Freedom is Knowledge: December 2010

Monday, December 20, 2010

Billboards

I'm looking to get a fund started to purchase some billboard space to help either the Free Marc movement, or just for the legalization of cannabis in general.

This caught my eye

and if more people started seeing that on their drive to work everyday, taking the bus or the subway, or even just going shopping maybe we could get the ball rolling just a little faster

Even something like this one for LEAP would be better than all the makeup, alcohol and clothing ads I see everyday

Either way leave a comment if you want to help out and we can start saving to spread awareness

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Marc Emery Video List

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Marc Emery and Marijuana

Marc Emery's life in marijuana activism goes further than just what I'm writing, but here is a brief overview of some of the Prince of Pot's marijuana accomplishments

After selling 2 Live Crew's banned album, Marc got into the business of selling marijuana literature, and the High Times magazine. At the time this was illegal in Canada, but he had the balls to set up shop right outside of the police station in London, Ontario and invited police to his store to arrest him. This never happened.

Marc Emery started to get people going on the issue of marijuana legalization, planting the seeds of change by requesting that people plant marijuana on government property to "Overgrow the Government"

In 1994 he moved to Vancouver and started up his own store called "Hemp BC." At the time bongs, pipes and marijuana literature were all still illegal, but once again the law did not deter him. He imported and wholesaled all the paraphernalia he could, and encouraged others to start up their own shop and do the same.

Later that year Marc Emery participated in a court challenge to overturn the laws against selling marijuana related literature, including High Times magazine and other grow your own books. This is also the time that Marc Emery Direct Marijuana Seeds started to come into play and in early 1995 he created his own magazine called Cannabis Canada, now known as Cannabis Culture.

Late 1995 saw Marc Emery on the front page of the Wall Street Journal for essentially creating the marijuana seed industry, which led to a load of media attention. Unfortunately this media attention did not simply attract more business, it also brought the Vancouver Police. They raided Hemp BC and took his bongs and seeds, and hit him with 4 counts of selling marijuana seeds at $500 per charge and "Promoting Vaporizers" which was an additional $200. He opened again the next day and began to expand his business.

By 1997 Marc had included a grow shop, legal assistance and the Cannabis Cafe, with a vaporizer built into every table. This led to him being featured on CNN, earning his title "The Prince of Pot" from the announcer, and also once again drew attention from the police. They came back on December 16 of 1997 and once again took all the paraphernalia and seeds, as well as removing the vaporizers installed in the tables. They claimed to have taken $1.6 million worth of paraphernalia as well as tens of thousands of seeds. For this Marc was only charged with assaulting an officer after spitting on him. He did it because the officers, on camera, were assaulting his employees and Marc wanted to show his disgust in a non-violent way.
After being banned from the store's location he sold his business to the manager at the time who ended up having to deal with more police raids, and eventually a revoked business licence.
Marc continued with his seed business and suffered another 2 raids in 1998, and stuck with a $2000 fine. This brought him to close the store-front and turn it into mail order only business.

In 2000 Marc Emery started up Pot-TV, an internet marijuana show, spending over $200000 to convert a basement into a computer studio.
In 2002 when John Walters, an "American Drug Czar" came to speak at a Vancouver Board of Trade Luncheon, Marc Emery purchased a table full of activists, and heckled John as he tried to force the American war on drugs to Canada.

In 2004 Marc was convicted of trafficking because he passed a joint. This led to him serving 61 days in jail, with his supporters on the doorstep holding a vigil throughout his stay.

Marc Emery used the money he made to help fund a wide variety of marijuana activist groups from fundraising for the BC Marijuana Party, to legal challenges on Cannabis law. He paid more than $500000 in taxes to the Canadian government for his business from 1998 until 2005 when he was raided once again, at the request of the DEA, for "Conspiracy to Distribute Marijuana, Conspiracy to Distribute Marijuana Seeds, and Conspiracy to Engage in Money Laundering"

Charges were not laid in Canada and the US began their quest to extradite Marc for sentencing in the states.

I don't know if it is just me but there are two charges laid on Marc that I find extremely confusing. The first is the "Promoting Vaporizers" charge. Vaporizers are a safe and healthy alternative for smoking, so how promoting them is a crime I will never know.

Also the money laundering charges confuse me because it is clear that Marc was paying his taxes, and running a legitimate Canadian business. Perhaps his donations to activist groups may have led to the idea of laundering, but at almost $100000 in taxes a year I seriously doubt the claim has any grounds.

Either way next time I will be going a little more into detail on the 2005 extradition case, and I will have a list of organized links to some Emery related video including Paul Mckeever's Principle of Pot.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Who is Marc Emery?

Marc Emery, also known as The Prince of Pot, is the main man when it comes to the fight to legalize marijuana.

If you don't know who he is then here is a quick list of just some of his important non-marijuana related activist endeavours.

1. In 1987 and 1988 he fought against the archaic Sunday shopping laws, prohibiting stores to be open on Sundays, by opening his store 8 Sundays in a row. For this he was charged for each of the 8 separate days he left his store open. In March 1988 he spent four days in jail after refusing to pay a fine for something that he believed should not be a crime

2. In 1991 he campaigned against the bid to bring the Pan-Am games to London, Ontario. He and his colleagues felt that increasing taxes to pay for something like that was irresponsible and would lead to the loss of millions for the city of London

3. In 1991 he also began to fight censorship. After 2 Live Crew's album "As Nasty As They Wanna Be" was banned in Ontario, he went to the U.S and brought back inventory of the CD for his store. He did this all out in the open taking out advertisements in the paper telling people to come to his store for the banned album.

"A bad law is one that restricts our personal choices in the way we live our own life." Marc Emery on Sunday shopping

This is just a small sampling of what Marc has done to help bring freedom about. He also provided free garbage pickup during a garbage strike in 1986, and participated politically with the Libertarian Party and the Unparty, now known as the Freedom Party

My next posting will be about his work towards the Legalization of Marijuana, and the politically motivated raid in 2005 which led to his extradition to the US for a 5 year sentence.