Marc Emery Blog From Prison

[Weedguru Higher]

Report from US Federal Prison #1
Monday, May 24 2010

Article originally ran here on the Cannabis Culture Web site.
Blog posts are compiled and posted by Marc's wife Jodie Emery

I share a cell with Oliver, a Jewish Iranian-Canadian guy (see Jodie Emery's blog entry for more on fellow inmates). It's like North Fraser pretrial centre, concrete & steel, but with a locker. Outside of our cell is the "range" where 60 of us eat, shower, watch Tv and play cards or dominoes or such activities, as well as walking the second level walkways for exercise.

We are locked in our cells from 10pm to 6am, and from 10am to 11:30am and 4pm to 5pm. The other times we can be in the range. Normally, the range is surprisingly quiet, most people are doing things, and the TVs are by radio signal only. An inmate lent me a radio with ear buds (my own one arrives Tuesday) and there are many, many FM music stations it can pick up, many quite good, so that's a nice discovery. PLUS, get this, I can pick up CBC Radio One at 91.7 clear as a bell, so I can hear the news!

I asked other inmates how I could get a cell on the other side of the range, because the windows over there have sunlight coming through them, and we have no outdoor exposure here of any kind, no fresh air at all, but if I could get some sun that would be nice. You have to keep an eye on when an inmate moves out and then claim his cell, so I will keep inquiring. My cell doesn't have a desk in it like some do, I could really use that for all my writing, there isn't a flat surface in my cell for that.

The poor food is getting me a bit down, but getting my commissary goods on Tuesday will help. I hope the place I get sent to after here has better opportunities for vegetables or better food, but it looks like I'll be in tough while in these prisons.

I'm helping a fellow who is coming off methamphetamine deal with his wasted life so far and helping to rebuild him into a good human again. You know this is what I'll do with the inmates who always come to me for help, and of course they do come to me. But no one is really aware of my work in the field of drug addiction & recovery or my political activism, but since I don't need help, its unnecessary that they know my storied career.

Having actual "fans" here might even be annoying because they might pester me for stories and I'm more into my studies here and listening to those who need help and working on rebuilding them into decent citizens and good sons and good parents and helping them see how and why they screwed up – I'm totally brutally candid with them and they appreciate it because I don't want anything from them – and then how they can change and redeem their sorry-ass behaviour with proper, responsible living.

All these people have kids and parents who are very sad and disappointed and I can rock them out of their self-centered obsession. Richie went through this with me in North Fraser, but he needs another good 6 weeks of me for him to reform. He was thief for most of 20 years, lying to himself and all others blithely, yet now he is 40 and at a crossroads.

Update sent on Monday evening, May 24th after entering his guilty plea

I left for court at 6:15am, was shackled in cuffs & chains from 7am to 5pm, 10 hours, with the exception of the half hour in court 2pm to 2:30 pm. Court was fine. I plead guilty as scheduled. Britney, Jeremiah, Allison Bigelow, and Joanne Vanderwolf (an employee from 1995) was there, Joanne was wearing a No Extradition shirt and was protesting outside because she brought her FREE MARC sign into the court. I was chained and waiting in a cold cell the other 9.5 hours. I haven't had a shower or bathroom use yet, I can't wait to get that done but shower time next is 7:30pm and its about 6pm now.

I was on TV here today as people protested at the courthouse. That's what inmates here tell me. A number of them saw it and are introducing themselves to now because they realize who I am, including the Mexicans. A guard also read somewhere about the protests in Canada and around the world and said, "I guess a lot of those people are saying 'Fuck those damn Yankees that took ya away'", and I responded, "We love the American people, but the US government is bad."

I'll be sure to call or write later, after I wash and get centered again. Even though it's horrible here, there's lots to be thankful for, I suppose... That's the thing about jail, you get the blues or internalized anger over things because everything is wearing on my spirit, and its only been a little over 2 weeks.

[Weedguru Higher]

Marc Emery's US Federal Prison blog #2
Tuesday, May 25 2010

Jodie told me that the interview I did with NDP Member of Parliament Libby Davies for Rabble.ca finally showed up online, which makes me happy even though there are numerous errors and omissions that I will have Jodie post on CC soon. I heard news items on the radio about me, but it's maddening how they screw up details. One radio report said "US DEA arrested Marc Emery in Canada LAST WEEK and quickly had him brought here to Seattle where today he plead guilty to manufacturing marijuana as a result of his seed selling business." There are no journalists these days, just "reporters".

I didn't sleep a wink again last night (Monday night) but was at least able to listen to a classic rock station from 11pm to 4am. Lots of familiar nice songs, I was able to say the name of the song in 19 out of 20 songs before the first words were even sung [Jodie's note: Marc is a music trivia master]. I don't feel tired. I bounded out at 5:30am as soon as they opened my cell door.

I have a health screening today at 11:30m where the doc will take a blood sample and all the other stuff. Already had a tuberculosis exam (a weird injection of something); I don't have tuberculosis, is the result of that test. One thing I'm going to say to the doctor is, "It's too bad food services doesn't subscribe to the Hippocratic Oath ('First do No Harm'). Without fresh vegetables everyone here will get beriberi disease over time; without sunlight, we'll get vitamin D deficiency," etc. I'd hate to be the doctor in this disease-causing malnutritioned environment. He must have lost some kind of bet to end up here...

The Seattle Times subscription Jodie got for me started today. It's Monday's edition, so I'll get it a day later, it seems. That's OK. Two books I asked Jodie to get for me, "Parting the Waves" and "Hammer of the Gods", arrived too! "Parting the Waves" was only $8.80 for some reason, even though its normally like $29.95. Great deal. That book is beautifully written; I got to page 100 or so at North Fraser pretrial center [before being extradited]. Started reading "Hammer of the Gods" today too.

All things considered, I'd rather be here than at North Fraser. The commissary arriving has made a world of difference, plus newspapers and books. Got pens and lined paper, food, all my toiletries, I am set! They did lose all my laundry though, but I should get replacements tomorrow.

Commisary forms are handed in on Monday, stuff arrives Tuesday. Got the same deodorant I use at home! Great razor & shave cream, a booklight to read at night, great radio & headphones, plus tuna, chicken breast, turkey breast in sealed packs for independent meals I can make. Got mixing bowl, shower shoes, batteries, etc. Mixed nuts, trail mix, and other snacks too. Sweet! My attitude is so improved. Plus I even liked the dinner tonight (hot spicy salsa on a mix of beans, cheese, tortilla, rice, and possibly chicken).

I look forward to reading about any political activity from newspaper articles. I hope people send me letters and photos through the mail, because that's always a great thing to receive. It'll remind me that people are still fighting for the cause even while I'm behind bars. Just as I was quoted in the CNN article about my extradition: "If just one person, me, being in jail is what it takes to arouse thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of Americans and Canadians to get out and be involved and be responsible and take charge and take the initiative, then I'm a very happy individual."

[Weedguru Higher]

Marc Emery's US Federal Prison blog #3
Saturday, May 29 2010

I've been busy today (Friday, May 28th). I got up at 5:30am as usual, started reading "Parting the Waves", the Martin Luther King and civil rights movement story. Excellent book. My day is the same thing over & over again each day: I read, I write, I eat poor food, I see no sun and feel no fresh air and can't sleep, its like Groundhog Day (the movie) unless I get stuff in the mail, or photos, or articles, or anything that has some substance that changes my day.

Had a physical exam at the doctor. Then I got interviewed by US Immigration for my return to Canada, whenever that happens. I'm going through media withdrawal, so I hope people send me updates about the outside world. It's very isolating and boring here.

(Please click here to send Marc mail!)

I did a second interview with Robert Henry, my subject for the piece I'm writing (he's an African-American prisoner whose life of hell started when he was forced to go to Vietnam at 18 years of age). That's exhausting, but I'm doing a thorough job documenting his life story. I'm also moving along with my book report on the book "Worse Than Slavery". I got 4 more letters today from supporters, so I have 8 to answer to. I got the Buddy Guy book "Damn right I got the blues", that's great.

I wish I had more articles where Jodie or supporters are quoted saying something profound or pro-freedom about me. I hate reading these articles that say I made millions – I didn't make squat. The business sold over a million in 4 of the 10 years in sales, but of course, I didn't keep any of that. Can't anyone get quoted saying that? I'm so frustrated today. That just annoyed me. Again, there's no journalism anymore, just reporting.

My meatless diet has started but aye-yie-yie, it's bad stuff so far. I'm a little crusty and groggy from lack of sleep.

Saturday, May 29th, 2010

It's 6am on Saturday morning. I didn't sleep at all but I'm going back to sleep in about an hour because I'm foggy brained. At least I hope I can nap or sleep.

[Hours later] I slept very soundly from 7am to 10:30am. I made an eye mask with a sock and a twist tie, and that really helped. I need a shower but the showers don't come on till 1:30pm since I missed the morning shower period. I am getting some Orange Spice tea from commissary next Tuesday. For breakfast I had corn flakes and no-fat (no hormone) milk and two oranges, for lunch a vegetarian sloppy joe (which was fine) plus potatoes. I usually make tuna salad sandwiches each day as well, so food is not a problem (I'm on the no-flesh diet now) even if its dubious flavour/quality.

A new guy came in to our range today, and there was a bit of a weird scene when he chased away a black guy from our table and then said to me pointedly "We don't eat with OTHER people". I went "What?" "WE DON'T EAT WITH OTHER PEOPLE," he reiterated. I deliberately looked at him again and said "What!?" and he repeated "WE DON'T EAT WITH OTHER PEOPLE" and I know he means black people, so Jackson (a black guy) gets up and leaves, and I say, "don't get up, Jackson, come back here". But then, Oliver (my cell mate or "cellie" as they are called, he's Jewish) and I get up and go eat with Bear and Robert, two black guys, and they let Oliver & I sit with them. (Robert, who's black, had the same kind of experience when a black guy came up to him and said "we stick with our own" after seeing me play dominoes a lot with him).

The hot-headed new white guy has a swastika on his arm, which makes Oliver feel uneasy (needless to say), and this new guy is always angry. He's been in penitentiaries where he says it is segregated by race, and that this is the only place he knows that is this way (not strictly race-segregated). Meanwhile I'm carrying my civil rights history book around with me, which is all about the desegregation movement. If where I end up is segregated, fine, but it's weird to me.

I'm very disappointed in everyone who is opposed to the California legalization initiative. All that anti-legalization stuff is coming from medical marijuana growers and profiteers who rightly fear prices will plummet and no one will have to buy their pot anymore. It's just a lobby to protect their black market. The areas of contention are that the legalization initiative says no public smoking (like the law is now, so no difference!) and it doesn't exempt 18 to 21-year-olds (again, that's how the law is now, but at least adults are FREE from imprisonment!). It does not usurp or alter anything in Proposition 215, which is California state law and the force behind the massive medical marijuana movement there. If every citizen of California can grow 25 square feet of cannabis in their home or backyard, there goes the privileged black market backing the anti-legalization campaign, and that's why some people are opposed to it. Imagine that! Self-proclaimed cannabis activists working AGAINST legalization!

