Pubdate: Fri, 12 Aug 2005
Source: New York Daily News (NY)
Copyright: 2005 Daily News, L.P.
Contact:  http://www.nydailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/295
Author: Hudson Morgan
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?196 (Emery, Marc)

PUBLISHER SEES BIZ GOING TO POT

Does the recent arrest of Marc Emery, publisher of Cannabis Culture
magazine and the self-proclaimed "Prince of Pot," mean that the high
times are over for marijuana mags?

The 47-year-old Emery was busted July 29 in Vancouver, British
Columbia, for selling millions of dollars worth of marijuana seeds in
the U.S. and Canada - and faces 10 years to life if extradited to
stand trial here.

Now Emery - out on $50,000 bail - is predicting terrible financial
consequences for his fellow stoner mags that advertise seeds,
especially the New York-based High Times.

"It's going to be very difficult for all of us, no doubt about it," he
told Lowdown yesterday. "People will be hesitant to take out seed ads.
I have some faint hope that I can resist extradition, but High Times
is based out of New York and therefore the government could hold
people there liable. If you have knowledge that marijuana seed sales
are going on, and you facilitate that, you become part of the
conspiracy."

Emery faces charges of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and
marijuana seeds, and conspiracy to engage in money laundering.

"There's actually now very little product that you're allowed to even
advertise in magazines like High Times and Cannabis Culture," he lamented.

But High Times co-editor Rick Cusick pooh-poohed Emery's alarmism. "We
have a very varied ad portfolio for just this reason," he explained.
"No one part of our business is going to put us in trouble."

Emery, for his part, is fatalistic.

"I'd say that it's extremely likely that I'll spend the rest of my
life in a U.S. penitentiary."
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin