What an ass.

and he calls those who chose to use marijuana stupid/idiots, he now chooses to come out of the closet so to speak? he says politicians are afraid of being labeled soft on crime but now that he is no longer a prosecutor he thinks or feels that his opinion means shit? I am guessing he don't see how much of a stupid idiot he was than when he was sending people to jail or prison for a non violent offence, for simply possessing marijuana, I have to wonder how he feels about the people that go home and drink a beer, are they idiots too? or the people that go to Mcdonalds and eat a big mac and french fries and than wash it down with a diet coke, or the millions of people that take aspirin everyday, IDIOT? he needs to look in the mirror when he speaks the word idiot. 

Marc Emery is going to be formally sentenced to 5 years in US federal prison this Friday, September 10th in US federal court. Please update the story!

Also note that the DEA explained in perfect detail why Marc was arrested -- for his legalization activism and politics. 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."

What a hypocrite!  This is the man that had Marc arrested!  Now he's changing sides, but he still thinks pot smokers are 'idiots'?  Fuckin' jerk!  Yeah, there may be some weekend warriors who get stoned as hell and do stupid shit, but that's not the majority.  In fact, when you're using Med. MJ, you don't become an 'idiot', you stay home and let the medicine help.

Free Marc Emery!

John McKay is just jumping on the legalization bandwagon.

He should apologize immediately for hounding and prosecuting Marc Emery.

And to call all cannabis users "idiots"?

HYPOCRITE !!!!!

Y'know, I don't care if he thinks I'm an idiot.  Fortunately my concept of self-worth isn't determined by his opinion of me.  The tide is turning and will very soon sweep across this county.  Politicians who don't learn to surf will find themselves drowning.  Register.  Vote.  Sign petitions.  Sponsor referendums.  Write your congressman.  We will prevail.

i found this article to be interesting, although i have nothing of any relevance to say, i would like to include that Marc Emery is awesome! Weed is good and in fact... weed is so good, I'm gonna go smoke this roach joint and get lifted.

Peace  <llllllllllllllllllllll>

The main point to remember is that he is now pro-legalization in some form.  Baby steps, after all, this is the US we are talking about, remember?  I took courage for him to speak publicly about this.

I hope, however, that his 'switching sides' has some effect on Marc Emery's severely unfair incarceration.

Did you know the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services got a patent for "cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants" in 2003? http://spryeye.blogspot.com/2008/11/uncle-sams-pot-patent-proves-pot.html

Sounds like pro persecutor McKay could use some "neuroprotectants" -and some integrity.
 

Did you know the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services got a patent for "cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants" in 2003? http://spryeye.blogspot.com/2008/11/uncle-sams-pot-patent-proves-pot.html

Sounds like pro persecutor McKay could use some "neuroprotectants" -and some integrity.
 

What is the government going to replace THC in marijuana with? formaldehyde? ammonia? hydrogen cyanide? arsenic?  Then they will put out big ad campaigns to get people to quit? LOLOLOLOL  Sound familiar?  The government is a joke!  The less we have to do with them, the better!

When it does become legal I want it to be worldwide so I can go to my local CCBO outlet in Canada and buy some primo hash from the Rif mountains in Morocco or some nice Nepalnese or whatever. You can get ripped on overproof poison from the liquor store so why should we limit thc content. Just make it legal worldwide!

Marijuana is safer then alcohol there are no recorded death's throughout history nor will there ever be. Marijuana has hundreds of medical purposes and can give a better quality of life to many people who are suffering. And to generalize that pot heads are idiots is just plain out ignorant and ill informed. Does this guy get his info on stoners from cheech and chong. He seems to have no compasion towords the people who are put in danger from the so called brave law enforcement officers. The same type of officers that stuck an automatic shotgun in my harmless 16 year old little sisters face when they raided my parents house and found nothing. If law enforcement is so brave why are they scared of my 16 year old little sister enough to shove a live automatic shotgun in her face. I would replace brave law enforcement officers with hyped up adrenaline junkie Fascist's.

Nevermind that the CIA is responsible for most of the illegal drugs smuggled into the US in the first place. How else do you fund black ops? Look behind the veil people.

