Pubdate: Sat, 16 Apr 2011
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2011 Times Colonist
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/letters.html
Website: http://www.timescolonist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Ian Mulgrew
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Marc+Emery

EMERY DENIED RETURN TO CANADA

Prince of Pot Must Serve Prison Sentence in U.S.

Canada's socalled "Prince of Pot" has been told he won't be allowed a
prison transfer and must serve his entire sentence in the United States.

Kirk Tousaw, a Canadian lawyer for Vancouver resident Marc Emery, said
American authorities told his client in a letter received Friday that
the U.S. government refused his transfer on April 6 due to the
"seriousness of the offence" and "law enforcement concerns."

He received the news in a federal holding institution in Oklahoma
awaiting transfer to a prison in Mississippi.

Emery, who had been imprisoned in Georgia, pleaded guilty May 24 in
Seattle to selling marijuana seeds to Americans through his
Vancouver-based catalogue company and was sentenced to five years in
prison.

Tousaw said he can reapply for transfer to a Canadian institution
again for two years.

Emery's wife Jodie was disheartened.

"There's nothing we can do at this point beyond asking for a
presidential pardon in the U.S., which I'm going to start campaigning
for, actually, because I have to do whatever I can to get Marc home,"
she said Friday.

"We're both devastated to hear this news. The idea of him spending the
next three or four years in the U.S. federal prison system for
political activism financed by seed sales -sales that now happen
legally across America every day -is sickening and heartbreaking," she
said.

Tousaw said that with good behaviour, it's possible Emery could get
out after serving 85 per cent of his sentence.

Emery's announcement comes the same week an Ontario Superior Court
judge ruled that two key parts of the Controlled Drugs and Substances
Act are unconstitutional and gave the Canadian government three months
to respond to the decision.

If the government does not respond with a successful delay or
re-regulation of marijuana, the drug will be legal to possess and
produce in Ontario, where the decision is binding. 
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