Pubdate: Tue, 25 May 2010 Source: Province, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2010 Canwest Publishing Inc. Contact: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476 Author: Laura Baziuk, The Province Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Marc+Emery MARC EMERY PLEADS GUILTY Pot Crusader Must Wait in Jail Until Aug. 27 for Sentence Hearing Marijuana activist Marc Emery pleaded guilty to conspiracy to manufacture marijuana in a Seattle courtroom Monday, and must now wait three months in a Washington jail to be sentenced. Canada's self-proclaimed prince of pot was extradited to the U.S. two weeks ago. Emery, president of the B.C. Marijuana Party, was arrested in 2005 for selling marijuana seeds by mail to U.S. residents out of his Cannabis Culture store in Vancouver. Two of his employees were also arrested. "Today, Marc Emery acknowledged that he broke the law," U.S. attorney Jenny A. Durkan said, adding that 75 per cent of Emery's mail-order seeds sales were to Americans. "A five-year prison term will hold Emery accountable for his choice to ignore the law." U.S. prosecutors agreed on a five-year sentence in return for Emery's guilty plea and two years' probation for his co-accused. His wife, Jodie, said she and their supporters will try to get her husband home to Canada to serve his sentence. He can apply to do so once he has been convicted in the U.S., she said. He must first receive approval from both governments, she added. "That's the only thing we can do at this point," Jodie told The Province on Monday. Last weekend, she helped hold a rally in downtown Vancouver as part of the Free Marc Emery campaign. She said her husband has been living in a cell just over half-a-metre wide with no sunlight or fresh air, but he is getting along with the other inmates. She hopes to visit him next week, and until then, communicates with him by phone and email. "That's a lifesaver so far." Emery's sentencing hearing is set for Aug. 27. He remains at a federal detention centre in SeaTac Washington, about 20 kilometres south of Seattle. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake