement lackeys, which he, his magazine, and his website accurately describe as totalitarian, imperialist hit squads that exhibit no respect for borders, democracy, or human rights.

For the man who is often called "The Prince of Pot," today's arrest is the ultimate, if not unanticipated, showdown with forces of darkness.

Despite the always-imminent threat of arrest, Emery has since leaving prison last year created some of the best reality television in the world, but many of his shows could be viewed as self-incrimination that provides irrefutable evidence that Emery breaks marijuana laws.

He also recently hosted the Toker’s Bowl, an event that celebrates marijuana as if it were legal, bringing cannabis lovers to Vancouver from around the world.

Emery’s actions appear to arise from his conscious choice to defy the drug war, regardless of the consequences.

After leaving jail last year, Emery said, "Once you get over your fear of whatever they can do to you, you become empowered to just live as if marijuana is legal, without much concern for the consequences they threaten you with. Whatever they do to me- arrest, incarceration, even if they kill me- it's not going to make me live in fear. We're going to continue to show them that marijuana should be legal, that our culture is harmless and vibrant, and that it is the drug war, not the cannabis culture, which threatens public order and safety."

Canadian Puppet Government

More Raid and Protest Video from Canada

CTV has three video's available that cover the DEA raid on the BCMP.

WATCH THEM HERE

Activist previously escaped ire of city police

Saturday, July 30, 2005

Activist previously escaped ire of city police

Ian Mulgrew
Vancouver Sun

The long arm of Uncle Sam reached out and nabbed the Prince of Pot in Halifax Friday in an outrageous infringement of Canadian sovereignty.

Marc Emery, who runs the B.C. Marijuana Party, is one of about 40 brokers of marijuana seeds based in B.C. -- a $3-million-a-year business he has operated for more than a decade.

If it's illegal, what have the Vancouver police and the RCMP being doing -- waiting for the U.S. cavalry?

What happened Friday, in my opinion, was a last gasp of the U.S. federal government's jihad on dope.

I listened to U.S. attorneys talk about Emery as some kind of Mafia don and I had to suppress my laughter.

Last year, Emery was in jail for nearly three months in Saskatchewan for passing a joint.

He is more than available for police in this country to prosecute -- what's this nonsense about inviting the Americans to charge him?

Emery has long confided to me that he didn't travel abroad because in many countries the U.S. government carried too much weight. Two former seed kings were arrested in Spain and Australia and extradited to America, he said, to face long prison terms, and he didn't want to be a third.

He believed Canada was not a banana republic.

Police here ignored Emery because in this country the controversial marijuana laws are under debate and the federal government has a bill in the wings to change the criminal statutes on pot.

The City of Vancouver, for instance, also is about to discuss the latest plank in its progressive drug policy, which would urge the federal government to legalize marijuana and end the prohibition.

But in America, the Bush administration remains convinced that marijuana is worse than heroin.

Emboldened by a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that it's okay to charge medical patients using pot to alleviate chemotherapy's nausea and other ailments, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has carried out a series of high-profile raids across the continent.

The heavy-handed action occurred despite laws in 10 states that would protect patients from prosecution.

I can only see the move against Emery and his colleagues as part of a strike-while-the-iron-is-hot strategy by the feds.

Not surprising to me, the judge behind the authorization to conduct Friday's raid on Emery's headquarters was B.C. Supreme Court Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm.

He's the equivalent of the black-hooded tax collector in the Hagar comic and you'll find his name associated with the raid on former premier Glen Clark's home as well as the more recent invasion of the B.C. legislature.

Emery, Gregory Williams and Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek were named in indictments handed down by the Seattle grand jury in May because their company sells about 80 per cent of its seeds to U.S. customers.

They face life imprisonment if convicted in the U.S. of charges of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana, conspiracy to distribute marijuana seeds and conspiracy to engage in money laundering.

That's no idle threat. U.S. conspiracy laws are so broad that Canadian comedian Tommy Chong was imprisoned for nearly a year because he sold glass pipes that could be used to smoke marijuana.

Williams was arrested at the store on Hastings Street Friday while Rainey-Fenkarek was arrested Thursday night at her home. She has since been released on bail.

I was at her wedding only a few weeks ago and I can't imagine how she is feeling -- she suffers from Crohn's disease and smokes marijuana to relieve its symptoms.

That Canada is allowing it's law enforcement agencies and its legal system to be used in this way is wrong.

If Emery and the others have been breaking the law, it's our problem -- not Washington's.

Hopefully, our judges will toss the extradition request.

Contact: sunletters@png.canwest.com

vancouversun

Uncle Sam orchestrates Vancouver pot busts



Saturday, July 30, 2005

Uncle Sam orchestrates Vancouver pot busts

'Prince of Pot' Marc Emery Nabbed in Halifax: Seed shipping business shut down by police

Brad Badelt and Amy O'Brian
Vancouver Sun

While pot advocate Marc Emery was being arrested in Halifax, his supporters gathered outside his Hasting Street store to protest the U.S.-directed raid on the premises with signs and flags.


Pot advocate Marc Emery was arrested Friday in Halifax after his marijuana-seed shipping business on Hastings Street was shut down by police as part of a sweeping investigation instigated by U.S. authorities.

Vancouver police raided Emery's multi-million-dollar business on a request from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), while angry protesters gathered outside chanting "Go home USA."

Emery, 47, referred to as "The Prince of Pot" on the search warrant, was arrested by the RCMP and police in Halifax.

He is charged in the U.S. with several drug-related charges, including conspiring to distribute marijuana seeds and launder money.