Jodie gets down sometimes because of all the world's problems that need solving and that she feels she needs to take care of, but my advice is to not be cynical about the state of the world. The world always looks like its on the edge of doom, from any era or any year or date. World wars, wars, disasters, government control & dictatorship, etc., it's always been there. The reason the planet doesn't get sucked into the abyss is because great individuals bring us technology (like Blackberry, iPod, iPhone, plasma screens, stoves & fridges and electrical appliances that cost $30 to run for everything for one month – that's a miracle!) and individual liberty through vigilant defiance of the trends of tyranny.

Without people like us who take a stand, the world would already be a prison everywhere. Sometimes there is a price to pay, but even here in prison, so far I am fairly free to say and write what I want because of the work of others before us who were willing to suffer to promote individual freedom. The forces of tyranny are always well-armed and well-insinuated into the political establishment, but as I say, if it weren't for Nazis in positions of power, what the hell would we do for a career? Fighting for freedom is the only worthwhile life mission.

Even though I'm very busy with reading and writing, it's as boring here as you could possibly imagine. It's lonely in the sense that my life is with Jodie. She and I do everything together 24/7, for years now, and I love and miss that... It is so anti-life here, it's a prison for sure.

[Weedguru Higher]

Marc Emery's US Federal Prison blog #4
Tuesday, June 1 2010

I am very pleased to report that I am in good shape, sleeping well, and very busy getting some good work done. Today, Tuesday June 1st, I received six letters from individuals, and about 25 or so from our amazing activist friend Chris Goodwin and supporters at Vapour Central in Toronto, where Chris is manager. Jodie sent me a bunch of photos, which I'm really happy to have! The guys here are impressed by pictures of me with Tommy Chong, ZZ Top, and Sean Paul.

I received today's New York Times... today! So I'll get that the day it comes out, which is wonderful, unlike the Seattle Times which comes a day or two business days later. So my mail today was huge: 4 newspapers, one book, an envelope of photos, and about 30+ envelopes with various newspaper clippings, reprints, and letters. I haven't even had time to open all the mail! Getting photos from Jodie was the most exciting, followed by the fact that I will get the New York Times during the week on the day it's issued (weekend copies arrive Monday). Other inmates are looking forward to reading the newspapers too, and my books and magazines when I finish them. I'll bring knowledge and information with me wherever I go!

Send Marc mail in prison!

The meals have actually been very good for the last three days, and I'm looking forward to having the salad on Thursday. Today both lunch and dinner were excellent and I devoured them. Quesadillas for lunch with salsa & beans, they were very hot (physically warm, not spicy), and an excellent ricotta cheese-tomato sauces & spinach lasagna for dinner that was also very fresh and tasty and warm. My no-flesh diet is a great improvement.

Last night, for the first time since being here, I slept from midnight to 5:30am (that's when we're let out of our cells). I have difficulty sleeping during normal nighttime hours even at home, so it's extra frustrating in prison because normally the light from the range comes through the cell door window and it constantly disturbs me from sleeping. But last night my light-blocking sock "eye-mask" really helped me in this regard. The eye mask is made with a sock (one of my standard issue tube socks) and is kept on by a twist-tie that came wrapped around the wire of the radio I bought. I learned about this technique at North Fraser Pretrial in Port Coquitlam back in BC, but didn't need to use one there. Here, though, it's been a Godsend (or, as far as a suitable word for an atheist, let's say 'earthbound miracle') and last night I sleep soundly from midnight on.

So, consequently, I've been up since 5:30am reading, then I showered, and then printed out fellow inmate Robert's short profile that I wrote up for him (in addition to the much longer life story, which I am still working on). He's a 63-year-old black man with a lot of pain and suffering in his life since being in Vietnam. He likes the final short profile so much due to my writing and Jodie's final edit that he's going to send a copy to President Obama. It's about how unjust and unfair it is to let so many war veterans go without help dealing with trauma and mental illness when they get home.

Here's a quick excerpt: "Over 58,000 US soldiers were killed in Vietnam alone, and since the war ended in May 1975, an additional and staggering 109,000 US Vietnam vets have committed suicide in the last 35 years, approximately eight people each and every day. And nobody ever hears or seems to care."

Using his recollections, I have drawn up a map of his neighbourhood right down to every store, newsstand and bar for about four blocks in every direction. So when we walk through his neighbourhood in one scene of the longer story, it'll feel like I've been there for years, so the reader should get an intimate sense of the neighbourhood Robert grew up in.

I'm excited because it's a whole new writing departure for me and it's a great challenge. Scenes will be Vietnam/Nha-Trang during fighting in 1967 with its daily line-ups of 20-30 soldiers with gonorrhea, kids leaving shoe shine box bombs in the bars for drunken GI's, suicides, firefights, tremendous fear, prostitutes everywhere, night patrols... that will be contrasted with a typical Sunday in Robert's West Philly neighbourhood with locals, the stores, the El train, the characters (including Bookies, number runners, the teenage street gang The Moon Gang, the 2 white families that locals were protective of), the row houses, the young Delfonics singing their songs outside the grocery store, the church service -- it should convey the gritty feel of what is, in reality, a ghetto, described during the time when Robert was 17 before signing up with the Army. Then it'll describe his time in jail for drug offenses; 10 of his 43 years since Vietnam have been prison for drugs.

All this will be tied together to make up an interesting story of one man's life, and Robert is grateful for the genuine interest I have in his personal story. It'll be like a very short novella, and I believe it will highlight my maturity as a writer beyond political or analytical work.

Everything I write of importance here (as opposed to the "email" messages to Jodie and friends) is done in longhand first in my notebooks, and then typed up from there on the prison computer (a very basic computer with no access to anything but CorrLinks "email" messaging system) as a second draft, and then I review and edit it, then send it to Jodie usually with 1 to 2 minutes left before I am "timed out" after the one-hour limit on the computer. She sends it back to me after her edit (she's great at editing, that's why I hired her at Cannabis Culture in February 2005!) and then I can print it here. I'm behind in my book review of Parchman Farms and Mississippi chain gangs, but I will get back to that eventually.

I'm really looking forward to getting more pictures from my lover, wife, greatest friend and cosmically ordained partner, Mrs. Jodie Emery. I wrote her a true love letter the other day; she knows how madly in love I am with her, but I wanted to express in words how much she means to me. I was so impressed with her May 22nd interview on the Chorus Radio Network all across Canada, on the Roy Green Show, which I believe is the most-listened-to radio show in Canada. Jodie's sister Tracy spent a long time transcribing the 20-minute interview with Jodie and the remaining 40 minutes of callers and the host's commentary. The host was Rob Breakenridge, who filled in for Roy; he's an intelligent man who condemns big government and prohibition while still maintaining and appealing to his traditionally-conservative listener base. If there ever was a brilliant interview done that's perfect from beginning to end, it's that one Jodie did, and the text should be posted online soon. That was a stunning job, complete tour de force, as the French might say.

Jodie told me that someone posted an old song on her Facebook profile called "Jodie" by Canadian musician Joe Gregorash. Apparently Joey explains on his website:

The song "Jodie" was written in around 1969/70 and was the name that I used to describe anybody that wanted peace, freedom and harmony in the world. Instead of a "Hippie"... you're a "Jodie"!

What a great song, and song meaning -- check out the lyrics, below. I knew my girl was all about freedom and choice. I'm sure glad my Jodie picked me!

"Jodie" by Joey Gregorash

Jodie is a good name,
For people who are free,
'Cause Jodie stands for freedom,
Whatever Jodie be.

Now Jodie may have long hair,
Or different coloured skin,
But these things don't mean nothin',
If freedoms' happenin'

Ride ride, ride on down the highway,
Ride ride, freedoms in the air,
Don't cry, when livin' feels like dyin',
Don't cry, yeah sing like Jodie.

Jodie is just people,
People everywhere,
They're singin' out for freedom,
Let singin' fill the air.

Ride ride, ride on down the highway,
Ride ride, freedoms in the air,
Don't cry, when livin' feels like dyin',
Don't cry, yeah sing like Jodie!

[Weedguru Higher]

Free From 21 Days of Torturous Isolation
Monday, June 28 2010

At 6:00pm on Thursday, June 24th, I was finally released from solitary confinement after three weeks of isolation.

The Disciplinary Hearing Officer was very gracious (in so much as I was in solitary for 21 days) and agreed that the phone use infraction – the podcast to supporters that was never released – was minor in the big picture. He made it a "397" which involves no loss of good time (the discount of 15% a year on my sentence). He also said "Everyone here knows you are famous and it was a shout-out to your supporters that was not harmful, and we know you didn't criticize the Federal Detention Centre, but you can't do third-party political lobbying over the phone." So lesson learned. I don't have phone access until July 25th, but at least I can "email" Jodie through CorrLinks and have visits in person, instead of the cruel "video visits" they've recently designated for inmates in solitary confinement.

The staff here are acknowledging me more than before as a "famous" person of repute. I was always friendly and polite to the guards, never hostile, angry or sarcastic. I always said "thank you" when they brought me food or un-handcuffed me. Eventually they said, "you're welcome" in response. 21 days in the hole toughened me up, made me appreciate things. I have no interest in anger, defiance or protest from within these prison walls. I was totally polite and along with the program all my time in solitary. I am not interested in breaking rules or causing trouble in here. I'm just so relieved not to be in the torturous SHU unit. That's plain mind-bending, being in isolation...

I received 30 letters on Thursday, and 28 the day before. There are some heartfelt ones I will respond to when I get more stamps. On Friday I got 35 letters – I'm very grateful that people are writing to me, and I will spend time writing back to as many as possible. I was under incredible strain and mental duress for those 21 days in "the hole", but now I am swamped with work once again: so many letters to respond to, all of books to read now that I have access to them again, and many ideas to develop. I couldn't sleep my first night back in general population, unit DB, "Delta Bravo". I ate a huge lunch Friday! Other inmates gave me their extra salad and salsa, and I ate everything they poured on my tray. I could tell they were thinking, "Look at him eat, holy Jeezus!" I lost 15 pounds or so since I've been imprisoned, but I'm eating more now that I'm out of isolation and have access to bigger food servings.

One interesting thing happened in solitary on Monday June 21st, when the first MacLean's magazine of my subscription arrived (thankfully I was able to get newspapers and magazines, but they ultimately took up very little of the constant 24-hour deprivation each day). I devoured the whole issue in one day and, as I was reading about the new prime minister of Japan and Alannis Morrisette's wedding and other news items on page 12, I came across a news blurb about me being put in solitary confinement – which I read as I sat right there in solitary confinement! That made my day, knowing that people are still following my story. Same with the June 13th issue of the Seattle Times; I got that and, wow, a full page about me! The Disciplinary Hearing Officer said, "everyone here knows you are famous," and indeed they do know. That's probably what created the crisis; they really didn't know what to do with me. They ended up boosting my reputation and the FREE MARC campaign in a way that would otherwise not have happened. 21 days in solitary is near torture for any ordinary innocent human being.

