Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2008
Subject: #359 Marc Emery Needs Your Support
MARC EMERY NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT
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DrugSense FOCUS Alert #359 – Wednesday, 16 Jan 2008
Newspapers across Canada and in the United States have been publishing
items about Marc Emery, Vancouver’s self-styled Prince of Pot. While
there is hope that a deal may be reached to allow Marc to serve five
years jail time in Canada as opposed to perhaps a decades long term in
United States, the deal is not final as of the date of this alert. He
hopes that a deal will also save his two co-defendants, Michelle
Rainey and Greg Williams, from prison time.
Columnist Ian Mulgrew wrote in the Vancouver Sun:
“He has run in federal, provincial and civic elections promoting his
pro-cannabis platform. He has championed legal marijuana at
parliamentary hearings, on national television, at celebrity
conferences, in his own magazine, Cannabis Culture, and on his own
Internet channel, Pot TV.
“Health Canada even recommended medical marijuana patients buy their
seeds from Emery. From 1998 until his arrest, Emery even paid
provincial and federal taxes as a “marijuana seed vendor” totalling
nearly $600,000.
“He is being hounded because of his success. The political landscape
has changed dramatically as a result of Emery’s politicking for
cannabis. Emery challenged a law he disagrees with using exactly the
non-violent, democratic processes we urge our children to embrace and
of which we are so proud.”
DEA administrator Karen Tandy in a press release on the day of
Emery’s, July 29th, 2005, stated:
“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….
Drug legalization lobbyists now have one less pot of money to rely
on.”
Tandy’s statement is accurate. Though there are hundreds of vendors
selling marijuana seeds in Canada, Marc was unique in his superb
financial support of marijuana legalization efforts on both sides of
the border. Thus in the time of need of Marc and his co-defendants
your letters of support to newspapers may help make a difference.
MAP has already archived news coverage on this ruling from across
North America. These, and additional clippings during the days ahead,
may be found at:
http://www.mapinc.org/people/Marc+Emery
Your letters to newspapers that print anything about Marc will help
send a signal about simple justice.
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Additional suggestions for writing LTEs are at our Media Activism Center:
http://www.mapinc.org/resource/#guides
Or contact MAP’s Media Activism Facilitator for personal tips on how
to write LTEs that get printed.
heath@mapinc.org
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PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER
Please post a copy of your letter or report your action to the sent
letter list ( sentlte@mapinc.org ) if you are subscribed, or by
E-mailing a copy directly to heath@mapinc.org if you are not
subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others
can learn from your efforts.
Subscribing to the Sent LTE list ( sentlte@mapinc.org ) will help you
to review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or
approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing
efforts.
To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see
http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form
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Prepared by: The MAP Media Activism Team www.mapinc.org/resource
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