Gregory Keith Williams, 50, and Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek, 34, both alleged to be involved in the long-established business, were also arrested in Vancouver on similar charges.

Tempers flared in Vancouver Friday when four protesters were arrested after attempting to block a police van loaded with seized goods from Emery's company, Mark Emery Direct, which is located in a storefront at 307 West Hastings.

The store also houses the office of the B.C. Marijuana Party and Pot-TV.

Chris Bennett, manager of Pot-TV, said he was working in Emery's Vancouver office Friday morning when two undercover Vancouver police officers approached him.

"I was on the phone and these guys walked in -- they looked like hippies or something -- and they told me to hang the phone up," Bennett said.

"I said, 'What's this all about?' and they said they were the VPD."

Bennett was told to leave the premises while police began their search and seizure.

"They just sent me out," he said. "They didn't even search my body."

The search warrant included all records pertaining to the Marc Emery Direct seed-selling business, including client lists, invoices and employee records from as a far back as September 1995.

Police took down storefront signs and covered the windows with paper, while about 25 chanting protesters banged on makeshift drums outside.

Two American flags were hung upside-down on a nearby fence.

"This is a place where people could pull out a joint and not have to fear being reported to the police, and that was okay with Canadians," said David Malmo-Levine, who was one of the four protesters later arrested.

"It's really an attack on our sovereignty."

The search was requested by the U.S. government through the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act, a federal law administered by the Department of Justice.

The warrant was authorized Thursday in B.C.'s Supreme Court, based on an affidavit provided by a Vancouver police officer.

U.S. authorities say the warrant was the result of an 18-month investigation of Emery's international seed-selling business.

The investigation involved about 38 DEA offices across the U.S. and allegedly linked marijuana seeds sold by Emery to indoor grow operations in several states, including New Jersey, Michigan and Florida.

Jeff Sullivan, assistant U.S. attorney, alleged Friday during a news conference that more than 75 per cent of the seeds sold by Emery were sold to people in the U.S., and Emery was making about $3 million a year selling seeds and marijuana-growing equipment.

"He is a drug dealer," Sullivan said of Emery, who has been in business since 1994.

"The fact is, marijuana is a very dangerous drug. People don't say that, but right now in America, there are more kids in treatment for addiction to marijuana than every other illegal drug combined."

Sullivan said Emery is facing a maximum sentence of life in prison.

U.S. authorities have requested that Emery remain in custody until extradition proceedings are concluded, but Sullivan conceded it could be many months before Emery actually arrives in the U.S. to face the charges.

"We anticipate that it could be anywhere from six months to two years before he is in America facing charges," Sullivan said.

Vancouver police spokesman Const. Howard Chow said Friday the Vancouver drug squad was involved in the investigation for the past 12 months, after U.S. DEA officials provided information about Emery's alleged dealings in the U.S.

Chow confirmed there were no Canadian charges laid.

Asked why Vancouver police hadn't arrested Emery earlier, Chow said that "simply because a person is selling seeds is not enough."

The Vancouver police needed more substantive information, Chow said, which the DEA recently provided.

"It was a matter of priorities and resources."

Halifax police spokesman Const. Mark Hobeck confirmed that Emery was arrested Friday afternoon outside Halifax.

"Once Vancouver's end of the investigation was done today, our members were notified and he was placed under arrest," Hobeck said.

Hobeck said Emery will be remanded until arrangements are made to transport him to Vancouver.

Emery's lawyer John Conroy, who had not yet spoken with his client, said he was preparing for the extradition defence.

"Presumably they are arresting him in order to extradite him to the U.S. to face charges there," Conroy said, adding that an extradition hearing would be based on Canadian law.

"The whole plant is unlawful to possess, but there are exceptions . . . for non-viable seeds and stalks, which I believe is mainly for the hemp industry," Conroy said.

"Viable seeds are prohibited, non-viables are not, but I think it has yet to be determined what that distinction is."

Last year, Emery pleaded guilty to trafficking marijuana -- after being caught passing a joint -- and was sentenced to 90 days in jail in Saskatoon.

The Vancouver property that was searched Friday is registered as the home of the B.C. Marijuana Party and does not have a business licence, according to City of Vancouver spokesman Paul Heraty.

"There's a bookstore and a Pot-TV [station] on site and we've accepted their claim that the profits from those two businesses go towards the political party," Heraty said.

According to the Marc Emery Direct website, it is the largest marijuana seed bank in the world, carrying some 534 strains from a variety of breeders.

Conservative MP Randy White said he was not surprised by the Hastings Street raid and arrests.

"Emery gets arrested all too often," he said, suggesting that the punishment for drug offences in Canada is often to weak.

"It's serious and that's why they [the U.S.] are doing something about it. Our government tends to sit back and wait for a catastrophe."

NDP MP Libby Davies said the arrests go against the views of most Canadians, who support decriminalization of marijuana. (A 2004 survey of 1,000 Canadians by SES Canada Research Inc. found 57 per cent were in favour of decriminalizing the use of small amounts of the drug. The survey is considered accurate within three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.)

"I think it's very disturbing that the Vancouver police department is raiding a local business and arresting people for the U.S. war on drugs," she said.

"It feels to me like the long arm of U.S. enforcement reaching into Canada."

HOW IT UNFOLDED

- Early 2004: U.S. probe begins into Marc Emery's international seed-selling business based at 307 W. Hastings. Nearly 50 Drug Enforcement Administration offices involved including New Jersey, Michigan and Florida.