In newspapers, I saw photos of how Toronto looked leading up to the G8 and G20 security. They make Toronto look so ugly with all those fences and para-military. It's insane to spend $1 billion on "security", and scares away tourists. These meetings accomplish nothing. How come with all those cops in Toronto can't stop the one thing they are supposed to do, and prevent street mayhem and disorder? I mean, there must be cameras everywhere, surely the cops could move in and arrest these hooligans – unless, as many suspect, the "Black Bloc" vandals are really cops acting as agent provocateurs. But even then, if it's cops, it still shows that for $1 billion they still can't stop or deter street disorder, so they may as well have not spent any money at all. Either scenario undermines the rationale for spending $1 billion on security.

Jodie has been sending me news stories about the blatant police abuse and assaults in Toronto. The police seem to go crazy at these G20 or G8 events. I'm sort of glad that journalists and media were scooped up so perhaps people can see what Canada is like in Harper-vision. I sure hope Canadians are very disturbed and will punish the Conservative Party in the next election by supporting and voting for the candidates who can unseat the Conservative members of Parliament. The Conservatives are at new lows in the polls of 30%, and the Greens at 12.5% (which is close to the vote they got in the last election, yet they unfairly did not get any seats – what a "democracy"!). Let's have an election, for goodness sakes! The speculation that the Liberals & Conservatives form a coalition is absurd. The Liberals can govern fine with the NDP in a coalition with the support of the Bloc. The Conservatives have burned those bridges by playing so dirty the last 4 years.

My cellmate likes to read late, which is good since I also have a lot of reading and writing to do. It may be possible to get my own cell, because a large number of inmates currently here are being shipped out next week. The only thing is, I would likely get a cell mate eventually, and my cell mate now is probably as good as you could get for a "cellie" (as they're called), so I'm not sure that’s preferable in the longer run.

When lunch was served on Saturday, I was very hungry. They haven't made my diet "no flesh" (vegetarian) yet, as they haven't transferred instructions from SHU (Segregated Housing Unit, "the hole"). Lunch was chicken and potatoes and mixed frozen-type vegetables. I saw from the return trays most people left various parts, as the quality is very poor, but I devoured it all: threw all those mixed vegetables in, added the potatoes, stripped the chicken off the bones, added the gravy, and ate that down like a starving African. I would have eaten the other guy's meal, too! Go to solitary for 3 weeks and you don't complain about food much after that. You can't wait for mealtime. I actually had an apple on Sunday (it was a Red Delicious; in solitary you just got unripe Granny Smith apples) and banana Saturday; any fruit is definitely appreciated. My stomach had shrunk from the reduction in food volume while in "the hole".

On July 4th, Independence Day here in the USA, Jodie is coming to visit and we'll be able to have a photo taken together! She's coming for the weekend, which she will hopefully do every weekend with the generous support of fans and friends. So we get to see each other on Friday the 2nd and Sunday the 4th (visits are only allowed every other day). I found out that inmates who have family come from out of state are able to apply for extended visits once a month, so instead of 2 hours per visit, which is the time limit, Jodie and I can spend 3 or 4 hours together each day for one weekend each month! On July 16th and 18th she'll come see me and we'll get up to 7 hours of holding hands and talking. Even though visits take place in a very large, crowded and noisy, guarded room, it's priceless to hold my wife's beautiful hands and look into her loving eyes and hear her voice. I know she feels the same way!

I have to get back into writing Robert's life story (the African-American senior Vietnam draft veteran I wrote about in my earlier blog posts), but first I'm going to write letters to the fans who wrote me. I will get a staggering amount of mail on Monday June 28th, probably over 50 letters, plus 8 newspapers (from the weekend backlog) and a few magazines, so I'm busier now than I was at the beginning. Robert's story is going to be really good though, so I'll have to commit to 1-2 hours a day to that by Wednesday. My old cellmate here, the Iranian Jew/Canadian who's got an odd and unjust case, is not nearly as happy with his other cellmates. He liked having my intense cross-examinations, which all my cellmates here and in Canada do – people rightly regard my interest as caring. I help them analyze their lives and address the problems that led to their imprisonment. It's clear I want nothing from them and I'm not a criminal, so they are always eager to download their life stories and listen to my advice.

Ending up in solitary is being blamed on Nicholson and the Prime Minister, as though torturing me in a US prison was what they had in mind all along. That has turned out to be more than they anticipated. I heard about how Nicholson has hired private personal security (on the taxpayer's dime, of course) for "undisclosed" reasons, though the news article mentioned he has been running away from any FREE MARC activists and signs. My supporters are not dangerous or threatening – it's free speech and exposure of his cruelty that Nicholson truly fears. The L.A. Times article really helped boost my US support, and the libertarian and anti-prohibitionist media are using me to ratchet up the campaign to repeal prohibition, which is exactly what I want from my imprisonment. Let my incarceration not be in vain; let it galvanize you to action!

Free from isolation, but still a prisoner in a maximum security facility as I await my sentencing in the US federal system... Marc Emery #40252-086

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Marc Emery's US Federal Prison blog #6
Saturday, July 17 2010

I've been keeping myself very busy since being let out of solitary confinement on June 24th. I have many books, magazine and newspaper subscriptions, and letters to keep me occupied, so the days sometimes fly by as I read and write back to people.

Inmates here who have family come visit from out-of-state are allowed to apply for extended visits, of 3 to 5 hours (visits are normally 2 hours long). It took a while for me to get a response from my application to have Jodie get extended visits, since she comes from out-of-country, but I finally got a response on July 14th; I can have an extended 5-hour visit with Jodie one day every month, but only if I don't have any other visits for the rest of the month. Well, I'll certainly take two two-hour visits every week instead of one 5-hour visit a month!

One day, the C.O. (correctional officer) on our range was sarcastic about all my mail. I came to his office in the middle of the range and asked him a question, and he said "You've got no time for that, you'd better get to all your mail and deal with that." He had to make four trips delivering it all to my cell: first the batch of newspapers, then the magazines, then two trips with ExpressPost envelopes and then regular letter mail. He later came to my cell and said, "Emery, do I look like your mailman? Do I? Tell all your people they can only send you letters on Saturdays." I said, "Yes, sir". There was a long pause, then he said, "Emery, I'm messin' with ya'!" Well, they certainly can "mess with" inmates, because we're under their authority in here.

I was showing an artistic inmate some of the photos of Jodie and I together for him to draw. He decided to draw a picture of us smiling at the camera in the sunlight at a rocky beach in Vancouver, with the caption "Fun in the sun at Acadia Beach". In the final drawing the inmate did, I look way too young; he took my age lines out, but I actually like how I look at 51 years old in that photo (it's from last year; I'm 52 now). The C.O. who joked he was messing with me over being "my mailman" saw the drawing and asked me, "Is Acadia Beach a nude beach?" I explained about Wreck & Acadia being the two clothing optional beaches in Vancouver, one immensely popular (Wreck) and the other very small and private. He said he went to a nude beach in Spain, which he very much liked. So, conversations with a C.O. can range quite widely here.

Jodie's wonderful love for me and activism has opened up my supporter base of family folks, children, grandparents, especially mothers – a great many letters to me are from women, mostly mothers with children, who admire me and Jodie and find common ground with us. That's very good to read! Only a minority of letters are from "stoners". I have 8 pictures of families with kids, so people obviously feel I am a representative for their children, to bring about a world of peace and liberty so they can grow up in safety and freedom. It's darn flattering people think of me as their representative for their rights and the good cause, so I really appreciate that, possibly more than any other accolade.

On June 20th, the Sunday edition of the Calgary Herald ran a full-sized FREE MARC logo on the front page of section 3, with the article from the LA Times taking up a whole page inside. It was incredible! Wowzer! That blew my mind. The inmates loved it here; they started a "Free Marc and his friends!" chant, and I had to shoosh them! I'm so pleased with the clipping I received of it. That's prime media space we could never afford to purchase.

These two guys in Newfoundland, Colin and his dad Terry, have printed up 5" x 8" maxi-cards with the FREE MARC logo on one side and GOOGLE MARC EMERY on the other side. Colin said that hearing I was in solitary made him angry, so he printed up 1,000 cards that he puts in "price holders" on the shelves of supermarkets and stores. He made 250 fridge magnets of the FREE MARC logo, 1,000 giant postcards that he puts in peoples mailboxes as he walks down various streets in St. John's (I spoke there at Bannerman Park on my Farewell Tour with Jodie last year), and 6 giant outdoor FREE MARC EMERY and GOOGLE MARC EMERY outdoor banners. They put the Free Marc fridge magnets on restaurant fridges and even made giant magnet images (12" wide!) for the sides of cars and fast food restaurant drive-thru signs. They're quite excited to help out, and wow, that is some serious Newfie activism going on!

On July 1st, we got locked down and had a surprise inspection of everyone's cell (which has happened a few times since). The whole morning was taken up with that, a lot of C.O.'s going from cell to cell and looking through everything, while we were all in the gym area waiting for them to finish. Any rule you broke you were reprimanded or lost something; I was told my cell was very good (clean, no contraband), so nothing happened to me.

It was really hot in the prison in early July, but they fixed the air conditioning so now it's not nearly so overwhelming. With no fresh air and limited air circulation, it's good to have the AC on when the summer heat hits. They also fixed the ice machine, so I can cool down the water I drink. I never have soda pop or any juices, because everything except water makes you thirstier!

Here is our daily prison routine:

5:40 am: Cells unlocked
6:00 am: Breakfast, free range time*
6:45 am - 7:30 am: Lockdown
7:30 am: Cells unlocked, free range time
10:45 am - 11:15 am: Lunch
11:15 am - 11:45 am: Out of bounds**
11:45 am - 12:30 pm: Free range time
12:30 pm - 1:15 pm: Lockdown
1:15 pm - 3:30 pm: Free range time
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm: Lockdown
4:30 pm - 5:00 pm: Dinner
5:00 pm - 5:30 pm: Out of bounds*
5:30 pm - 9:40 pm: Free range time
9:40 pm: Lockdown

* "Free range time" means any time that we are not locked into our cells, and I use that time to check and send emails through the Corrlinks program in the computer room, or play dominoes and socialize with other inmates.
** Out of bounds means the other shift (there are up to 100 inmates in my unit DB) is eating, and our level cannot access the computer room.

I did my Pre-Sentencing Interview on July 6th. The lady from Court Services came by with my lawyer Troberman, and asked me questions about my past. None of it involved the actual "crime" of selling seeds, it's just background information like family, addresses where I lived, my siblings, my criminal record, my history of (non-)drug use, my education, my income, etc. Pretty dull stuff really. I thought it was all about what I did and why I did it, but it was so she can prepare a report for the court at my sentencing hearing on September 10th. I can't imagine it being controversial or even that interesting. It's boring because I own very little, have massive debts, my family is "ordinary", I haven't got a big criminal record – there's nothing very interesting about it on those levels.