While it is good to see this guy coming around to the intelligent viewpoint, he remains an idiot and obviously is ignorant of the plant and how best to begin development of regulatory policy for normal use. What he does not understand is that higher "potency" in cannabis is desirable for many reasons. Potency with some drugs may mean concentrations that have health risks, truly harmful ones. That is not true of cannabis. Potency with cannabis should be thought of more in terms of purity, more active ingredient, less undesired plant material etc that are essentially impurities.

He calls the plant a drug and succeeds in confusing and conflating the raw plant with synthesized compounds manufactured and sold that actually are drugs in the regular sense of the word. He's certain that high potency cannabis can get a user dangerously too high, like an overdose I guess. Hopefully when we get there he won't have anything to say about it.

Thinks pot smokers are Idiot's , He most likely thinks the above post was written by a pot smoker, we know the truth .

Passage of the CA Proposition 19 will deal a serious blow to the Mexican drug cartels and to the "drug war" in general. It will also restore sanity to the California State budget by collecting sizable Cannabis revenues and eliminating the wasteful spending on the so-called anti-Cannabis "enforcement". It is established by the science of addiction medicine that the so-called "gateway drug" theory, advanced by the opponents of the measure is a complete fantasy, as is the assertion that Cannabis is "physically addictive". Cannabis is NOT physically addictive, as there is no clearly definable and reproducible PHYSICAL withdrawal syndrome, associated with its use, as opposed to truly physically addictive substances such as opiates or alcohol. In fact, the latest addiction medicine research reveals that Cannabis may serve as an "exit" substance with the potential of helping former alcoholics or hard drug users to abstain from alcohol, hard drugs, or even dangerous and physically addictive prescription drugs! It is also being established that Cannabis use may help prevent such serious illnesses as cancer and Alzheimer's disease! Cannabis use also suppresses violent urges and behaviors. Let's not be intimidated by the scare-tactics of the "opponents", but be motivated instead by science, reason and understanding of these issues, and this means voting YES on California Proposition 19 on November 2!

It takes little effort these days for John McKay and others with some PR exposure to know which way the wind blows.  The wind blows in the direction of legal and regulated cannabis.

If I were a prosecutor, I certainly wouldn’t want to be known simply as the guy who prosecuted Marc Emery either.  The drug war has become radioactive.  Any public figure supporting prohibition from here on out is likely to get badly burned by a deadly focused ray of public opinion.

A majority of citizens have outgrown this childish brand of government denial, disregard, distortion and discouragement of legitimate drug science or related social science imposed from the onset of prohibition.  In all cases, prohibition has combined forces with demonization tactics to talk down to the public on drug issues, and that has obviously made them angry as well as rebellious.

McKay’s perception of cannabis aficionados is nonsense.  Cannabis users are people who have charted a new path to personal freedom.  John McKay will now have to play catch up.  He has many miles to go before he sleeps.

Giordano

I hope Prop 19 passes. I do not live in CA, and where I do live waaaay down in deSouf' will not decriminalize (not even to mention legalize) for at least 100 yrs from now (same way we handled Jim Crow laws and continue to handle laws relating to booze). 

I find it no surprise the former prosecutor now thinks differently. Happens all the time -- most notably on the subject of guns. From Reagan on, after they are out of office conservative hypocrites who virtually made love to the NRA have disavowed the NRA and their previous position on the subject. No different here.

just short of an apology :( but i think this is the best you can hope for with somebody like John Mckay. Chalk up  another point for Cannabis! 

Passage of the CA Proposition 19 will deal a serious blow to the Mexican drug cartels and to the "drug war" in general. It will also restore sanity to the California State budget by collecting sizable Cannabis revenues and eliminating the wasteful spending on the so-called anti-Cannabis "enforcement". It is established by the science of addiction medicine that the so-called "gateway drug" theory, advanced by the opponents of the measure is a complete fantasy, as is the assertion that Cannabis is "physically addictive". Cannabis is NOT physically addictive, as there is no clearly definable and reproducible PHYSICAL withdrawal syndrome, associated with its use, as opposed to truly physically addictive substances such as opiates or alcohol. In fact, the latest addiction medicine research reveals that Cannabis may serve as an "exit" substance with the potential of helping former alcoholics or hard drug users to abstain from alcohol, hard drugs, or even dangerous and physically addictive prescription drugs! It is also being established that Cannabis use may help prevent such serious illnesses as cancer and Alzheimer's disease! Cannabis use also suppresses violent urges and behaviors. Let's not be intimidated by the scare-tactics of the "opponents", but be motivated instead by science, reason and understanding of these issues, and this means voting YES on California Proposition 19 on November 2!