- Mid-2004: Vancouver Police Department becomes involved in investigation.

- Warrant request: U.S. makes warrant request in B.C. court under a treaty that deals with matters under the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act.

- Thursday: Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm of B.C. Supreme Court issues search warrant.

- Friday: Emery arrested in Nova Scotia where he is to attend Hemp Fest 2005 in Lawrencetown. Two others arrested in Vancouver raid. Hastings store searched.

- Next: Emery's extradition to U.S. will be sought. American officials expect a six-month to two-year process.

Contact: sunletters@png.canwest.com

vancouversun

Friday, July 29, 2005

DEA Press Conference Video On Marc Emery Arrest

WATCH THE VIDEO

BCMP Arrest and Search Warrant


EMERY EMPIRE RAIDED AT REQUEST OF UNITED STATES
Cannabis activist and two others arrested
By Jennifer Garner



Canadian police acting under orders from US officials raided the headquarters of the British Columbia Marijuana Party (BCMP) in Vancouver today (Friday, July 22).
The search warrants were authorized at the highest levels of the provincial government in concert with a cross-border US-Canada law enforcement pact authorized by the a US-authored Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters treaty (MLAT) between the US and Canada.

The US has issued extradition orders for Marc Emery, who was arrested while traveling in Halifax to a hemp festival, as well as two others who work with Emery on television productions and other endeavours.

American officials accuse Emery of “a conspiracy to produce marijuana and distribute marijuana seeds, and money laundering.”

The DEA and other agencies are claiming that by selling seeds to pot-growing Americans, Emery is engaged in a criminal enterprise with the growers.
"Their activities resulted in the growing of tens of thousands of marijuana plants in America,” claims US federal attorney Jeff Sullivan. “[Emery] was involved, allegedly, in an illegal distribution of marijuana in [the United States.] He is a drug dealer.”
Vancouver police armed with a search warrant raided the legendary store in the heart of Vancouver’s “Vansterdam” district.

Chris Bennett, manager of Pot-TV who was onsite when the BCMP center was raided today, said he is particularly angry that Canadian police were acting as enforcers of American drug laws.

“They're taking him down to face charges in the United States of America, where sentences are much harsher that one would face in Canada," said Bennett.
Emery has been arrested for marijuana-related “crimes” many times before, but those other arrests involved local Canadian charges and jurisdictions. Today’s charges are far more serious because they involve US federal laws that stipulate mandatory minimum sentences of 20 years or more.
Last year, Emery served 90 days in a Saskatoon, Canada jail for passing a joint.

American officials are seeking Emery's extradition, which could take six months to a year. If they do seek to extradite him, he will become another high-profile cannabis activist seeking to fight off American attempts to prosecute him.

Renee Boje, whose husband works for Emery at BCMP, has been fighting for years to quash a US extradition order that seeks to take her from Canada to face prosecution for cannabis in America. Her legal costs have been funded by Emery.

According to witnesses, police have chained the BCMP doors, put barriers on the windows, and are dismantling the store to seize business records, seeds, computers, and other materials.

The raid took place at 11 am. As of late Friday afternoon, there was no official statement from Emery or any of those arrested with him.

If past behavior is any indication, however, Emery is likely to be unrepentant, and will fight the charges and extradition vigorously in front of judges and in the court of public opinion.

The law enforcement treaty (MLAT) that snared Emery and his compatriots is part of a global American network of treaties allowing the US to use foreign police agents to investigate and arrest foreign citizens.

MLAT’s help the US to violate civil rights protections and other constitutional protections that would normally be afforded to citizens by their own countries.
The first US bilateral MLAT entered into force with Switzerland in 1977. The treaties are seen as a powerful tool of US foreign policy and hegemony. Dozens of countries have entered into MLAT’s with the US since 1977, and the treaties are seen as a way for US police and prosecutors to arrest people no matter where they live, and even if they are not guilty of a serious crime in their home country.

The treaties favor prosecutors and police, and make it virtually impossible for defense attorneys to advocate for clients snared by MLAT operations.
MLAT’s have been criticized in other countries. Critics say US MLAT actions against foreigners violate international law, compromise human rights, and violate national sovereignty.

The Irish Human Rights Commission has complained about a US-Ireland MLAT that allows CIA agents to secretly question Irish citizens on Irish soil.
The MLAT signed by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell and the US Ambassador to Ireland James Kenny, gives sweeping powers to US authorities operating in foreign countries, including the right to seize documents, check bank accounts and carry out searches of property.

The Irish Human Rights Commission (IHRC) said it would be examining the agreement, which was pushed through with the promise that it would only be used to assist the US “war on terror.”

Human rights activists in Ireland are particularly concerned that interrogations can be carried out in secret, and that the costs of CIA operations in Ireland will be paid by Irish taxpayers.

The cross-border MLAT efforts sometimes involve enforcement of the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances that was finalized worldwide on November 11, 1990.

It is possible that Emery and his associates would be charged with violating this Convention. In past years, UN officials have condemned Emery by name.
The raids leave many questions unanswered.

Although Emery is the highest profile marijuana activist in the world, who publicly airs reality television shows portraying all aspects of marijuana culture and who hosts marijuana connoisseur events like the Toker’s Bowl, he is by far not the only person selling marijuana seeds across international boundaries.

Vansterdam insiders note that while police were raiding Emery’s store on West Hastings Street in downtown Vancouver, other marijuana seed businesses were still open for business, and people were smoking marijuana while watching the raid.
The issue of selective prosecution is also raised by insiders who note that US and Canadian officials are aware of massive cross-border organized crime operations that involve guns, hard drugs, and other illegality on a scale that dwarfs Emery’s marijuana seed business. And yet it’s Emery, who donates all the money he earns to non-profit pro-marijuana causes, who is targeted in an unprecedented raid ordered by the US.

Protesters are on hand at Emery’s store in Vancouver. The man who has provided bail money, attorneys, and other support for so many marijuana arrestees now finds himself in the clutches of the US government which he, his magazine, and his website so accurately describe as a totalitarian and imperialist hit squad.
For the man who is often called “The Prince of Pot,” today’s arrest is the ultimate showdown.

After leaving jail last year, Emery said, “Once you get over your fear of whatever they can do to you, you become empowered to just live as if marijuana is legal, without much concern for the consequences they threaten you with. Whatever they do to me- arrest, incarceration, even if they kill me- it’s not going to make me live in fear. We’re going to continue to show them that marijuana should be legal, that our culture is harmless and vibrant, and that it is the drug war, not the cannabis culture, which threatens public order and safety.

Well-known Vancouver pot activist arrested in extradition bid by U.S.

Macleans, Canada

The search warrant said Emery, Gregory Williams and Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek are wanted in the U.S. to face charges of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana, conspiracy to distribute marijuana seeds and conspiracy to engage in money laundering.

Williams and Rainey-Fenkarek were arrested by police in Vancouver, Jeff Sullivan, chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney's Office, told a news conference in Seattle.

Sullivan said the United States is seeking the extradition of Emery, Williams and Rainey-Fenkarek on the charges after they were indicted by a federal grand jury in May following an 18 month investigation by American police into the sale of marijuana seeds on the internet and by mail.

Rod Benson, the special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Agency in Seattle, contended at the news conference that Emery showed "overwhelming arrogance and abuse of the rule of law," which he said "will no longer be on display or tolerated."

BCMP Decries Loss of Canadian Sovereignty

Today the offices of the BC Marijuana Party, a registered political party in British Columbia, were caught up in a DEA-instigated raid. The raid is a dramatic example of the loss of Canadian sovereignty to the US drug war. The focus of the US drug war is marijuana, with over 750,000 annual possession charges laid and draconian penalties for possession, cultivation and sales of the plant. Until today, Canada took a different approach.

Unfortunately, the Canadian governement appears to have abdicated its sovereignty to the United States. Most Canadian (and, indeed, most Americans) do not agree with with the war on marijuana users. It is a dark day when Canadian municipal police officers are called upon to do the bidding of US masters.

This raid must serve as a call to arms. Canada is losing the ability to independently create its drug policy, despite reams of scientific and empirical evidence that prohibition is more dangerous than a regulated approach to cannabis distribution. The battle for freedom, equality and tolerance must be fought and won. We must not allow our Canadian way of life to be subjected to the whim of the US White House and its repressive policies.

The BCMP will continue to fight for the freedom of the cannabis community, both in Canada and abroad.

Contacts:

Kirk Tousaw, Campaign Manager
604.836.1420 (cell)

Vancouver marijuana store raided

Canoe.ca, Canada - 13 minutes ago

VANCOUVER (CP) - Police raided a business run by the head of the B.C. Marijuana Party on Friday based on a search warrant that was requested by the U.S. government.

Marc Emery, the leader of the party, was not at the store when it was raided but Chris Bennett, who witnessed the raid and is an employee of Pot TV, said Emery had been arrested in Halifax.

Authorization to conduct the raid was made Thursday by Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm of the B.C. Supreme Court under the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act.

Several officers, some in plain clothes, some in uniform, raided the marijuana seed and paraphernalia store on West Hastings Street in downtown Vancouver owned by Emery, who the search warrant also described by his alias "The Prince of Pot."

The search warrant named Emery, Gregory Williams and Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek. Bennett said Williams was taken into police custody at the store on Friday while Rainey-Fenkarek was arrested at her home on Thursday night.

Police were not immediately available to comment on whether any arrests had been made.

The store, named Toker's Bowl, is adjacent to the New Amsterdam Cafe where people have been smoking marijuana openly for years.

Several people gathered outside the store to protest the raid, many holding anti-American signs.

Police sealed off the store and covered the windows with paper while they conducted their search.

The search warrant sets out a long list of requests made by the United States to the Vancouver police department.

In the warrant, the U.S. alleges that those named in it have conspired to manufacture marijuana, conspired to distribute marijuana seeds and conspired to engage in money laundering.

The warrant requests that police seize cash and receipts, client lists and other records identifying purchasers of goods from Emery, and employee records, including applications for employment.

It also asks for business and company incorporation documents, leases, rental agreements, computers, hard drives, diskettes and CD-ROMS.

Vancouver police raid pot business

Broadcast News
July 29, 2005
Vancouver Province

VANCOUVER -- Police have raided a business run by the head of the B.C. Marijuana Party in Vancouver -- and looks like the raid was ordered by the U.S.

Leader Marc Emery was not at the marijuana seed store when it was raided by police earlier today.

But police say he has been arrested in Halifax.

A store employee says police arrived with a search warrant shortly before 11 am.

The charges outlined in the warrant indicate it is on behalf of the American government.

Emery and two other people are accused of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana, conspiracy to distribute seeds, and money laundering.

B.C. marijuana store raided, leader arrested


CVT

Marc Emery Arrested and BCMP Raided

The BCMP Headquarters in Vancouver has been raided by the RCMP with help from the DEA. Marc Emery was arrested in front of a store in Halifax NS before he was to speak at a rally.