I wrote a letter to my childhood best friend Roy, but instead of telling him about this place in a straightforward way, I wrote a funny sarcastic review as though it were a bad hotel with the worst shopping and restaurant service. I raved about the "21 day all non-inclusive Special Housing Unit" for a spa, and "the clothing store where you can buy the exact same style as everyone else". After a lot of mockery I ended with, "The motto of New Hampshire is 'Live Free or Die'. Apparently 'Live Free or Die' is on the state license plates. In unsurpassable irony, the license plates are made by prisoners at the state prison in Corcord, New Hampshire. I guess the state motto isn't worth the license plates they are printed on." Writing about this place in the form of a package-tour holiday from Hell might be a fun idea. Sections like "Vitamin D is over-rated", "Special Housing Units: because you're Special", "The Sea-Tac Slim-fast diet... as seen on Oprah", "We're Known by the Company We Keep", "Playful Supervisors Keep the Fun & Games Going 24/7", etc. I think its got endless potential!

Jodie wrote in her July 5th blog about our visits on July 2nd and 4th. On the 4th we got to have photos taken together. I bought five photo tickets, so we were able to get five pictures of us in the visiting room, which I'll send to Jodie once they arrive (it takes 3 weeks, they say). On the 2nd, I had to take a drug "breathalyzer" test before my visit. I got through 52 years of my life to get to my first drug test! It felt kind of accomplished to blow 0.00. It's strange though, because I'm not sure how it would detect anything, or how any inmates can possibly get drugs – I haven't seen any here, and it's maximum security, so I don't know how anything could get in.

I was sent a transcript of Jodie's speech at the Cannabis Day rally in Vancouver on July 1st. Cannabis Day is our celebration on Canada Day, and it's been happening since 1996 at the Art Gallery downtown. Between 5,000 and 10,000 people take part, with music and speakers, tents and booths selling pipes, bongs, and every type of cannabis and cannabis-infused product imaginable. It's always a wonderful time! This was the first major marijuana event in Vancouver that I was not part of, but my wife did an incredible speech in my absence. I wrote to Jodie, "I hope many, people see that barn-burner of a speech on YouTube.com/PotTVNetwork. I hope that is put on CC home page right away. Promote that heavily on Facebook & MySpace. Put 'Marc Emery says Mrs. Emery is a wonderful speaker, and this is a beautiful, touching, urgent, loving speech to all Canadians and the Canadian Cannabis Culture.' Way to show me how it's done, Mrs. Emery. This is a good one, you do 5 minutes better than anyone I know, including me. You are incredible!"



Jodie will be speaking at Seattle Hempfest this year on August 21st and 22nd, just as she did last year. It will be interesting for me to be so close to the biggest marijuana and hemp event in the world, but while locked up in prison; I've never even been to Seattle Hempfest. Jodie will visit me on Friday the 20th, and again in the morning on Sunday the 22nd, so she'll be able to tell everyone there that she's seen me and spoken to me that very weekend!

Commissary arrives every Wednesday, along with laundry. Every week we get our commissary form to fill out, and I buy stamps, envelopes, writing paper, and any snacks I want to get, like tuna packs and trail mix nuts. I've bought a variety of spices, garlic sauce, other sauces, so I've been zesting up the food we're served. I never eat chips or chocolate, because junk food makes me feel uneasy. Mondays are always a good day because mail comes, and a flood of newspapers from the weekend (Jodie has me subscribed to the New York Times, the Seattle Times, and USA Today). I get fantastic reprints from our wonderful friend and activist supporter Chris Goodwin in Toronto. He sends me these amazing dense printouts with hundreds of neat facts and trivia that are like 200 lines of pure information, and several pages of it. I find them mesmerizing. If I were to go on Jeopardy, they'd be just the thing to read in the warm-up room. That's what they need here: Inmate Jeopardy, and if you win, you get 6 months off your sentence. That's a bankable idea!

I'm reading "Hitch 22" by Christopher Hitchens, after finishing "The Armageddon Factor" about Canada's evangelical Christian government and how the fanatical religious right has infiltrated our Canadian media and legal system. Hitch-22 is a beautifully written memoir; his charm and wonderful use of the English language is very entertaining, seductive and inspiring. He is so clever and "charming" keeps coming to mind. I'd certainly love to have dinner with the guy, that's my first and constant impression. You just love every sentence this guy writes. The Armageddon Factor is revealing and informative, but I don't think we have reason to fear (Jodie is always very anxious and worried about it) – we just have to demonize Prime Minister Harper & His Band of Punishment Freaks appropriately at all opportunities. Harper is cold as ice. He's a lot like Nixon, a lot of getting back at enemies, revenge and punishment; he has no friends, and power/manipulation is his only lust. His wife isn't living with him anymore after having an affair with an RCMP officer, because he doesn't care about sex, love, friends – only power over others. He is full of hate. He has no joy in life other than seeing his enemies flail. Nixon was the exact same. Both have and had contempt for virtually any free thinker. We absolutely must get rid of the Harper Conservative government in Canada.

Another book I just received is "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colourblindness". A number of the black inmates want to read it after I'm done. It's all about how blacks make up a huge proportion of incarcerated drug offenders. Chris Goodwin sent me a lot of poetry from a book of black poets, lots of Tupac, Black Panther stuff, so the African-American guys think I am different, obviously, from the usual white inmate. One fellow is getting me to read his urban autobiographical work of 'fiction' he's writing. More of them are calling me Prince without sarcasm, and one guy put me in his cool rap song. My "cellie" (cell mate) says all his kids and and their friends are super impressed I'm his cell mate; they all know of me, he says. Many inmates have family and friends who are fans of my work and excited to be able to say their friend or husband/boyfriend/brother is imprisoned with me. Even visitors have recognized Jodie and are eager to share their stories about how they know of us.

I hope my supporters are continuing their efforts to end prohibition and free all the peaceful, non-violent drug war prisoners. As I have said before, as far back as 2004, "Let my incarceration galvanize you to action". And remember, one person can undo the evil of several thousand people. You should never underestimate your power. Plant the Seeds of Freedom and Overgrow the Government!

[Ziggy]

Great thread Higher

I really hope this guys struggle never leaves the spotlight

[Dulleffects]

Free motherfucking marc emery. Do it now.

[Weedguru Higher]

Great thread Higher

I really hope this guys struggle never leaves the spotlight

I doubt it will. He`s got too many people supporting and rooting for him

[(weedguru)scarf]

Going to write a letter at some stage.
Nice post higher

[Weedguru Higher]

Marc Emery's US Federal Prison blog #7: Letter to Jodie

Saturday, July 24 2010

Dear Jodie: What a wonderful day-after-our-4th anniversary visit! After we kissed goodbye, I went into the anteroom where I get stripped down and take all my clothes off, I'm asked to riffle my fingers through my hair, open my mouth, move my head from side-to-side and bend my ears, show my underarms, lift up my “sac”, turn around and show the bottoms of my feet and – there's no other way to say it – spread my ass cheeks, to make sure I have not taken any contraband from you (though it would be impossible). My clothes and shoes are checked, and then I'm clear to get dressed and I'm brought back to my unit, Delta Bravo as it’s called, or DB.

It was a wonderful two-hour visit. I had all my freshly ironed clothes on, my brown visitation t-shirt under my khaki smock, my khaki trousers pressed so sharply, just for this visit. I always save my best clothes for when you come, and I hang them in my locker so they keep all the fresh sharp creases from the ironing they got on Wednesday. I love the passionate 30-second kiss we're allowed to have when we first meet, and I love lifting you up and holding you with my arms while we kiss. You always look so attractive in your beautiful dresses. After our kiss, which is so electric to me, we sit opposite each other and our eyes are usually only 6 inches away while we talk up a storm, pretty well non-stop for two hours. It’s amazing how we get all the politics, social, reminiscing, your business, the people you work with, your challenges and difficulties, as well as many amusing vignettes and anecdotes covered, all in that two hours. Holding your hands and rubbing your arms as we do is so satisfying, you almost purr when I rub your arms. And then the lovely goodbye kiss at the end and your beatific smile that is so reassuring to me. Unlike so many other prisoners here, I have the committed devotion of a completely loving, faithful wife who once vowed when she was 16 that "One day I'm going to work for Marc Emery, or marry him, or both!" Oh, my sweet wife, what a brilliant prediction that was 9 years ago. So glad I made such a good impression. When we fell in love three years later, I had hopes, but little could I predict that we would become the dynamic couple we have been since – and you, such a brilliant public speaker, compassionate and remarkably intelligent leader of people, the perfect loving wife, and a truly liberating voice of the oppressed and marginalized.

Knowing these things about you makes my time here more bearable. My 5-year expected sentence is officially pronounced on September 10 in the Seattle federal court. That means, with 135 days served on my sentence already (65 days here at SEA-TAC FDC and 70 days at North Fraser in Canada awaiting extradition), and in anticipation of 270 days of time off my sentence for good behaviour (54 days off each year), my expected released date if I spend every day of my sentence in the US penal system is June 16, 2014. I have 3 years, 10 months, 21 days to go. The only way I could endure such an ordeal as it already is, is with the kindness, sincerity, devotion, sweetness and competence of your love and your skills. You are my saviour, Mrs. Emery; you are the greatest person to ever come into my life. I often think it’s because of your clearly sincere devotion to both me and my life's cause in your blogs, videos, and public statements, that people, especially women, have taken to admiring my work and what I represent and who I am. They trust your judgment, Jodie, and they know that a woman who believes in me like you do after over six years together with me, almost 24 hours a day 7 days a week, cannot be fooled. They see your total devotion and they see a love like few others, like out of a romance novel, like out of a epic tale like Tristan and Isolde, or like Robert & Elizabeth Browning, a love for the ages, a love uncorrupted, a love based of principles of noble idealism. Your unmistakable sincerity in your love for me makes people believe in and want to help me, because they want to assist in that kind of pure love. It’s their way to be part of a romance, part of noble cause, something the universe wants to be done. You are doing God's work, my sweet beautiful Jodie, and people can see that. They tell me so in the letters I get daily. "Your wife loves you so much," "Jodie's blog about visiting you made me cry," messages of that nature are in those heartfelt letters I receive here in my cell every day.

My daily routine begins at 5:40 am when the C.O. (Corrections Officer) unlocks my cell door. I share a 12' x 7' space with a "cellie", as my cellmate is called. Our cell has a bunk bed; I have the top bunk. It is narrow, about 28 inches wide, and six and half feet long. I bound out of bed and head to the inmate "computer room". I am always the first one there at 5:45 am, but the computers begin to operate at 6 am. The only function of the keyboard is to type; the control and alt functions do not have any purpose on the keyboard. As the Bureau of Prisons screens all emails, they have to hire an army of censors and reviewers to review all emails inbound and outbound. Therefore they charge me $3.50 an hour to use the Corrlinks Inmate email service. I use the email 3 to 4 hours a day! I am allowed 30 contacts maximum. I have my lawyers, my dear wife, most of my close friends like Dana, Jeremiah and Jacob, your mom, my sister, Tommy Chong, and more activist friends among my 30 email contacts.

