For me, this year’s trip to Amsterdam for the High Times Cannabis Cup could be summed up in just two words: bubble hash. The act of separating resin glands from leaf matter using ice water has had a tremendous impact on the cannabis culture. The Dutch have the advantage of many well known hybrids and lots of Sativas, and the resulting product is stunning. The Katsu coffeeshop gave me a piece you could see through, and the Dampkring’s Moonshine Haze had to be kept on ice, which of course I didn’t have? but it spread on a rolling paper like oil!
Another new dimension was the number of times a bowl was passed offered with the name of the person who made the hash. This one is from Mila, or Breeder Steve, or Barge, or the Bubble Man himself. Some had been made by this guy on his own farm in Morocco, while another only had hash that had been cured for seven years. When touched with a flame each bowl bubbled and exploded into a symphony of flavors and euphoric stones. It was going to be tough remembering why I was there.
Having attended the High Times Cannabis Cup for the past four years, I find that the format has become tired and uninspired. I paid 540 guilders ($220 US) for a judge’s pass, which gave me little more than the opportunity to get in where others would try and sell me stuff. No free pot though, not even a joint from High Times!
I have always found the whole affair to be a strange dichotomy anyway, as it is an American event having to be held in the land where early Americans originally left to go find freedom. Strange that they would choose then not to even celebrate it when they go back. There couldn’t have been more than 2,000 judges signed up ? Marc Emery, our beloved publisher, personally hands out that many joints at all of our parties.
Fine pressed hashThe judge’s pass also allows you entry into the two venues, the first of which is called the Pax House, with two floors for exhibitors and a third for forums. Thank God at least for the exhibitors hawking their wares ? most of them offered tokes, even after having paid many thousands of dollars themselves to be there. That is, if you could get to their booth ? Pax has to be Dutch for “crush ’em in like herring, and don’t give them any place to check their big winter coats.” It was hot and stupid.
This continued on into the evenings to The Melkweg, a big theater with two stages and a couple of lounges and bars. Not nearly big enough though ? it was shoulder to shoulder in there too. The event draws mostly guys, so ? wouldn’t you know it ? the entertainment was all dance music! Try as I might, the novelty of any one of these scenarios wears off pretty quickly.
In the spirit of the week I decided I had to “do the Cup.” To do so meant visiting all of the 22 entered coffeeshops, purchasing the weed and hash they had, sampling it all and declaring a winner. Who better to accompany me then my pal and CC photographer Barge, with whom I’ve judged thousands of joints on three different continents? No one, that’s who.
For most, the Cup takes place over five days, but with all of the great bubble hash around, there was no way we were going to have time for that. If this was going to happen at all, it was going to have to be done in one day. Bicycles would be our transportation ? Barge knows the city like the back of his hand and I had an expense account.
Buds from Flying DutchmanOur odyssey would begin at Barney’s Breakfast Bar, not only because they always had an interesting assortment of hash and grass, but because breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. Ultimately, their weed entry of Sweet Tooth, a Hawaiian x Afghani, won the Cannabis Cup. Along with an uplifting Mekong Haze we were off to? oh yeah, 21 more coffeeshops!
It took us seven hours. We purchased 22 different kinds of pot and a dozen or so chunks of hash. Not every coffeeshop had entered in the hash side of things and our criteria had become pretty rigid. This cost several hundred guilders I might add, but worth it on oh so many levels. It really does get you out in the city and visiting coffeeshops you might otherwise never even hear of.
Soma with his NYC DieselWe were treated very nicely in all of them, but the Abraxas had to be the most spectacular. Three floors, decorated throughout in carved and inlayed wood, with a grow room at the top! Shops new to me like El Guapo, Paradox, Softland and Brandend Zand were all very accommodating, with big buds of Haze, Purple Haze and White Smurf as gifts. Many of the long time shops were on the list, such as The Grey Area, De Dampkring, BushDoctor, De Kuil, Blue Velvet, Homegrown Fantasy, De Rokerij, Dutch Flowers, Bluebird, Dread Rock, Rusland, Siberie, Dolphins, Noon, Katsu, and The Greenhouse.