There is rumor of an extradition order for Marc, his assistant Michelle Rainey and Marijuana Man.

You can get the latest news HERE

From CTV

B.C. Marijuana Party store raided, leader arrested

CTV.ca News Staff

Police raided a marijuana seed store run by the B.C. Marijuana Party leader in Vancouver Friday.

Vancouver radio station CKNW reports that the warrant cited a request from U.S. officials.

Leader Marc Emery was not at the store as police arrived with a search warrant shortly before 11 a.m.

Police say he has been arrested in Halifax.

Party spokesperson Kirk Tousaw said he had not spoken to Emery since the raid

"I can express a pretty significant disappointment that police would choose to go this route to go after Marc and others who have been operating there for years with no harm to anyone," said Tousaw.

Emery and two other people are accused of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana, conspiracy to distribute seed, and money laundering.

"The timing stinks. They do it on Friday so that they can keep you in jail the maximum amount of time before you can be released on bail," said Tousaw.

Thursday, July 28, 2005

Chavez Did Not Call Bush an "Asshole"


By Charlie Hardy on the Narcosphere


The definition of Pendejo on Wikipedia.




CITGO-
The company is owned by PDV America, Inc., an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Dog-screwing Police Chief

Herald-Whig Staff Writer

KAHOKA, Mo. — Kahoka Police Chief Steve L. Edlen was fired last week after he was arrested July 21 in Chillicothe in connection with an Internet chat room drug and sex sting.

Edlen, 51, was arrested after showing up for a meeting he set up with an undercover Livingston County Sheriff's Department deputy, authorities said. He is lodged in the Livingston County Jail on $50,000 bond after being charged with possession of less than 35 grams of marijuana with intent to distribute and attempted sexual intercourse with an animal.

In Clark County, Edlen has been charged with one count of burglary, one count of stealing and one count of tampering with evidence. Clark County Prosecutor Scott Summers said the charges stem from allegations Edlen took marijuana from the Kahoka Police Department evidence room.

"At this point, there's still a lot of disbelief," Summers said.

According to a Livingston County Sheriff's Department statement of probable cause, Sheriff Steve Cox said he was performing an undercover investigation of an Internet chat room on July 11 when he received an unsolicited instant message.

Cox said the message came from a man describing himself as a deputy from Clark County in his upper 40s. After making contact with the man, Cox said he viewed the man doing a sexual act on the man's Web camera.

A meeting was arranged in Chillicothe July 21, Cox said. An undercover female deputy, accompanied by a dog, met with Edlen, who said he'd brought marijuana and described various sex acts he wanted to perform with the male dog, Cox said.

The man was arrested and identified himself as Edlen. Officers found about five grams of marijuana on Edlen, Cox said.

New name for 'war on terror'


BBC

The Bush administration is abandoning the phrase "war on terror" to better express the fight against al-Qaeda and other groups as an ideological struggle as much as a military mission.

While the slogan - first used by President George W Bush in the wake of the 9/11 attacks - may still be heard from time to time, the White House says it will increasingly be couched in other language.

In recent days, senior administration figures have been speaking publicly of "a global struggle against the enemies of freedom", and of the need to use all "tools of statecraft" to defeat them.

Well, good. Maybe they will rename the "War On Drugs" also. Reckon what they will call it? A global struggle against the enemies of sobriety?

The country's top military officer spoke in a similar vein on Monday.

General Richard Myers told a meeting at the National Press Club: "The long-term problem is as much diplomatic, as much economic, in fact more diplomatic, more economic, more political than it is military.

"And that's where the focus has to be in the future."

Too bad they continue to seek a military solution against American Citizens suspected of disregarding the Schedule of Controlled Substances in the privacy of their own homes.

Alcoholic Father Disappointed In Pothead Son

(Onion News)

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Charles Graner


Public school janitor, U.S. Prison Guard, War Criminal

Only in government jobs will you find such career oportunities.




Graner Quote:
"The Christian in me says it's wrong, but the corrections officer in me says, 'I love to make a grown man piss himself.' "

Dogs at Abu Ghraib at Talk Left
"According to an investigation led by Maj. General George Fay, Cardona and Smith had a running contest in which they used their dogs to try to frighten detainees into wetting themselves".

Woman faces prison after run-in with airport screener


Green Bay Press Gazette, WI
07/25/05

Federal case will go to jury today

By Andy Nelesen
anelesen@greenbaypressgazette.com

A federal jury in Green Bay is expected to begin deciding today whether a 62-year-old retired tech school teacher is guilty of assault for grabbing a female airport screener’s breasts at the Outagamie County Regional Airport in September 2004.

Phyllis Dintenfass of Appleton faces one federal count of assault of a federal employee for allegedly shoving a Transportation Security Administration supervisor before grabbing the female agent’s breasts to protest what Dintenfass felt was an invasive search. Her trial began Monday.

Federal prosecutors contend Phyllis Dintenfass’ actions were criminal. She claims self-defense. If convicted, Dintenfass faces a year in federal prison and up to a $100,000 fine.

In testimony before U.S. District Court Judge William Griesbach, TSA screening supervisor Anita Gostisha said she saw Dintenfass activate the metal detectors at Outagamie’s security checkpoint and heard Dintenfass assert that it was the bobby pins and barrettes in her hair that triggered the alarm. After taking Dintenfass to the secondary screening area, Gostisha said she used a handheld metal detector to wand Dintenfass’ head and body, examining areas that caused the device to alert.