Each night you send me a lovely note describing what you did that day, and I see it first thing at 6:00 am as the email program kicks into gear. I love reading about your previous wonderful, challenging busy day. It used to be my life too, before my principles and activism got me put in this grim place. The way you write in detail of your decisions, your worries, your interviews, our supporters, the political situation, the sit-ins and MP office occupations, and, of course, your deep abiding love for me, both relieves me and saddens me. Last week was the most challenging week for me so far. I cried many, many times uncontrollably when I read your notes and wrote to you. Tears streamed down my face on probably six occasions, and then once the tears rolled out, my nose runs too... Normally I can cope with this estrangement, this terrible ache in my heart, always missing you in this alien place where I am the "criminal alien" (more about that term later), but sometimes it becomes emotionally difficult.

On Friday night (July 23rd) five inmates came over to my cell and asked what the matter was. I said, “it’s my 4th wedding anniversary and I'm so missing my wife. She's everything to me," I told them, "and the thought of years without her is just too much to bear". I then started to cry again – I couldn't help it – right in front of them. Then the unexpected happened. Each one added, "I've certainly been there, it’s okay to cry." My cellie said, "I was crying last night, didn't you notice?" I said, no, I hadn't. "I pulled my hat over my eyes and turned up the radio,” he said. “I was just sobbing." A big fellow named Kodiak (after the big bear), whose job before here was "collections", let’s say, added, "I've cried many nights here, we all have". All of them chimed in with their stories of many times crying. An African-American inmate came by and spoke to me at length in a most profound way, saying, "I wish I had someone who cared for me as much as your wife cares for you, I'd be so grateful to cry because I miss her. If you can cry, if you can keep your humanity, then when you get out of here, you'll still be a human being. If you get hardened, and you lose that humanity, and lose that part of yourself that is real, that is of the real world, then prison has defeated you. When we get hardened by this awful place, we lose as human beings. I sure wish I had someone to cry over. Be grateful you aren't on the phone screaming, ‘You dirty bitch!’ after you find she's had sex with your brother or best friend, like my woman did". It’s true, Jodie would never be unfaithful. And indeed, all of my fellow inmates were in more sad situations than I, and I was grateful they all took some moments to reassure that all is normal and I'll get through it. No one held it against me that I cried, and I was thankful for such kindness in unexpected places.

After the email program comes on, I am on that until 6:40 am when it’s morning lock-up. Normally breakfast is at 6:00 am, usually milk, an orange, and cereal (like corn flakes) or porridge. I pass on breakfast so I can read emails from Jodie and my friends from 6 am to 6:40 am. Then we are locked in our cells from 6:40 am to 8:00 am. I got back to sleep in this period, and when our cell door is unlocked at 8 am, I go out to the showers that are available from 8 am to 10 am (and also 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm, and 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm). By 8:30 am, I'm showered and shaved, in clean clothes. We get all our kit of clothes washed on Tuesdays: 7 pairs of underwear, 7 pairs of socks, 6 t-shirts, 3 smocks, and 3 trousers. The socks and t-shirt are pale pink/salmon coloured, the trousers and smock are khaki. I have one pair of white socks and a brown t-shirt, which I wear as my dress clothes for your visits, as I did today! I hope the 5 photographs we took when you visited me on the 4th of July come back in the next week, and I will send them to you so you can remember what I look like when I am in my "Sunday best" clothes. I am looking forward to seeing those photos myself; they should be back any day now!

For the rest of the day I read and write. I get 3 newspapers daily – the NY Times, The Seattle Times and USA Today – so I read them and stay well informed. I have 9 magazine subscriptions: Reason, The Atlantic, National Geographic, Harper's, Mother Jones, Rolling Stone, The Economist, and MacLean’s. I enjoy MacLean’s because even though they can be jingoistic police-loving Conservative-Party fascist sympathizers, it’s nice to get a round up of all things Canadian. When my MacLean's subscription started, I was in solitary confinement, and I was so desperate for reading material, I was grateful the subscription had started. I got to page 12 of the June 24 edition and was reading about Alanis Morrisette's wedding, the new prime Minister of Japan, and lo & behold, I was the next item. Yes, indeed, I was in solitary reading about me being put in solitary. A nice little moment that put a smile on me in that grueling 21-day punishment (June 4 to 24). In fact, today is a special day because I got my phone access restored! Along with being put in solitary for 21 days, I lost all email, phone, and commissary privileges – in fact, all privileges. You can't even get a visitor or a phone call to your lawyer while you are in solitary. You get indifference and 24 hour lock-up. Thank goodness I had a radio and earphones to make it bearable, but barely so (listening to music and radio ads takes up some time, but I had 24 hours of isolation every day to get through). But after 52 days without phone privileges, my phone access is on again, starting today. I called Jodie right away and woke her up! You get 300 minutes each month maximum. Calling a Vancouver number is 35 cents a minute. Normally that’s 10 minutes a day, but the days when Jodie visits (8 times a month), I don't call her, so its just about 15 minutes each of the other 22 days a month. Today is an exception, as it’s the day after our anniversary and I haven't used the phone for 52 days, so I'm excited. I'm going to splurge and call her for 15 minutes tonight!

Along with my newspapers and magazine subscriptions, I get letters from supporters. When Jodie's evocative blogs spoke about my struggles dealing with solitary confinement, I received up to 30 letters a day, peaking on June 28 (I got out by then) at 45 letters that one day. Now it’s about 7 letters a day. But I wrote back to each and every serious thought-out letter of support. In the last 30 days I have written 165 thorough handwritten substantive letters to correspondents, and I still have about 85 to catch up on. A University class of 40 students has even written me 40 individual letters with each having attached a photograph of themselves to it, sent from the Critical Thinking project at Sannasastra University in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia. I'm trying to get to one student every day and explain to them what I am doing here, why my cause is just, and what I believe. They all write in charming English, as my language is their second language, after Khmer.

I write 5-7 letters daily and sent out. Then I have books to read. I have enough books so I don't require any more for now! I'm at page 300 of Christopher Hitchens' Memoir “Hitch-22”, a very erudite and delightful book from the contrarian current events commentator, formerly of England, now an American based in Washington DC. It’s very good and charmingly written. I'm halfway through “The Armageddon Factor” by Marci McDonald. This is a book about the Christian fundamentalists and their very successful attempt to co-opt and takeover the Conservative Party of Canada. Even Stephen Harper, Canada's bloodless and ice-cold Prime Minister –whose 2009 press secretary Kory Teneycke implied he hoped I got raped in the showers while in prison in the USA – is claimed to be "born-again". If you are known by the company you keep, the Prime Minister and the former press secretary are opportunistic sanctimonious religious scumbags of the worst sort. I know Christopher Hitchens (also author of “God Is Not Great”, which I also have here and must start soon) would approve of that assessment. Speaking of our Prime Minister, how come his wife has an affair with an RCMP officer assigned to her security detail, and no one in the press reports it? If the Prime Minister is getting "high with a little helps from his friends" like cocaine party-boy Rahim Jaffer, and the 37-years-married Minister of the Public Safety Vic Toews impregnated his 18-year old assistant, and Mrs. Harper is boinking an RCMP officer and not living with her husband, what is all this talk of Conservative party family values? Go figure!

I'm also reading “To Kill A Mockingbird”, and although it’s nicely written, it’s slow to get going. I still don't know what it’s about yet, after 50 pages, other than people of Alabama in the ‘30s were poor and often ignorant, but sometimes not. So far, no conflicts have been introduced, and having long ago seen the movie with Gregory Peck, I know that eventually some innocent person gets accused of something heinous at some point. Boo Radley has to figure in with the heinous crime because these kids stalk him for the first 50 pages. Still to read is Robert Crumb's “Illustrated Book of Genesis”, Alan Moore's “Swamp Thing” and Top 10 graphic novels, along with “Tom Gordon Volume 2”. I am at page 300 of Taylor Branch's excellent history of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the struggle for civil rights from 1954-1968; the first volume, at 1,000 pages, called “Parting The Waves”. So I am in the midst of 4 books with many others in the on-deck circle.

This keeps me busy all day until we are locked in our cells at 9:40 pm. From that time on my cellie and I have some serious discussions about life, our wives, our dreams (of getting the hell out of here), our families, and our thoughts, and I often write letters and he reads. At 11 pm, he has usually fallen sound asleep and I read one of my books with a little battery-powered book light bought from the commissary.

Occasionally I play dominoes with my friend Robert, a 62-year-old African-American Vietnam veteran. I am also part way through writing a biography of Robert's time in Vietnam and his youth from age 14-18 in West Philadelphia. I have taken many notes about his year in Nha-Trang in South Vietnam and his teenage years from 14-18 leading up to it. He lived a few blocks from where American Bandstand was broadcast, and even went there and danced. The Philly group The Delfonics used to practice on the streets of West Philly when Robert was 15, 16, 17, just before he shipped out in 1967, the same year The Delfonics got big on the R&B charts. The Delfonics were used extensively in the Quentin Tarantino film soundtrack for Jackie Brown. I'm hoping to get seriously to work on his story this week; all my background interviews and research are done. I have drawn a detailed map of his immediate neighbourhood he grew up in with every store, newsstand, pool hall, EL Train station, and building represented. I want to see if I can bring his childhood ghetto to life in my writing, and convey the drama and chaos and fear in a young 18-year-old soldier in the throes of the Vietnam War. This era of 1966 West Philadelphia is also the setting for a four-season-run half-hour NBC drama series, now re-run in syndication, called American Dreams. (2002-2005)

Typically though, I don't take much time for amusements, I never watch TV and since out of solitary, don't listen to the radio, although there is an excellent World News Report station here, 91.7 FM, that features hour long blocks of programming from CBC Canada, BBC, Radio Australia, National Public Radio (NPR), Radio Russia and other world radio services. The last time I listened to CBC was two weeks ago to hear anthropologist Wade Davis deliver his one-hour 2009 Massey Lecture called “The Wayfinders: What Ancient Wisdom Holds For Modern Society.” Davis is brilliant, and while he spoke, I said to myself, “I've heard this before,” and indeed I had – both Wade Davis and I spoke at IDEA CITY in Toronto in 2003, and he was a featured speaker a few hours after I was. That day his speech was the same subject, but only 20 minutes long, so by 2009 he had fleshed it out to an hour for the Massey Lectures. It was a nice moment when I realized I was granted similar status as the great Wade Davis for one afternoon in 2003, as well as the many great individuals who attend IDEA CITY every year. Davis originally hails from Vancouver, and may still call it home, but teaches at Harvard.

So my day stretches from 5:45 am to 1 am when I turn off my book light, and by then my eyes are weary and I'm exhausted, so I fall easily to sleep.

[Weedguru Higher]

Marc Emery's US Federal Prison blog #8: Letter to Jodie
Saturday, July 31 2010

Dear Jodie: I am now aware of a disturbing series of occurrences with my mail in and out of the prison here at SeaTac Federal Detention Centre. A number of items I send, and that I am due to receive, have gone missing without explanation so far.

