By Gurmukh Singh, IANS
Toronto : Canada’s ‘prince of pot’ and die-hard India-admirer Marc Emery, who faced trial in the US for marijuana smuggling, has struck a deal with Americans to avoid deportation. Instead, he will serve time in Canada.
Whether he goes to jail is another matter because Canada has very lenient laws on marijuana use. Patients can grow their own marijuana if prescribed by the doctor.
North America’s most famous marijuana activist, Emery runs the Marijuana Party of Canada, Pot-TV and Cannabis Culture magazine to promote his cause.
He runs stores in Vancouver and Toronto to sell pot seeds for making cannabis and pays taxes on proceeds. But the trade is illegal in America.
Under pressure from the US who wanted to try him for marijuana smuggling, Emery, along with his buddies Michelle Rainey and Greg Williams, was arrested in 2005. After his release, he was waiting for extradition proceedings to begin.
A die-hard India fan, Emery told this correspondent some time ago that he undertook his marijuana mission after being inspired by India. He said when he was visiting India in 1992 he was shocked to see sadhus smoking the drug at Pushkar and Varanasi.
He said: “I couldn’t believe my eyes. They were smoking ganja (marijuana) openly. No policemen interrupted them. In Varanasi, sadhus even used bhang. In Jaisalmer, I found a shop selling charas.
“I said to myself: In North America we are spending million of dollars to stop drug trade, and here in India nobody stops these sadhus. There is no prohibition. In India I found my mission.”
On his return from India in 1994, he launched a movement to overthrow prohibition in Canada and opened a shop called Hemp BC in Vancouver to openly sell marijuana.
Over the years, he said he has made millions by selling pot.
“After many police raids, I stopped selling over the counter. Now I sell by mail order. I keep no receipts so that there is no proof against me,” he said.
“Prohibition grants a monopoly to gangsters who charge whatever price they want. If you lift prohibition, crime syndicates will disappear. I am committed to ending prohibition,” said Emery, who bankrolls pro-marijuana initiatives in America and the Legalize Cannabis Party in New Zealand.