Pubdate: Thu, 08 Sep 2005
Source: NOW Magazine (CN ON)
Copyright: 2005 NOW Communications Inc.
Contact:  http://www.nowtoronto.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/282
Author: Matt Mernagh
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?196 (Emery, Marc)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

WEED SEED BUYERS BEWARE

That Notice YOU Got In The Mail May Be Part Of A DEA Sting

The pro-pot movement may have been freaked by the U.S. Drug Enforcement 
Administration's (DEA) nabbing of Canuck marijuana seed entrepreneur Marc 
Emery, but inhale deeply - the worst may be yet to come. What exactly is 
the DEA busy with here? The DEA denies it, but suspicious pot activists 
suggest it's planning a mass roundup of Emery's buyers.

Some of Emery's customers were stunned recently to receive a letter 
purportedly seeking support money for Emery's defence fund. "Smoke for 
freedom of choice! Smoke for our leader! Overgrow the government!" reads 
the notice, which asks for an additional $50 to fill seed orders and 
stipulates that donations be sent via money order through Wal-Mart or 
Western Union - both of which require I.D. It's from info given at the 
money-order stage that pot activists contend the DEA is amassing its hit list.

According to Emery, notices have turned up in 16 U.S. states, seven 
provinces and territories, as well as New Zealand and Australia.

The notice's request for cash to fill orders is curious given the fact that 
Emery's seed business has been shut down and the DEA has confiscated all 
his inventory.

Emery, who swears he has never kept a client list, in order to protect the 
privacy of his clients, insists this suspicious missive was not sent by him 
or anyone he knows.

He has posted the oddly worded flyer on his Cannabis Culture website, 
warning recipients not to respond to it.

Emery's sure it's the work of the DEA. He says info the DEA has so far 
disclosed to his lawyer, John Conroy, indicates that its agents scanned 
both the incoming and outgoing mail for his seed operation in the weeks 
prior to his arrest on July 29. Emery says more than 60 people have 
notified him that they got the letter in the mail starting August 5.

"They want to get us all," Emery says.

Josh Williams, a quadriplegic from London, Ontario, received seeds from 
Emery based on his Health Canada exemption. Then came the mysterious notice.

"It would have been the Wednesday after the arrest," Williams says. "I just 
thought it was odd. I didn't pay for the seeds, and it was asking for money 
to get them. This seemed weird and suspicious."

Williams goes on: "The writing - 'Smoke for our leader' - that's nothing 
Marc or someone who writes for him would say. It doesn't sound like Emery 
at all. 'Use code names. Go to Wal-Mart. Use Western Union.' That's not 
Marc either.

"I'm worried that someone has my address now and they know what I do. It's 
an invasion of privacy."

Spokespeople with neither the DEA nor the U.S. Department of Justice in 
Seattle, Washington, could - or would - shed any light on this caper.

Ditto for RCMP spokesperson Paul Marsh, who refers all questions on the 
matter to Foreign Affairs in Ottawa, which did not return calls.

Seattle-based prosecutor Todd Greenberg is a little more forthcoming.

"They're trying to make people angry against their government and the U.S. 
government," he says of the alleged DEA sting, before saying there could be 
further arrests.

Ian Hillman at the U.S. Consulate in Vancouver, suggests just how large the 
Emery probe has become, saying, "This nearly involves every state. There 
are aspects of the investigation where it's not in our interest to reveal 
how many people are working on it. [But] I understand it involves dozens of 
people on both sides of the border."

By most accounts, it looks like Emery and two others indicted with him by a 
Seattle grand jury on May 26 for marijuana seed distribution, marijuana 
distribution and money laundering are in for an extended judicial adventure.

"This case raises a plethora of unique defences," say prominent 
Philadelphia lawyer Theodore Simon.

A favourite as a talking head on intricate international cases on Court TV, 
Simon declares that "it is the law of the requested country [Canada] that 
prevails in all extradition cases, not the requesting country's [U.S.].

"Does Canada extradite if the action is wholly lawful there? It's the 
governing laws of Canada that will decide."

In a case similar to the Prince of Pot's, the noted lawyer used a 
lack-of-knowledge defence to win after Canada sought to extradite an 
American who sold furniture using a "going out of business sale" gimmick.

Simon says, "Canada has strict laws governing that type of activity [false 
going-out-of-biz marketing], while it's much looser in the U.S. The law of 
the U.S. governed his action, and the fellow was unaware that the law is 
strict in Canada. We prevailed."

He asks, "How will the courts of Canada determine whether Emery knew where 
[his product] was going? With that type of defence, a person may be 
protected from extradition."

A court would have to determine, he says, what the conversation was like 
between the Drug Enforcement Administration agents posing as customers and 
Emery. "If they said they wanted to buy seeds and bring them back to 
Arkansas and he engaged them by saying, 'Do it, Little Rock,' then that's 
evidence that he or his staff knew the seeds were going to the U.S."

The American lawyer is amazed that Emery continues with his defiant 
admission that he sold south.

Says Emery, with deliberation but quieter than usual: "I've made plenty of 
American seeds sales and given them away to California med growers and in 
all the med users' states.

"The last ad Marc Emery Seeds Direct took out was in the San Francisco Bay 
Guardian. The ad ran June 22 advertising our med pack. Very affordable. Our 
ad is next to an ad for free med grass consultations. There are 150 seed 
sellers in California alone."

But U.S. National Association of Criminal Lawyers spokesperson Jack King 
thinks the DEA may have jurisdictional issues to contend with once the 
matter gets to court.

"Where does the DEA get jurisdiction to operate in Canada? Under the piracy 
clause in the U.S. Constitution? That's for the high seas. Last I looked, 
BC was known for its soil.

"In one respect," he adds, "this is just another trade dispute with Canada."
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