He is not and never has been a millionaire. Rented an apartment, leased a car and had to turn to his supporters to pay his and Jodie's fines from the last court case. Filed his taxes every year and listed his occupation as Marijuana Seed Vendor. Our Canadian gov't was happy to take his tax payments off those sales but threw him under the bus when the US came after him for those same sales that were perfectly legal here. His 5 years in US federal prisons was part of a plea agreement so the other two people named in the indictment would be set free.
POLITICAL PRISONER
The US Drug Enforcement Administration admitted on the day of Marc Emery’s arrest that his investigation and extradition were politically motivated, designed to target the marijuana legalization efforts and organizations that Emery spearheaded and financed for over a decade.Here is the original text of DEA Administrator Karen Tandy’s statement released on July 29th, 2005 (also available in its original letterhead form by clicking here):“Today’s DEA arrest of Marc Scott Emery, publisher of Cannabis Culture Magazine, and the founder of a marijuana legalization group — is a significant blow not only to the marijuana trafficking trade in the U.S. and Canada, but also to the marijuana legalization movement.
His marijuana trade and propagandist marijuana magazine have generated nearly $5 million a year in profits that bolstered his trafficking efforts, but those have gone up in smoke today.
Emery and his organization had been designated as one of the Attorney General’s most wanted international drug trafficking organizational targets — one of only 46 in the world and the only one from Canada.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars of Emery’s illicit profits are known to have been channeled to marijuana legalization groups active in the United States and Canada. Drug legalization lobbyists now have one less pot of money to rely on.”
On May 10th, 2010, Marc was ordered extradited by Justice Minister Rob Nicholson. He was taken to the USA on May 20th, 2010 and has been serving his sentence in a private for-profit prison in Georgia from late 2010 to April 2011. He was moved to Yazoo City medium security federal prison in Mississippi in April 2011 and has been detained there since.
Marc Emery gave away all of the profits from his seed business – millions of dollars – to drug law reform lobbyists, political parties, global protests and rallies, court litigation, medical marijuana initiatives, drug rehabilitation clinics, and other legitimate legal activities and organizations in Canada, the United States, and countries worldwide.
Marc Emery has been known as a book seller and activist in Canada for 30 years, fighting against censorship laws and other social issues long before he became a drug law reform activist.
Love him or hate him he devoted a lot of time and money in his efforts to fight oppressive laws in Canada and definitely accelerated Canada's move toward legalization tho what we have wasn't what he was aiming for. Things will change eventually until the plant is finally freed thanks to the efforts of Marc and people like him.
If these accusations prove to be true then that's deplorable but still doesn't negate what good he has done nor does the good justify the bad.
I'd much rather see Marc profit from cannabis than the political hypocrites that are are raking in the dough now thanks to Harper setting things up then Trudeau supporting the corporate takeover.
Prohibition 2.0 is not legalization.