You know that for our 4th wedding anniversary on Friday, July 23th, I sent in the mail on Wednesday, July 14th a beautiful envelope decorated on both sides in colour pencil, with a hand-done calligraphy-style written page inside. I sent it in the mail here at SeaTac FDC nine days early so you would be sure to get it in time, for you were to visit me on the day of our anniversary, arriving the Friday evening at your hotel in Seattle just down the street from my prison.

The envelope was decorated on the front with two beautiful roses on each side of a brilliant red heart. Across the heart was a ribbon drawn with the neat calligraphy words "Happy 4th Anniversary" on the ribbon (drawing) across the heart. Around this trinity of red was a textured blue for the rest of the envelope, like the infinite sky, the sky I cannot see, trapped in here. The blue sky surrounding the woman I know whose heart is always full of love. On the reverse side of the envelope was another heart with two roses beside it. But this heart has jail bars inside it, and that of course, is my heart, my love held in bondage here until such a time as our supporters appeal to my jailers and have me released to love you in the flesh once again. Two hearts kept apart, symbolized by being on opposite sides of the envelope, with 4 roses to represent our 4 wonderful years of marriage. On the flap of the envelope was calligraphy that read "Our triumphant rapturous love will conquer all".

Inside was the headline: "Idealism is the Testament of True Love" because the willingness to risk one's liberty, to live with the burden of my knowing daily that – for the cause of principle and for the benefit of our cannabis culture and the future generations that may benefit from my sacrifice – the absence of my great wife is indeed an act of true love. Revolutionaries like Malcolm X and George Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, and Martin Luther King, Jr., those great American men you know I have read about and studied since the very first days you began to know me, 9 years ago, all describe the struggle for the right of peaceful men and women to live without persecution as being the greatest act of love one man can offer his fellow beings.

Below the headline was my most famous quote in my activist career, from an essay I wrote in 2004 while imprisoned at Saskatoon Correctional for three months (for passing one joint to a university student in the park after my speech at the University of Saskatchewan).

“It is the height of moral conscience to refuse to obey an unjust law. To obey an unjust law is to give credence to its oppressive power. To obey a law that punishes where no crime exists is to surrender to tyranny and, by acquiescence, endorsing the oppression. The only righteous place for this kind of man is the jail cell. He must break the bad law openly and without apology, and without any victim but the pride of the state, it will be soon apparent to all that an injustice has taken place. Gradually, eventually, a crisis in the public confidence occurs, and in this vacuum, in this opportunity, change will come.”
- Marc Emery

That quote is from my original jail blog I kept in those days of incarceration, the days that ultimately prepared me in some small part for my greater and longer challenge in this period of captivity. Those were the days you have told me you fell utterly in love with me, painstakingly listening to my voice for hours each night as you transcribed my phone-call jail diary audio reports for Pot-TV (before YouTube or "podcasts" existed). I would call the office and read my notes to Chris Bennett of Pot-TV and he would record them for online, then he would put the recording on CD and then give it to you. Then, each night, you would toil for 3, 4, 5, sometimes even 6 or 7 hours taking every sentence I spoke and typing it up and putting it out on the internet as my jail blog, so people who couldn't listen to the Pot-TV video/audio report were able to read it instead. Since my job at Saskatoon Correctional was the janitor of the Administration Center, I often saw the staff reading my daily jail blog and was satisfied to know the even my jailers were captivated by my words you had transcribed while they held me in captivity physically. In Canada, of course, one does not go to solitary confinement for doing audio podcasts or recordings as I was cruelly punished here with solitary confinement for 21 days for doing far, far less. Such is my life in the "land of the free".

Four roses for four years of marriageFour roses for four years of marriageThe earnest hope was that you would receive this beautifully hand-done gift letter at home, and then when you arrived at your hotel, only a few blocks from your beloved behind these bars, you would find 4 beautiful scented rose in a vase with a card from me reading: "Our triumphant rapturous love will conquer all".

It was all meant to be such physical poetry, the flowers of the material word after the greeting on stationary, in colour, of the metaphysical world, to be my gift to you. But alas, the letter never arrived, and I don't know if you or I will ever know where it went.

Previously, two photographs taken of me here by the jail photographer, and paid for by me, were sent to you three weeks ago, and they too did not arrive. Additionally and curiously, numerous letters sent to me here have not arrived. A film script and lengthy letter from my Vancouver friend Mahara sent 25 days ago did not arrive here. Photographs sent to me by ExpressPost two weeks ago by CC editor Jeremiah Vandermeer, of the July 1st celebration at the Art Gallery, did not arrive. If items sent to me are refused by the FDC, I am supposed to be informed with a notice from the mailroom, but I have received no notice of any refusal.

Letters to me from others have been returned to the sender inexplicably. My supporters “The Individuals”, the African-American musicians from Chicago, had their letter to me, correctly address to Box 13900 here in Seattle, returned to them with a sticker that read "FORWARD TIME EXP RTN TO SENDER" with this return address printed on a yellow sticker:

Mothers and Brothers Inc.,
199 Melrose Ave. E. Apt. 407,
Seattle, WA 98102-5562

I know of one other who also had their letter returned with the exact same "FORWARD TIME EXP RTN TO SENDER" and the Mothers and Brothers Inc. return address. Can you please investigate who Mothers and Brothers Inc. is and why they have mail intended for me? I have already put a COP-OUT (the name used for inquiries or requests from an inmate to staff here) request to the mailroom here at FDC for explanation. I will also speak to my counselor Mr. Erickson tomorrow to see if he has any explanation that would satisfy me or make sense. If this problem is not resolved I will have to appeal to our lawyer Richard Troberman to make a more official request for an explanation. That my mail to you is being stolen without notification, or that mail to me is being obstructed, I am sure is not legal without proper explanation. (If your mail is returned with that "Mothers and Brothers Inc." label, please email Jodie@cannabisculture.com)

As you know, I rely on letters from you and my supporters to sustain me here, and unlike the telephone, email or commissary (which are described as "privileges" the prison can take away whenever they interpret a breach in the so-called rules) the delivery and receipt of mail is a right, not a privilege.

Our supporters are many and varied. Eric Hafner of Red Bank, New Jersey is on a roll; for example, he's had 3 letters to the editor posted in his local paper, The Two Rivers Times: "Let's End the Drug War", "A win-win situation" where he suggests a recently shuttered municipal building be turned into a medical marijuana production facility, and "Legalize Alcohol for 18-20 year old non-drivers". And all those just this month, and he says I inspired him to do it! How wonderful! Eric sent me copies of his three published letters. This is a great example how anyone in our culture just taking time to read the news can begin to incite local debate on important issues.

This one is a “small world” story. My supporter and “Students for Sensible Drug Policy” organizer on his campus, Tyler Markwart of Pullman, Washington, went to a Simply Stoopid concert in Spokane in late June. The band Slightly Stoopid, you will recall my dearest, we included in the first issue of Cannabis Culture you and I edited together, CC #55. It was just a one-pager article by our music journalist Jennifer Zimmerman, from the South by Southwest Music Festival. She convinced us these proud stoners would be big one day. Well, that day, 5 years after we printed a page long piece about them, is here. But that’s not this story – although I'm glad we know how pick 'em! The story is, Tyler went to the Slightly Stoopid concert with a FREE MARC EMERY sign, went to the front of the stage during the concert and flashed the FREE MARC EMERY sign throughout the entire performance, to the band on stage and the audience behind them. The band was videotaping the audience and the film crew trained the camera numerous times on Tyler holding up the sign.

Then, a few days ago, Rick Saris of Idaho wrote me to say, "I was at a Slightly Stoopid concert in Spokane a few weeks back and I was packed in the middle, and near the stage a guy and girl were holding up FREE MARC EMERY signs throughout the whole show. That was awesome, and me and others cheered when we saw it."

That's what I'm talking about! Concerts are a great place for people to wear their FREE MARC t-shirts and hold up FREE MARC EMERY signs. I hope at the Canucks games in Vancouver this upcoming season some fans think of a "Go, Canucks, Go" sign that has FREE MARC EMERY on the reverse or underneath it. The possibilities are endless.

K.C. of Charlotte, North Carolina wrote a sentiment about you, my magnificent wife, similar to those I get in letters every day: "I have an illness related to Crohn's Disease (a bowel wasting occurrence spurred by an auto-immune system disorder). I have watched you on YouTube, MSNBC, and on cannabisculture.com. Your wife Jodie is amazing. I am inspired by her love and conviction, as a woman. I can feel her passion when she speaks. I guess I can say because of your wife, I am becoming an activist. I used to watch the Big Government run over the everyday person. I am now learning how to stand up for my rights. Thank you both."

Most first time letter writers emphasize to me that it is largely your passion for me and our great movement that inspired them to write me or even to activism. I wrote K.C. back and asked her what ACTION she intends to take and offering her some suggestions, as I try to do with everyone who writes to me.

Send Marc Mail: www.CannabisCulture.com/SendMarcMail

By the way, a brief interruption: Someone named Middleton put $25 in my commissary. Jodie, if you ever find out who did that, be sure to thank them. That $25 will pay for 7 hours of my email, which costs me $3.50 an hour to use. And I also got an incredible donation of $300 from someone named Lew – that’s really generous and will help me out for a long time, and it means you can spend your money on visiting me instead of sending it to my commissary. Money goes a long way in here; I have to buy my deodorant, razors, soap, paper and stamps, phone and email time, and I can get snacks like nut mix, and extra food items like mayo, spices and tuna – additional things that I desperately need in addition to the "meals" they give us.

Send Marc Money: www.CannabisCulture.com/SendMarcMail

The best thing I have read lately was Radical Russ's great article "Proposition 19: Word-For-word Analysis", which was on the front page of Cannabis Culture. If there any naysayers to Prop 19 left, I hope they read that terrific piece of real journalism. Keep up the fine work, Russ!

Perhaps the most intriguing pieces of mail I have received are the 42 letters from each student of the "Critical Thinking & Ethics Project" at Sannasastra University in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia. The professor, Ray Christl, has had two classes with his students all about the extradition of myself to the United States. Each student had to watch some parts of the documentaries “Principle of Pot” and “Prince of Pot”, as well as my Wikipedia page. From there, the students each wrote to me, by hand, in English, which is their second language after their native Khmer. These students are from the upper classes, merely by the fact their parents can afford to send them to University, so I am writing each student back individually, one per day (among the 5 - 8 letters I send out daily). They may end up as civil servants, teachers, businesspeople or professionals or simply influential, so I would like to have an impact. Mostly, I answer their questions, many of which are similar or identical (I think with a little prompting by Professor Christl) with assertions like this:

"I believe that all humans have a right to put plants and drugs in their own body. Each human owns their own body and mind. It is wrong for government to punish individuals for peaceful and honest behaviour and actions. It is important for all individuals to question authority. The government's purpose should be to provide physical infrastructure like roads and sewers and drainage. Government has no moral authority to determine the contents of our bodies. I am in jail because of my peaceful politics. The chief of DEA Karen Tandy says 'Marc Emery is leader of legalization groups. Marc Emery gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to legalization groups operating in United States.' It is important for all citizens to QUESTION AUTHORITY!"