Gostisha, a screening supervisor for three years, said she was following protocol when she hung up the wand and then performed a “limited pat-down search,” which included touching Dintenfass on the sides and back.

Gostisha said she was searching the front of Dintenfass’ body — using the back of her hands to search the area underneath Dintenfass’ breasts — when Dintenfass lashed out.

“She said ‘How would you like it if I did that to you?’ and slammed me against the wall,” Gostisha testified. “She came at me and grabbed my breasts and squeezed them with firm pressure … squeezed them a couple of times.”

Gostisha testified that she moved away from the partition and said, “That’s enough,” and directed Dintenfass to sit down. She then alerted her supervisor and an Outagamie County Sheriff’s deputy. Dintenfass was issued a disorderly conduct citation and allowed to board her plane. The citation was later voided and the case became a federal matter.

Dintenfass does not deny that she put her hands on the TSA agent. It was only after the invasiveness of the search shocked her and her protests fell on deaf ears that she acted. She has been through the screening procedure before on previous trips because of her penchant for wearing her hair up in pins and combs, so it was no surprise she was pulled aside for a more detailed inspection.

But when the agent began touching her breasts, enough was enough, she said.

“I said, ‘What are you doing? No one’s done that to me before,’” Dintenfass said. “And she kept going … for what felt like an interminably long time. It seemed to go on and on in my mind.

“She was feeling me up.”

Dintenfass testified that she reacted out of instinct.

“I said, ‘I don’t like you feeling me up.’” Dintenfass testified. “She said, ‘I’m not feeling you up.’ I told her, ‘My husband’s been feeling me up for 40 years. I know what that feels like when someone’s feeling me up.’

“I felt violated. … She wouldn’t stop.”

Dintenfass denied that she shoved Gostisha, but admitted to putting her hands on the agent’s breasts.

“I was mortified that I had done that,” she said. “I was reacting to what felt like an absolute invasion of my body.

“I knew nothing had buzzed, so I had no idea why she was touching my breasts.”

The agent may have stepped back in response to the move, which would have caused her to bump into the partition, Dintenfass said.

“I absolutely did not push her,” Dintenfass said.

After Dintenfass got off the witness stand, a parade of character witnesses followed, including friends and former co-workers.

Sharon Fenlon, president of the Appleton School Board, testified that she has known Dintenfass for 25 years. She and Dintenfass shared an interest in art, textiles and education issues. Dintenfass’ reputation as honest and peaceful was without reproach, she said.

Ron Toshner of Greenville testified that he and Dintenfass began their careers together as instructors at Fox Valley Technical College.

He joined the others in describing Dintenfass as an honest and peaceful person.

The case resumes today with lawyers expected to make closing arguments and the jury to receive instructions on the law. Lawyers are also expected to argue to Griesbach whether jurors should be given an instruction to consider self-defense as a legal defense for her actions.

The 12-person jury — equally split by gender — is expected to begin deliberations this afternoon.

Escaped convict hitchhikes back to prison

Jerusalem, Israel
Mail & Guardian Online

An escaped Israeli convict experienced first-hand the perils of hitchhiking after he thumbed a lift on Sunday only to be picked up by a prison warden who drove him straight back to jail.

"I didn't recognise him at first, but when he leant over to ask which direction we were heading, I saw he was the prisoner we had been looking for nine months," the officer told reporters on Sunday.

"I whispered to one of my friends that he was an escaped prisoner. After he sat down and shut the door, I called the police," added the off-duty warden, who had been out day-tripping with friends to the beach.

Last week, police tried to rearrest the escaped jailbird as he laid low at his mother's house in Tiberias, before he dodged the cops and ran off.

The prisoner, who is serving a nine-year sentence for assault and drug trafficking, had given his jailers the slip nine months ago after being granted a few hours' parole. -- AFP

Report: Audit shows for-profit prison firms allowed to overbill

Miami Herald, FL
07/26/05
Associated Press

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Two for-profit prison companies were allowed to overbill Florida by nearly $13 million and even rebated some money to cover salaries and expenses for the agency policing their contracts, according to a new state audit.

The review by the Department of Management Services said the defunct Correctional Privatization Commission put profits for politically connected companies ahead of the public interest, the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper reported Monday.

"The commission consistently failed to safeguard the state's interests," Steve Rumph, the department's inspector general, wrote in his 52-page audit.

He said available records showed that the state "incurred about $12.7 million in additional costs."

The DMS, which now oversees private prisons, cited as examples that the commission paid Corrections Corp. of America and the GEO Group for guards who didn't exist at the five privately operated prisons.

Because the commission covered many "questionable and excessive costs," Rumph said there is no way of knowing whether the private prisons operate 7 percent more cheaply than state prisons, as the law requires.

New Jersey Bill Aims To Ban Smoking While Driving

July 25, 2005 9:43 p.m. EST

Yvonne Lee - All Headline News Staff Reporter

Trenton, NJ (AHN) - The New Jersey legislature considers a measure that would ban smoking while driving.

Despite the long odds of actually passing the bill, smokers are still angry. Opponents argue it is a Big Brother intrusion threatening to take away one of the few places where they can smoke freely.

Cigars, pipes and cigarettes would be prohibited for drivers. The bill's sponsor says violators could be fined up to $250, adding it is designed more to improve highway safety than protect health.

Some states, including New Jersey, have considered outlawing smoking while children are in the car. But, none have gone for an outright ban on smoking while driving.

Assemblyman John McKeon, a tobacco opponent whose father died of emphysema, is sponsoring the legislation. He cites a AAA-sponsored study on driver distractions which found 32,000 accidents linked to distraction, 1-percent were related to smoking.