Everybody was into it and had great smoke to offer ? all of which was now piled on the table in my hotel room, another added bonus as one usually never has the entire lineup on hand to compare at once. I now had only a day and a half left to smoke it all. Oh well, I can always sleep on the plane.
After a thorough sampling, we declared ourselves the winners and it was all crushed up in the grinder. We now had the “Cannabis Cup in a can” to finish out the trip, smoking joints comprised of all the entries.
Thanks to all the shops that entered, and congratulations to Barney’s for Sweet Tooth and the Katsu for Crystal Clear, which won for best hash. We of course had our favorites along with those. The Moonshine Haze hash and an organic Hawaiian Haze both from the Dampkring kept me going all week. Congratulations as well to our good friends at the Amsterdam Seed Co who won the silver medal with their entry of Shiskaberry from Spice of Life Seeds. Thanks too to the rest of the Canadian/Swiss contingent who provided us with hilarious behind the scenes escapades so nefarious that even changing the names would not be enough to protect anybody in that one.
Warlock from Magnus GeneticsThe awards presentation and closing ceremonies continued on with High Times‘ half-baked effort. I’m really starting to wonder if those folks can handle the big smoke fest. Their “celebrity guests” were ghosts all week ? no schmoozing or smoking fat joints with the faithful. I can’t imagine what else they may have had to do ? it’s like being invited to someone’s house and the host doesn’t show up, leaving the guests to make our own fun.
If you go next year, give Barge and I a call. We’ll be there trying to break our record. With us you can get it all over with in a matter of hours, leaving the rest of the days to? I don’t know? there’s 2000 coffeeshops in Holland. I wonder how long that would take?
To reserve your space at this amazing ganja-fest, please send your information along with your fee of $600 US ($750 CDN).
Only 200 spaces are available at this very special event. We will return payments from those received after the first 200. You will be notified by phone when we have received your payment. Once processed, your fee is non-refundable.
Note: If you need to cancel after payment is made, you can apply your payment to the 2005 Tokers Bowl, or transfer your admission to someone you designate.
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Marc Emery speaking, the venue window, and Cannabis Culture magazinesMarijuana users have contributed more beauty and more richness to the world than anyone else, yet they are hunted down like dogs. That was the message Vancouver’s “Prince of Pot”, a.k.a. Marc Emery, had for his rapt audience at Doc’s Cafe and Bakery on Thursday evening. Following introductions from event organizer Chris Gilberds and Dana Larsen, the NDP candidate for Vancouver West, Emery spoke for more than two hours about the benefits of marijuana and the harm inflicted on society by the war on drugs.
“Fabulous profits (for the drug dealers) could be ended overnight without prohibition,” said the wiry Emery. “It’s so simple. All it takes is the stroke of a pen.” A legalized, regulated drug industry would reduce property crime, theft, prostitution and gang violence, said Emery. Police forces could be cut in half, he said, and disease transmission though shared needles would be reduced.
As it stands, he said, an ounce of marijuana can cost $200 to $300. But if the substance were legalized, that price could be decimated to $30 an ounce. “Prohibition is designed to achieve nothing but its own perpetuation,” said Emery. “It’s a great job-guaranteer for cops. It’s a war that can’t be won.”
The wild profits currently available through drug trafficking make the industry irresistible for many young people, said Emery. “It makes working at McDonald’s for $8 an hour seem, shall we say, futile.”
The marijuana industry in B.C. is worth $7 billion a year, said Emery, and is second only to the construction sector. Emery, a longtime cannabis activist who formerly sold marijuana seeds by mail, said he has been arrested 23 times, jailed 17 times and raided by police six times. He’s been jailed in eight provinces and has had $1 million in assets seized by police. He is currently free on bail.