Lots of that goes to each of them in my letters to them. That’s a lot of 98-cent stamps I have to buy! (And I have to buy all of my stamps, so make sure no one sends any in the mail or they get refused.)

Each letter from the students is accompanied by a small portrait photograph of the student. Some of their questions verbatim (spelling and grammar not corrected):

Chlim Vitadane asks: "Why they put you in jail? How can American government put you in US jail when you are Canadian citizen? How do you feel, are you sad or angry? My teacher says you are a just person who sell seeds. Maybe you are bad person and you do something bad and this is why they put you in jail."

Sopheakna writes: “Hello Mr. Marc I am sorry you are in prison in USA. As I know you are Canadian citizen and never went to USA, why are you in prison in USA. The law in Cambodia says persons shall be punished for growing and marijuana seeds, because its illegal medicine that will cause many bad sectors of instability of society and effected the people's health. So our society will losed the human resources for developing the whole country in the future."

Touch Matin writes: "I feel so sad and sorry for you. My professor say you sell seeds to make the medicine to help humans for good health, that’s not a mistake. I wonder why they got you in prison. Where is the ethic? It is not a mistake to help human beings."

Keo Pichta writes: "For me, I don't know why police put you in jail. Can I know it? How many times that you have a shower there? Are the people in jail bad to you?"

Mab Chanthey writes: "How well the guard prisoner treat Mr. Marc Scott Emery in the prison or will you be mistreated because you are well educated guy of the world, not just for Canada? I am afraid that prisoner in democratic country is mistreated in prison as what Cambodian prison police do to Cambodian prisoners. Even though the constitution of democratic country should protect you, the guard men may not follow the proper ethic. One more thing, I am afraid you would be raped as what happened in the prison."

Leng Han writes: "Why a Canadian citizen who was prisoner brought to jail in United States? Is Canada a subjugated state of the United States? ... In the Buddha's life, the cannabis seed was used by him as food for life."

Sok Naroeum writes: "In my country, we grow ganja and no one goes to jail, even though it is against the law. Law in this country does not focus to that kind of plan. Why the US government have the right to bring to jail a Canadian citizen?"

War Anasojie writes: "This is first time ever writing letter in English to anyone. What is American jail like? What did you do with the money from your business? In my country, prisoners are bad persons or criminals. Dr. Ray says "Marc Emery is good person, he is in jail for telling the people to plant the seeds" he said. Unfortunately, you are in jail but do not give up. I don't think what you did is wrong. You must be strong, no giving up. Moreover, your friends and family are miss you and waiting for you to be free, for sure. You have pretty wife who loves you. Be strong for her."

Eng Sokunthea writes: "Through the internet, I have realized that you are a businessman since you were eleven years old, a young boy, and now you are great Canadian representative for the world...It was very awful when you were not allowed to meet your wife face to face when you are in the solitary, the Hole. However you are a prisoner, you should still have a right to see family face to face even in solitary. I are told United States is a democracy and believe in fundamental human rights, so why they treat you like this? Is that a legality?"

And finally, Ros Sereysophea writes: "I did come to realize your great kindness and compassion towards the less fortunate than you by watching the documentaries and reading about you. I do know you are highly respected in your community and profession, and you good works have changed the lives of many. The people are truly fortunate to have you as a role model. Please pass on my deepest sympathies on your activities, and to your family."

I love letters of depth, activism and substance; I hope people will keep sending mail.

I love you, my dear wife, and pray for you every day that you may stay safe and healthy.

I remain your devoted husband,
Marc

http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/blogs/marc

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Marc Emery's US Federal Prison blog #9: Letter to Jodie

Wednesday, August 4 2010

Dearest Jodie: A miracle occurred today! For dinner I received the most extraordinary meal, this great salad plate with five fresh green pepper slices, three cauliflower pieces, four broccoli pieces, lettuce, four real tomato wedges, dressings, medium cheddar cheese (grated, the real thing), and three hard boiled eggs. It was spectacular! The first real vegetarian meal I've had.

I don't really know how or why it showed up; I've never seen anything like it before. I'm super-grateful. I'm the only one who received that extensive a salad tray as I'm the only "no-flesh diet" in the whole unit, but it was amazing. And filling, with the eggs and cheese. Most of the other inmates received a variation of it with some meat, but I know there was no cauliflower or broccoli in theirs because I was snooping to see if any left theirs so I could eat it, even in the return trays.

So I cannot say any longer that there hasn't been any fresh vegetables. If I could even get that vegetable once a week, that would be something. So today is a good day.

I'm alarmed by the announcements today by Canadian Justice Minister Rob Nicholson and yesterday by Stockwell Day increasing the number of serious crimes in the criminal code. My friend Paul McKeever, who blogs at http://www.WesternStandard.ca and http://www.PaulMcKeever.ca, has an outstanding piece about it called "Shedding Light on Day: 'Unreported Crimes' Code for 'Cannabis Offences'".

In it, McKeever, the leader of the iconoclastic libertarian Freedom Party of Ontario (which I co-founded in 1982), accurately surmises that this is all a prelude to a renewed persecution of the cannabis culture. Despite polls in Canada showing consistently that a majority of Canadians want marijuana legalized (52% in favour is the usual number), and that this November 1st, the 40-million-citizens state of California will be voting on Proposition 19 to legalize the possession, cultivation, sale, and taxation of marijuana, the Conservative government in Canada is determined to fill the prisons, build many more, fill them up, expend unprecedentedly huge amounts of taxpayer money (while running a staggering deficit for the rest of this decade) on this new pogrom of imprisoning Canadians.

This is Christian fundamentalism of the most Old Testament sort, and is one of the two policies the Tories in Ottawa really care about: making the sinners suffer & pay, and waging war! The Reform Party of 1993 has been buried in the dust, it cares not about transparency in government, nor deficit financing, nor pork barrel politics, nor the democratic deficit.

The Conservative government is obsessed with oppressing the cannabis culture through mass imprisonment and arrest, and the unbridled expansion of the military, and wish to spend many billions of dollars on these two wholly pointless programs. Both accomplish the opposite of their stated intentions. Prohibition manufactures crime where none existed, punishing those attracted to the big profits a legalized trade could not offer, and producing violence and gang turf wars where none would exist. The Canadian military hardly needs any airplanes to attack or bomb, can anyone really suggest that Canada has any targets worth a Russian or Chinese or American attack? What we need are rescue helicopters, rescue ships, and ice-breakers, more counseling for our traumatized soldiers who've served eight long years in Afghanistan in a futile war and occupation we should never have involved the nation's soldiers in.

For all Harper's soothing G20 talk about other nations curtailing their deficit financing, the Tories – as the Toronto Star so succinctly said on Tuesday – have shown not one shred of commitment to following through on the idea themselves. $14 billion on American fighter jets that we don't need and can't use. $9 billion (in the next 5 years) on just one "tough on crime" policy alone of filling the prisons. And more dangerous, ineffective and costly policies are proposed: ending accelerated parole for non-violent first time offenders, and American-style mandatory minimum prison sentencing laws (Bill S-10) are just the beginning.

The pointless G20 cost $1.2 billion and produced the most disgraceful 24-hour concentration camp of peaceful dissent this country has ever witnessed, while not one single policy came from the leaders who attended the event.

This Harper government is pure evil, taking their cues from the mean-spirited Old Testament and the New Testament Book of Revelations: punish the non-believing people, bankrupt them, lie & deceive them, that they might all be cast in the lake of fire that is reserved and waiting for the unbelievers. Too fantastic to believe? It's documented, and extensively. Nicholson & Day are preeminent amongst the "End-Of-Times" Tories. Day and his supporters in part even take their cues from the Parliamentary Clock Tower's divine signal! Oh, I'm not kidding – please read the book The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada by Marci McDonald for that whole story!

My best jail house Prison Potcast was done back in October of last year, its there on I-Tunes as well as in text at cannabisculture.com, called "Stephen Harper & The End Of Times (Of Canada As We Know It.)", you can read it at http://www.CannabisCulture.com.

I dare say Conrad Black's two incredibly sensitive & brilliant pieces on Bill S-10 and the horrific US prison system of which I am incarcerated in (as he was for 28 months) are his editorials "Canada's Inhumane Prison Plan" and "My Prison Education", which every conservative should read.

We need an election immediately. People need to empower the Liberals, NDP, and Bloc by urging them to vote no-confidence in this government. Canadians should write them or call them to ask for an ELECTION NOW. Then be sure to support the opposition party most able, in their riding, to defeat the Conservative candidate.

I'm already working on my 2010 CANADIAN VOTERS GUIDE TO DEFEATING THE CONSERVATIVES, ready in mid-September, just after I get sentenced on September 10th here in Seattle.

Your imprisoned civil rights activist husband,

Marc Emery

P.S. To buttress the intent of Justice Minister Nicholson's claim that they are re-naming more offenses as "serious crimes", note that the Toronto compassion club CALM (Cannabis As Living Medicine) was raided again today by Toronto Police, no doubt at the behest of the Justice Minister and Ontario's Solicitor-General. Following on the heels of the raids in Quebec several weeks back of the compassion clubs there, the Conservatives in Ottawa are staking their reputation on the continued punishment and persecution of the cannabis culture. The Tories WANT an election called, and they want it to be around marijuana & prohibition. We should engage this desire of theirs.

Jodie's advice:

First, you need to look up the election results from the last federal election (Google "Canada Federal Election Results"), available at http://www.electionalmanac.com.

If your Member of Parliament is a Conservative, find out who almost beat them or came in second last time, and support and vote for that person whether they're NDP or Liberal or Bloc, or the Greens.

If your MP is NOT a Conservative, but there is a Conservative who is close to beating them, support your MP - whatever their party - against the Conservative challenger.

If your MP is in a "secure seat", where they won't lose to anyone, then support and vote for the Greens because every vote equals $1.95 to the party, so that really helps the most progressive party in terms of drug policy in Canada (and which I am a candidate for in Vancouver South).

http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/blogs/marc

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Marc Emery's US Federal Prison blog #10: Letter to Jodie

Wednesday, August 11 2010


Today I was told I would get less time on the computer to send and read emails because there was griping by some of the inmates about my use. Admittedly, it is about 3 hours a day, but I line up like everyone else and there are others that use it even more frequently and for longer times than I. It seems I have aroused some to complain. So my use will be in the early morning, in the afternoon around 4:30 pm, and at night, for less time in total.

I will have a hard time finding the time to type & email out the chapters of the proposed book I'm writing, so I may have to just send you my notes in long hand, which is how I do my first draft anyway. I'll just edit it and rewrite the second draft more neatly and forward it along to you by mail rather than using up valuable computer time. The chapters are much longer than my editor specified, but there's so much to tell that I thought I'd put it down and leave it for you and him to edit. It's better to have too much information as opposed to too little.