Owwwww that big ol' one percent will make an enormous difference I'm sure. Here is what the President of the US Marijuana Party has to say about this.....KISS MY ASS....and you can quote me on that!!

FBI Turns Over Records Involving Inmate's Death


KUTV, UT
07/26/05

The FBI has turned over 17 internal reports to a Utah lawyer who is trying to prove his brother was killed in a federal holding cell in Oklahoma City during a botched interrogation by federal authorities.

The records were handed over on Thursday under a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Salt Lake City attorney Jesse Trentadue, who is seeking evidence for his theory that his brother, Kenneth Trentadue, was murdered in an isolation cell at the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City in August 1995.

Jesse Trentadue believes authorities mistakenly suspected that his brother _ a convicted bank robber _ was part of a gang that robbed banks to finance attacks on the government, possibly including the April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people.

Among other things, the documents reveal that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies were investigating evidence of a wider conspiracy in the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building months after claiming the conspiracy was limited to Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols.

The documents, which have been heavily redacted to delete the names of confidential sources and other information, also indicate that investigators looked into McVeigh's attempts to contact a resident of Elohim City, a heavily fortified compound in eastern Oklahoma, in the days prior to the bombing.

Separate documents state that telephone records and confidential informants indicate McVeigh called the Elohim City compound at least twice _ on April 5, 1995, and around April 17, 1995. ``McVeigh may have been trying to recruit other individuals to assist him,'' states a document dated Jan. 26, 1996.

Another heavily edited memo, dated Jan. 4, 1996, states that someone affiliated with the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based civil rights group, was at Elohim City about two weeks before the bombing when one of the Oklahoma bombing suspects allegedly called looking for a co-conspirator.

Executives who inhale

By Matthew Flamm
NewYorkBusiness.com
Published on July 25, 2005

Some New York executives unwind in the evening with a glass of wine. Others go out for a beer. And some take the edge off in a way they rarely discuss with their colleagues. Particularly in the summer, when children are at camp, these Gothamites are kicking back in a fashion reminiscent of their college days. "When my son's away, I keep my bong and my bag out on the dining room table," says Jim, co-owner of a furniture manufacturing company, who, like every other pot smoker interviewed in this article, asked not to be identified. "It makes me feel young again.

Despite the ongoing war on drugs and the stigma surrounding any illegal activity, a certain portion of the New York business community never turned in its rolling papers. For many of these otherwise law-abiding citizens, taking a few tokes of their favorite illicit substance is simply their preferred way to decompress. Though they might conceal their after-hours smoking from their co-workers, they insist that, used in moderation, the evil weed doesn't have to hurt job performance.

In the marijuana underground, New York has a reputation not only for widespread use but for the buying habits of its upscale users. City dwellers fork over as much as $600 an ounce for top-quality product, while dealers brag about selling strains grown from winners of the Amsterdam Cannabis Cup.

The city is also famous for its efficient delivery services.

"It's the only place in the country where you can get cannabis delivered, uptown and downtown, faster than pizza or Chinese food," says Allen St. Pierre, the executive director of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, based in Washington.

"Alcohol dulls everything," says Abe, a litigator at a Manhattan law firm who says he would rather toke than imbibe. "Pot sharpens certain things, like creativity."

Marijuana is also the one illicit substance that appears to enjoy widespread appeal across social and economic lines.

"Lawyers, accountants, actors, cooks ... I deal with people across the board," says Jason, who has been selling marijuana full time in New York since 1996. "From people living in hellholes who can't really afford it, to people whose secretaries I have to talk to before I can talk to them."

U.S. Counternarcotics Chief In Afghanistan Honored


Radio Free Afghanistan, Afghanistan - Jul 25, 2005

The government of Afghanistan bestowed the highest law enforcement medal in the country to John O'Rourke, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's envoy to Afghanistan, a 24 July press statement from the Afghan Interior Ministry reported. O'Rourke's tour of duty in Afghanistan, which began in January, has ended. O'Rourke's "remarkable work is recognized and appreciated by all Afghans," Afghan Deputy Interior Minister General Mohammad Daud Daud said during the awarding ceremonies. O'Rourke is the first U.S. citizen to be awarded the Medal of the First Order. AT

Legalize Marijuana in State

The following is a letter I penned last week in response to the new survey by the Association of counties.

Newshawk: Loretta Nall
Source: The Mobile Register
URL: URL
Pub Date: July 26, 2005
Author: Loretta Nall

Let's legalize marijuana in state

A new survey conducted by the National Association of Counties polled law enforcement agencies in 500 counties in 45 states. Fifty-eight percent of those agencies ranked methamphetamine as their worst illegal-drug problem.

If a majority of local law enforcement officials say methamphetamine is the biggest illegal drug problem they face, why is the national drug-use prevention effort focused most on marijuana, one might ask? The reason is job security.

Back in the 1990s, the Drug Enforcement Administration and Office of National Drug Control Policy got failing grades by the General Accounting Office because they were unable to show that they were accomplishing anything. The White House set a new goal for the ONDCP: reducing (by specific percentages) the number of illegal drug users in the United States.

Since there are more marijuana users than users of all other illicit drugs combined, the ONDCP focused their resources on pot smokers in order to inflate their numbers and keep their $11 billion annual budget intact.

Maybe it is time for states to craft their own drug policies. Let's lead the way in Alabama by taxing, regulating and controlling marijuana so that our cops will be able to focus their very limited resources on real problems.