Some of his convictions, which have included promoting bongs and giving hash away for free, are “quite amusing,” he said. “I’m a very happy warrior. I have no regrets.”
Emery is currently facing extradition to the U.S., where he could receive a sentence of 20 years or longer to be served in a U.S. jail. Emery said he will be sad if he ends up going to a U.S. prison, but will have no regrets. He added that a 20-year jail term would be a “death sentence” for him since the average life expectancy in American jails is 65. And Emery is already 50.
Emery spoke openly about his reputation as a radical, saying he was once described as the “number one drug trafficker in U.S. history” on the Lou Dobbs Tonight show on CNN. “There’s only 45 dudes in the world more bad than me,” said Emery, in reference to his standing as the 46th most wanted man in the U.S. Emery also noted he is the only Canadian on the list.
While Emery has sold marijuana seeds through the mail to Yukon customers in the past, he said, this is the first time he has visited the territory. “I heard your premier is an ex-heroin dealer, he commented. “I find that fantastic. And they want to put me away for 20 years!” (Premier Dennis Fentie served time for a narcotics offence in Alberta in the 1970s.)
No police presence was visible at Thursday’s event, which saw upwards of 50 people in attendance, despite an earlier statement from the RCMP that uniformed officers would be present. “We have a police state here,” said Emery. “Nobody should be in jail for an hour for marijuana. We live in a free society. We should be able to do what we want to our own bodies.”
Emery reiterated the benefits of marijuana use throughout his talk. He claimed that marijuana kills cancer cells, reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, cures morning sickness and is beneficial for pregnant women, increases creativity, and does not lead to violent behaviour.
“You will never date-rape on pot. No one has ever died of pot.” Emery also said that “it’s a complete slander” to say marijuana users proceed to use harder drugs more often than non-marijuana users. “I’ve never met an author who didn’t smoke pot. Most journalists smoke pot. Every video game was made by a person smoking pot,” said Emery. He also cited many prominent musicians such as the late Bob Marley, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones as prolific marijuana users. “And yet we’re hunted down like dogs. It doesn’t make any sense at all.”
Larsen echoed many of Emery’s views, agreeing that marijuana is “the best plant on Earth” and has a “vast array” of medicinal and industrial uses. Larsen said the war on drugs is an “absolute failure in every way. We have to end Prohibition.” Larsen urged audience members to ask their local candidates about their stance on drugs, particularly if a federal election is held in the fall. “When it ends, we’re going to look back on this terrible nightmare and be glad we woke up.”
Gilberds said he encountered several roadblocks during the planning stages of last night’s event. In his advertisements, Gilberds said, he wasn’t allowed to say the event was a “friendly talk on illegal drugs” or an “open debate on marijuana.”
“I couldn’t say anything. I expected people not to be happy about it, but I expected air time,” he said. Gilberds said rumours of throwing marijuana plants into the crowd circulated before the event. “No, this isn’t a smoke-in,” said Gilberds. “It’s a public forum by two people who really believe what they believe in.”
Michael Phelps admitted “regrettable behavior” after a photo of him using a bong was published.Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps will not face criminal charges in connection with a November party at which he was photographed using a bong, a South Carolina sheriff said Monday.
“We do not believe we have enough evidence to prosecute anyone” who was at the party in Columbia, South Carolina, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott told reporters, adding that authorities are ending their investigation into Phelps.
“We had a photo, and we had him saying he was sorry for his inappropriate behavior,” Lott said. “That behavior could have been going to a party. … He never said, ‘I smoked marijuana.’ He never confessed to that. We didn’t have physical evidence. We didn’t have enough where we could go arrest him.”
Phelps, 23, who won a record eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, admitted “regrettable behavior” after a British newspaper published the photograph about two weeks ago. The tabloid News of the World showed Phelps using the bong during what it said was a November party at the University of South Carolina in Columbia.