The first chapter deals with my first album purchase when I was 14 (up to then I bought 45 rpm single songs), which was Cheech & Chong's BIG BAMBU album. I memorized that album, finding their voices mocking, exaggerated and subversive. I really thought marijuana smoking was a comedic form of social rebellion. I was a teenager who found my obsession with Marvel Comic books as gratifying a mind changer as I could imagine, along with my comic book business called "Marc's Comic Room" (named so because I sold the comics originally from my bedroom in my parents house from 1971 to 1975, when I was aged 12 to 16) and my budding love of science-fiction, I had no concept of the need for "drugs" or marijuana.

Then I jump to 1979 whereupon I discover Ayn Rand and the tremendous life-changing effect on my life, and how that happened. Then to December 21, 1980 when I meet Sandra, and I discover the joy of a cannabis high while falling in love with her that night. Then we jump to 1991 when I sponsor a spoken word performer (and former front man for the punk band Dead Kennedys) to perform his new CD "I Blow Minds For A living" at Centennial Hall in London, Ontario.

I had found out about Jello Biafra while doing my radio show on CHRW called "Radio Free Speech: Revolution Through Rock & Rap", and got together $5,000 to pay him his fee (of $3,000) and to rent the Hall for a night ($2,000 with sound equipment). We sold 420 tickets at $10 each, so I only lost about $1,000. In that performance of his then-current CD, there was a 15-minute segment called "Grow More Pot" about this book, by a guy named Jack Herer, called the Emperor Wears No Clothes. Biafra spoke about this conspiracy to suppress the history of the hemp plant and its incredible history in the world, and particularly Canada and the USA; that George Washington was America's biggest cannabis farmer ever; that the Declaration of Independence was written on cannabis hemp paper, and it was mandatory to be grown in the early colonies, and in World War 2, the US Department of Agriculture urged farmers to GROW HEMP FOR VICTORY.

After his performance, I found out the book was banned in Canada, and all magazines and books about marijuana and drugs were, in fact, banned and had been banned for 4 years, since 1987. So I vowed to break the ban by selling these books and magazines over the next 10 months. I don't get charged (unlike when I opened my store illegally on Sundays), even though I took out ads announcing my plans and sold copies in front of the police station, but I do end up bringing Jack Herer, Steve Hager, Ed Rosenthal & Paul Mavrides to London to autograph and speak about their work.

I got frustrated with everything after so many campaigns and so little change, so in July 1992 I moved to Asia with my partner Deb, and her two kids Jordon & Jeremy. While in Asia I saw in a government-banned newspaper an article about the Conservative leadership convention between Jean Charest & Kim Campbell. It came up that they both had smoked pot. This is the only article about Canada I saw in Asia in two years, and it’s all about how pot is very common in this place called the "lower mainland of British Columbia". Piquing my interest, I joked, "If we ever go broke here, we'll have to go to BC and set up some kind of hemp revolution business." I laughed at the thought of going broke, as if it would never happen, but the idea keeps evolving in my head anyway.

8 months later, I really was nearly broke after foolishly spending $30,000 building a dream chalet on the side of this magnificent lake, Lake Maninjau, in West Sumatra, Indonesia. I got completely defrauded of my money, the house was built – a spectacular place, but I never spent a day inside it after completion, as the property owners rented it out to wealthy tourists and I was bollocksed. Crying in despair one day when my money situation got critical, I announced, pulling my head up out of my tear-strewn hands, that we are going to Vancouver to begin this hemp revolution business.

Once I arrived, I quickly got to work in this unfamiliar new city of Vancouver that I did not know. I sold “High Times” magazines and the book “Grow yer own Stone” door-to-door on the street to raise money, beginning April 11, 1994, and by July 7, 1994, I opened "HEMP BC: the Marijuana & Hemp Center for Greater Vancouver", as my first storefront sign read.

That’s the summary of the first chapter. So I'll finish the first draft tonight, and then try to re-write it as neatly as possible by hand and mail it to you. Hopefully these issues of time use on the computer can be dealt with. If I do need more time, there are very few people wanting to use it at 8 am in the morning, when most inmates (including me) are still sleeping, but I may have to rearrange my schedule and perhaps type up my chapters in that period when there is little pressure to use the email.

I am in good health, my sweetheart, and I am working on my letters, books, and currently reading “god Is Not Great” by Christopher Hitchens, back to back with Robert Crumb's illustrated Book of Genesis, from the Bible. The Bible is total fairy tale nonsense, albeit nicely illustrated by Crumb, but that any sentient human can find value in such a story is beyond belief – or rather it IS belief. Religion is strange stuff indeed.

I am gratified by all your great work on my behalf, and thank you for all the time you spend on my FREE MARC campaign. Without you, I would surely be so demoralized, as this is a hard place to be. I look forward to calling you tonight and especially your visit this Saturday, the highlight of my difficult existence here.

I love you immensely and long for the time when I am back at your side, as I ought to be and deserve to be. Hopefully people are writing the Minister of Public Safety and urging friends and relatives of theirs to do so also. I need thousands of letters on my behalf to flood the Minister: “Please repatriate Marc Emery at your earliest opportunity.”

I am very gratified that the opinion writers and editorialists of every stripe are condemning the escalating Conservative attempts to fill the prisons and expand the prisons. We need an election immediately and I hope you are doing your best to urge one in your writings and comments. It is essential we change governments. The country is being dragged, by the Tories, into a dark place of punishment and intolerance and irrationality because theocratic fundamentalist Christians have the government in its grip. People should read “The Armageddon Factor”, “Harper’s Team” and “Sheeple” to find out how bad it’s gotten.

I Love You so much, and goodbye for now,
Your devoted and grateful husband,
Marc

http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/blogs/marc

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Marc Emery US Prison Blog #11: Letter to Jodie
Tuesday, August 24 2010

Poster available for download at http://www.FreeMarc.caPoster available for download at http://www.FreeMarc.caDearest Jodie: It was a tremendous visit with you on Sunday morning. I am so proud of you for doing such a great job speaking at Hempfest. I know Jeremiah is uploading the videos of your speeches to Youtube (found here), then shared on the Cannabisculture.com and FREEMARC.ca websites. I can't wait to hear the feedback!

I had a challenging week as you know. The no-flesh diet they give me is so terribly poor, of the 14 meals I get here weekly, 5 of them substitute the meat of the others with a packet of peabnut butter, that's it. And as you know, I don't eat peanut butter. So I go hungry 5 meals out of 14. Then on two of the other remaining nine meals, they give me a 5-spoonful carton of cottage cheese. The other seven have soy or cheese substitutes, almost always very poorly prepared and simply reheated. It's so discouraging. I eat all the apples, oranges, bananas I can get, sometimes the other inmates give me theirs but I have to eat them right away because we are not allowed to have food from the "kitchen" in our rooms, which causes a massive amount of waste as so much fruit & food is just thrown out because if you don't eat it in 15 minutes at sit-down, into the garbage it has to go. The rules are absurd and cause so much waste and, in my case, hunger and malnutrition.

This past week we were locked down for 36 hours because one of the inmates' stash of alcohol hooch was discovered. I've been breathalyzed four times since I've been here; the first time in my life I've had a breathalyzer test of any kind. That was Wednesday and Thursday morning, so I couldn't shower, exercise or use email or the phone during the constant lock-down.

On Friday, when I expected you to be here at 2:00 pm for our long-anticipated visit that day, I did not get the call to visitation and as the hours went by I got extremely anxious about you being in an accident, or hurt, or worse, or held-up at the border. All sorts of terrifying things went through my head because you are never late or miss a visit. Yet all day the phones and internet were disabled because inmates were being moved that day and as a security measure (so they say) all phone & emails go down when a bus or planeload of prisoners is on the move; that's BOP (Bureau of Prisons) policy. So I had no idea what happened to you, or way to contact you. I was so torn up by anxiety that I had to go and throw up and then cry around 5:30 pm, 3.5 hours after you were due here. By 6:00 pm I was pacing the track upstairs looking pale and distraught when the C.O. (Corrections Officer) called me to his office and said he saw you at 2 pm, first in line, at the front entrance when he came to work on his shift. He said that all visitation was canceled, but the inmates weren't being told! I was the first to know! Then I cried in relief you were alright but stunned they would let me and others here go all afternoon terrified something had happened to our loved ones without informing us visitation was canceled. It seems incredibly heartless and so unnecessary. One fellow inmate had his wife drive three hours from Blaine, but she was turned away and had to drive three hours home. Others came from Portland, 5 hours away, and were rejected. And of course we get no explanation. Finally phones came on at 7 pm and I was able to call you to breasth a sign of relief. Then email came on and got your note about how crushed you were to have our visits canceled without explanation.

Of course, it was probably because the scheduled airlift of a huge number of inmates on Con-Air broke down and the inmates all had be returned for the weekend to Sea-Tac. I have never seen this place as crowded as it was this past weekend, with some serious bruisers and hardened types among the temporary residents. I have never been so anxious here as in those 4 hours when I was wondering what could have happened to you.

As you know, I am looking forward to getting my sentencing out of the way on Friday, September 10th in downtown Seattle at the federal court. If all goes as expected, I will be sentenced to the 5 years I agreed to in my plea deal (I have almost 6 months in already in accumulated time served in Canadian & US jails on the sentence) and that day I hope to submit my Treaty Transfer application to the Canadian government via the Canadian Consulate here in Seattle. Then, following that application, I am hoping my loyal supporters will show up on SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 at hundreds of busy intersections, football or baseball stadiums, or in front of Member of Congress or Member of Parliament local offices, at Canadian and US Embassies and Consulates throughout North America and the world, or just at busy intersections in your town, urging my imminent transfer back to the Canadian correctional system to serve out my sentence.

I am hoping individuals, pairs or groups of four will go to busy places anytime from noon to 5 pm with signs saying "Return Prince of Pot Marc Emery to Canada from US Prison" or "Google Marc Emery - Political Prisoner - Bring Him Home" or "FreeMARC.ca - Return Marc Emery to Canada" or "Vic Toews: Approve Prison Transfer for Marc Emery" and that sort of thing. Big king-size sheets with these messages at bridge overpasses are great too, so traffic on the highway below can see it. Wherever there will be lots of eyeballs to view the signs is a good place. I'd prefer groups of two or four spread out over several busy places, rather than one group of 10 or 20 in one mass. Encourage people to sign up at WhyProhibition.ca and use my Facebook fan page, Facebook.com/PrinceOfPot, to publicize where they will be. Have people take photographs of their action on what I am calling the Marc Emery Support Day Mobilization (though my supporters are calling it the "Free Marc Emery" worldwide rally).

I am keeping busy with letter writing, I have written 25 letters in the most recent 3 days, and am writing my 2010 Canadian Voters' Guide and great lengths of my autobiography for Dana Larsen, who is putting it together for me. I am very prolific and busy and it's because of you, my dear wife, and your endless love for me, and the support you generate for me, that inspires me to keep producing under this incredible adversity.

I Love You,
Great job at Hempfest sweetheart!
Marc

http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/blogs/marc