Then John McKay should handle Marc Emery's appeal Pro-bono! But first he needs educates himself on cannabis in general, from the history of prohibition to what a wonderful healing plant it is and stop calling the educated users idiots. Frankly I believe if cannabis works for your health issues it is far safer than  the chemical pharmaceuticals. As a relaxant safer than alcohol or valium. The idiots are those keeping the draconian laws on the books and those pushing the poisonous pharmaceuticals and alcohol.  

It is a criminal offense for officials or executives of the U.S. government to direct or conspire to wage a deliberate campaign of misinformation, omission of fact, and outright lies with our tax dollars.

The Controlled Substance Act of 1970 and subsequent scheduling was done before science was even aware the human body has an endocannabinoid system. It was discovered in the mid 1980’s. Congress enacted laws against marijuana in 1970 based in part on its conclusion that marijuana has no scientifically proven medical value. In the last 40 years much scientific documentation has taken place. It must be taken into consideration. 

Professor  Dr. Mechoulam, describes the role of Cannabinoids as anti-inflammatory for arthritis, as neuroprotectant for brain injury  Dr. Mechoulam first isolated THC in 1964. At a conference hosted by Patients Out of Time. Dr. Mechoulam stated “My good Italian friend, Emazo, summarized the activity, which is really a summary says well what do the Cannabinoids do, they relax, help us eat, sleep, forget, and protect, not remember, forget, and don’t think that forgetting is less important than recalling, We should have a system to forget, otherwise, well if you wish, we can burst, if you go down a mall and see a thousand faces do you want to remember all of them, of course not. But there are also other memories we certainly try to forget, other wise each one of us would be in a constant trauma.” 

More studies have been done proving the medicinal effectiveness and safety of cannabis/marijuana than any other organic or chemical substance, manmade or found in nature known to man. Cannabis has been shown to be safe and effective for, but not limited to :
AIDS wasting syndrome and other ailments, Alzheimer's and pre-Alzheimer's disease, anorexia wasting, arthritis, asthma, autoimmune diseases, cancer and chemotherapy side effects, Crohn's disease and other digestive ailments, cramps, epilepsy, fibromyalgia, glaucoma, inflammation, migraine, multiple sclerosis, nausea, post-traumatic stress disorder, premenstrual syndrome, sickle cell anemia, spasticity, spinal injury, stress, stroke, Tourette’s syndrome, and many rare diseases for which there is no know cure or treatment. It is effective for many mental conditions which include but not limited to attention deficit disorder (ADD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar, and depression. Cannabis is effective for use as an antibiotic, antibacterial, anti-viral, as a healing agent, or as an adjunct to many other medical or herbal treatments. It has been proven and shown to kill cancer cells and the latest research actually explains how cannabis kills cancer at the cellular level.

Who are the idiots?

http://requesttoreschedulecannabis.blog.com/

Marijuana is a drug,Beer is a plant.

You can drink 8 or 10 bottles a day ,till the end of your miserable life.

Is Not Addictive.

What a wonderfull joke. :)

Well go figure. What a kick in the teeth, though your efforts have no doubt contributed to this decision. He`s the Idiot and just now he is admitting it also. 

Will he speak in favor of letting Marc go with time served at his sentencing this Friday, September 10th 2010?   If not then this turn of events is simply selfish.  He is trying to make himself feel better for putting so many nonviolent people behind bars.

Reducing the amount of THC. in marijuana. is the most stupid thing I've ever heard. If you want to talk about being stupid. After all, THC. is what were looking for. The lower the THC. content the more we have to smoke. When marijuana is grown past its peek THC production period, the THC. begins to break down, and other chemical compounds are produced called cannabinol, which cause all the bad side effects that cause drowsiness, munchies, paranoia, and other less desirable effects. If marijuana is harvested at the right time, a social high is the result, and the higher the THC. content the better. Harvesting at the right time is the key.  The cannabinol is what makes one stupid, not the THC. So growers have to get it right.  When the mushroom balls are full and clear, the time is right. 

If the price of drug warriors like McKay admitting cannabis prohibition is a complete failure is to call users "idiots", that's fine with me.  But he is completely wrong to state "no one in law enforcement is talking about that failure.  Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) has been doing great work for some time getting the story out about how bad the drug war has been for everyone, but especially for cops.  McKay may be an ass, but we need all the John Laws we can get to speak the truth about ending the war now.

