Marijuana: Canada's "Prince of Plot" Pleads Guilty, Accepts Five-Year Prison Sentence

Canada's most famous marijuana activist is now serving a federal prison sentence in the US. Erstwhile Internet pot seed seller Marc Emery appeared in federal court in Seattle Monday to accept a plea deal that will see him most likely serving five years in prison for his efforts.

Emery and two employees, Michelle Rainey and Greg Williams, were indicted by a federal grand jury in Seattle in 2005 for allegedly selling pot seeds to customers in the US. After Rainey and Williams were able to plea bargain probationary sentences to be served in Canada, Emery himself accepted a plea bargain to avoid the possibility of losing at trial and serving up to life in prison if he did.

On Monday, he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana. Under the agreement reached with prosecutors, they will recommend a five-year sentence. But the sentencing judge is not bound by that agreement and, if he orders a harsher sentence, Emery has the right under the plea agreement to renege and go to trial. Formal sentencing is set for August.

Then DEA administrator Karen Tandy hailed Emery's arrest as "a significant blow not only to the marijuana trafficking trade, but also the marijuana legalization movement," a move that added fuel to claims by Emery supporters that he was being prosecuted for political reasons.

Emery certainly had been a thorn in the side of prohibitionists everywhere, dating back to battles in the 1980s over whether High Times could be sold in Canada. In the 1990s, Emery emerged as a major force in the legalization movement, with his cafe and BC Marijuana Party headquarters in downtown Vancouver serving as his command center.

Emery made millions selling seeds and plowed most of the proceeds back into the legalization movement, funding marijuana parties and other activism in the US, Canada, and overseas. He remains undaunted by the specter of five years behind bars and is vowing to continue his fight from within the American drug war gulag.

Emery and his supporters are urging the Canadian government to take action to allow him to serve his sentence in his home country, as is usually the case, but has not been the case for some drug suspects under the ruling Conservative government. To find out more about Emery, his case, and the campaign to get him home, visit Cannabis Culture, the magazine he founded and which his wife, Jodie, now manages.

Shortly before Emery was extradited last Thursday, Jodie Emery accused the Canadian government of helping the US government try to "silence the most vocal opponent of the drug war." But the US government will find, as so many have before, that nothing you do will make Marc Emery shut up.