LORETTA NALL

Alabama Marijuana Party

Montgomery

Monday, July 25, 2005

Texas man arrested after reporting marijuana theft

Mon Jul 25, 2005 6:15 PM BST

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - A Texas man was arrested on Monday after calling police to complain about the theft of his marijuana, authorities said.

Stephen Knight, 17, said three men had broken into his apartment, hogtied him with Christmas lights and stole some marijuana, along with a plasma screen television, police said.

Police are looking for the suspects. In the meantime, they arrested Knight after finding several marijuana plants growing under heat lamps in the apartment, four grams of harvested marijuana and a tablet of ecstasy, Officer Chad Ripley said.

Knight said the men barged into his home early on Monday morning demanding, "Where's the weed?," according to San Antonio police.

Sunday, July 24, 2005

Tunnel helps B.C.'s reputation as a pot mecca

Canadian Press

VANCOUVER — It's known as the marijuana capital of Canada, a haven for potheads, where grow-ops spring up at such a rate that police can't keep up with the multibillion-dollar industry that rivals tourism and forestry with its economic clout.

It's British Columbia, where the words "This bud's for you'' have nothing to do with beer.

Now, B.C.'s international reputation as a mecca for marijuana has been further solidified after Canadian and American law enforcement officials discovered a secret tunnel beneath the Canada-U.S. border to smuggle -- what else? -- pot.

Three B.C. men have been charged in Washington state with conspiracy to distribute and import marijuana after the tunnel -- longer than a football field and complete with ventilation and electricity -- was used to sneak across their first load of cannabis.

American officials have busted 33 cross-border tunnels between Mexico and Arizona but the one discovered last week was the first between Canada and the U.S., said Jeff Eig, spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration, Seattle field division.

Construction of the north-south tunnel is a likely sign that increased enforcement by Border Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security since 9-11 is so effective that B.C. smugglers had to go underground, Eig said in an interview.

"It's something, certainly, that we're going to be looking at more aggressively,'' he said.

Marijuana activist Marc Emery, dubbed the Prince of Pot by American media, said the sophisticated tunnel will only inflate Vancouver's reputation for weed.

"It will remind Americans that we're producing pot and we're trying to get it to them in any way possible,'' he said.

"I was crushed to discover (the tunnel) had been discovered so early in its history,'' quipped Emery, who has twice made a run for mayor of Vancouver and is founder of the B.C. Marijuana party.

The pot politician, who has made millions with his marijuana seed business, also founded Cannabis Culture magazine and Internet-based Pot-TV.

'Cooter': Don't Go to 'Dukes of Hazzard' Movie 'Unless It's Cleaned Up'


WASHINGTON, Va., July 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Former Georgia Congressman Ben Jones, who played "Cooter" on the hit TV series "The Dukes of Hazzard," has blasted the new film version to be released in August as a "profanity-laced script with blatant sexual situations that mocks the good clean family values of our series."

In an open letter to the fans of the show on his Web site, Jones says that "rather than honoring our legendary show, they have chosen to degrade it." He closes by saying that fans should send the producers a message that says, "If you don't clean it up, we're not going to see it." He adds, "Maybe a kick in their pocketbook will get their attention."

Jones, who was defeated by Newt Gingrich in 1994, now operates two "Dukes of Hazzard" museums, in Nashville and Gatlinburg, Tenn.

The series is now having a very successful cable run on CMT based in Nashville, Tenn.



leaf close-up
from our front yard

Baghdad lorry bomb targets police

Saturday, July 23, 2005

For the TRUE WAKE-N-BAKE Crowd



A Cannabis Culture forum member came across these on Ebay

Finally a paper for the diehard Wake-N-Baker. I looked around for some grit or biscuit flavored ones but couldn't find any.

Surviving 'Doors' lose band name


BBC

Two remaining members of The Doors have been banned from using the group's name while touring with a revamped version of the legendary 60s act.

The LA court order also requires Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger to share profits from their group with the original Doors partnership.

Doors drummer John Densmore, singer Jim Morrison's parents and those of his late wife brought the legal action.

Suit claims Gulfport court has created debtors' prison


By ROBIN FITZGERALD
rfitzgerald@sunherald.com

GULFPORT, LA - A federal lawsuit claims the City of Gulfport and its Municipal Court have created a modern-day debtors' prison.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday, alleges the city and court officials have abused their authority by putting indigent people in jail for failure to pay misdemeanor fines. It also alleges a special unit of police officers "troll the streets," primarily in predominantly black neighborhoods, looking for people who have past-due court fines.

The civil lawsuit represents only one side of a complaint.

The lawsuit was filed by the Southern Center for Human Rights and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Twelve of the 15 plaintiffs are black.

The complaint names as defendants the City of Gulfport, Municipal Judges Bill Atchison and Richard Smith and Court Administrator Bill Markopoulos.

"People who are rich are being treated differently than people who are poor," said Sarah Geraghty, a Southern Center attorney in Atlanta. "My understanding is that the Municipal Court has a new policy that everyone must pay misdemeanor fines within 30 days. For some people, this is impossible."

The Harrison County jail, long overcrowded, housed 994 inmates on Friday. Of those, 285 were held on misdemeanor charges from Gulfport, jail officials said. Municipalities pay the jail $15 per day per inmate.

The "most disgraceful" complaint, said Geraghty, involves Virginia Thomas, described as illiterate and mentally retarded.

"She is so impaired she cannot even write her own name. Her only source of income is a small monthly SSI check. She has been incarcerated for more than one month for old fines on five occasions. She's never been appointed a lawyer."