Is this guy really that dumb to think limiting THC content will do anything? I'll just have to bust out bubblebags and increase the amount of THC by extraction. This guy needs to go home and throw away his 12 year double malt scotch that he's poisoning himself with and light up a fat one. 

1.  Modern "one-toke herb" means you can set up a creative morning with one 25-mg. loading (see Wikipedia, "One hitter (smoking)") instead of a 500-mg. sledgehammer overdose paperjoint which destroys cannabinoids and offers heat shock, carbon monoxide and combustion toxins to produce dopy "drug effects" blamed on the herb and playing into the hands of prohibitionists.  As several have commented above, McKay seems to err on the side of safe ignorance, i.e. if he knew the Truth about cannabis someone could accuse him of having found it out the wrong way, and his career is shot...

2.  Someone tell the goodhearted souls at "Cannabis Culture" that their t-shirts and logos showing Marc with a hot burning paperjoint in his face (and smoke flying away, as if he's a Richguy who can afford it don't you know) are counterproductive and come off as arrogant.  The poor guy deserves better.  By the way, why "Cannabis Culture"?  Isn't culture the problem?  By and large the word "culture" means a system of lies (religious, authoritarian etc.) told to children to make them easier to domineer and control.  DON'T LET THEM CULTCH YOU!  The problem authoritarians have with cannabis is that it offers youngsters a way to escape from falling into the trap of believing those lies (especially lie #1, which is that "smoking" means hot burning $igarette paper). 

3. That's why their strategy has been to paint anyone who advocates letting young persons have access to learn from cannabis, any amount or method of use, as some kind of molester to be punished and blacklisted.  Modern one-toke herb could help immunize a child against ever becoming a $100,000 life-long $igarette addict, and the Tobackgo Corporations which feed $$$ into political campaigns, especially of Republicans such as "crack down on pot" Giuliani (see 2008 Presidential campaign donation statistics) are out to fight anything that helps promote the Downdosage Revolution.  Which is why Prop. 19 is written with draconian penalties for smoking near a 20-or-less-year-old (but vote for it anyway, there's wisdom in Pelosi's Principle "You have to pass it to see what's in it").  Who would guess RWTSH (right wing talk show host) Dennis Prager got it right, when he admitted on the air he had taught his underage son to smoke a cigar, ANYTHING is better than hot burning overdose $igarette addiction, and high-THC cannabis can help immunize against that even better, methinks, than a cigar.

Truth is truth; practicality is practicality.

It has been proven time and again in recent years and decades that not only is Cannabis much less harmful than alcohol, but it's medical uses and value have yet to be fully realized.  As K Day stated above, it was only (relatively) recently discovered that our bodies have in place an "endocannabinoid system"...no reasonable person can deny that this system is in place for a reason, and the implications that these compounds exist in a plant.

The only "idiots" are those who cannot accept all facts, including those that contradict their close-held (and suspect) belief systems.  They promulgate a continuing failed drug war that has and continues to suck billions out of the economy and ruin otherwise peaceful and productive peoples lives.

Several times above, I noticed comments similar to:

"...how can you try to lower the THC!?"

"Reducing the amount of THC. in marijuana. is the most stupid thing I've ever heard."

Unfortunately, it may happen whether we want it or not.  Along with the legalization of Marijuana will come the legalization of hemp.  Hemp farms will likely become quite prolific, and Hemp and Marijuana cross-pollinate quite well.  Hemp will hardly get a fly high, and in the process of cross-pollination the "quality" of the Marijuana will go down significantly over a few generations.

If hemp is widely grown (and I'm sure it will be) the only way to keep the quality of Marijuana from degrading is by growing it in highly controlled inside environments similar to "clean rooms."  The amount of THC will be easily controllable whether you want it to be or not.  The only other recourse is to grow your own, and that will be exposed to the very cross-pollination that will take THC levels down to near-nonexistent.  Not only will it not be as strong as today; it won't be "your parents pot", only in the opposite direction.

There would only be one other recourse - the importation of "clones" from a hemp-free environment.  That would be problematic in itself.

Release Marc Emery, indeed!

I think his admission proves (as if more proof is needed) that the Drug War is a jobs program. He wouldn't tell the truth until his job was no longer in danger.