Marc Emery, 52, a Vancouver cannabis activist known as the “Prince of Pot”, was sentenced on 10 September 2010 in the U.S. District Court in Seattle to five years in federal prison and four years of supervised release for conspiracy to manufacture marijuana.[1] Judge Ricardo S. Martinez told him there was “no question” his actions were illegal and criminal and had ensured that others broke the law and suffered the consequences.[1][2]
Emery had been indicted in 2005, when the U.S. authorities described him as the largest supplier of marijuana seeds in the country, and he was extradited from Canada in May 2010.[1] In his plea agreement he admitted running the Marc Emery Direct seed business with Michelle Rainey and Gregory Keith Williams, selling seeds to customers across the United States — about three-quarters of sales — through a Vancouver shop and mail and telephone orders, and selling seeds to an undercover DEA agent in 2004 and 2005; he claimed to have made about $3 million a year and sold more than four million seeds.[1] Rainey and Williams were sentenced the previous year to two years of probation for the same conspiracy.[1]
Sentence and reaction
About 40 supporters rallied outside the Seattle courthouse, and Emery’s wife Jodie called the outcome “a mix of emotions” after a case that had dragged on since 2005.[2] Judge Martinez recommended Emery serve his time at the Federal Correctional Institution in Lompoc, California, and informally asked the Justice Department to approve a treaty transfer so Emery could serve his sentence in Canada.[2] Emery and his supporters maintained the prosecution was political, citing a 2005 DEA statement celebrating his arrest as a blow to marijuana-legalization fundraising; prosecutors answered that his politics had nothing to do with the case.[2]