“I’m glad this matter is put to rest,” he said in a written statement. “But there are also some important lessons that I’ve learned. For me, it’s all about recognizing that I used bad judgment and it’s a mistake I won’t make again. For young people especially — be careful about the decisions you make. One bad decision can really hurt you and the people you care about.
“I really appreciate the support my family and fans have shown me, and now I will move forward and dive back into the pool, having put this whole thing behind me.”
Phelps told CNN affiliate WBAL in Baltimore, Maryland, “This is something that I need to learn from, will learn from and have learned from.”
“I know that a lot of people make mistakes, and the best way to learn from them is changing things,” Phelps told WBAL.
Lott said the photo that surfaced of Phelps put him and his department in a “no-win situation.” If he had ignored it, he said, he would have faced criticism, but he also was criticized for investigating.
He defended his investigation, saying, “As a cop, my responsibility is to enforce the law, not to create it or ignore it. Marijuana in the state of South Carolina is illegal.”
The common excuse from Concentration Camp guards and other criminals in Nazi Germany when they were asked why they did what they did: “I wasn’t making the rules, I was just following orders!”
Because you have the hells angles over here growing pot and making millions and we have the bandagle are what not over there the other gangs in between growing money from trees. If we tax and regulated it treating it like alcohal the money tree would end for the black market Let me say it again the end of the black market would end and all the wars that go with it the drug war would end as no profits no fighting for the money tree.
Cannabis culture and High times should Be sponsoring This Guy as a champion and as our roll modal for doing somthing that is safer than alcohol.
you know i was kinda hoping he would be charged….he would have been a great martyr…someone that could have shown how messed up pot laws are…
The reason they decided to back off on Phelps is undoubtedly linked to the public support of Phelps and outrage against our failed War on Drugs. This also comes at a time when Mexico is a bloody war zone and three former Latin American leaders have created a commission to address serious drug policy reform. The U.N. is set to meet in Vienna next month, where they will tackle drug policy head-on. Even among our own Democratic strategists, there is agreement that marijuana prohibition must end. Phelps was merely a catalyst which they are now trying to diffuse, yet the economic crisis is one of many others that isn’t going away. The drug war is finished, it’s time to move on and implement the only logical solution–which is outlined by Law Enforcement Against Prohibition at http://www.leap.cc. Tell your friends, representatives and local news provider the good news: the War on Drugs is over, and humanity has won. Now, who knows where to get some hemp seeds and ayahuasca tea?!
What a fucking joke. So what if he smokes pot, after working his ass off and getting the most gold medals ever in one year he deserves to cut loose. How quick we tear down our heros. Smoke your heart out Phelps you’ve earned it.
Lott says as a cop, his responsibility is to enforce the law, not to create it or ignore it. Then doesn’t that mean that he would never use his office to oppose leagalization, right? How about him attempting to be an up to date informed, caring human being first. It was much better when cops were peace officers that kept the peace and not millitaristic “law enforcement” drones that go out of there way to force people to obey bad laws. Cops are only allowed to believe in ” Drugs users! Bad, Police Good!” I’ll bet that if Phelps would have admitted it was ganja he would still be trying to arrest him and ignoring the violent crime that permeates his county and state.
Ball-and-stick model of the γ-butyrolactone (GBL) molecule.Two “party” drugs linked to the death of young people will be banned under plans unveiled by the Home Office.
The move will make BZP – also known as herbal ecstasy – and industrial solvent GBL, sold as a “legal high”, illegal.
The parents of Hester Stewart, 21, who died after taking GBL in Brighton last month, wrote to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith asking her to change the law.
And a coroner urged BZP to be banned after mortgage broker Daniel Backhouse, 22, died after using the drug.
The proposal would categorise BZP – which Mr Backhouse had mixed with ecstasy powder – as a Class C drug.
Ms Smith said: “I am determined that we respond to the dangers of these drugs and that is why I have committed to controlling them.
“It is absolutely right that we continue to adapt our drug policy to the changing environment of substance misuse.
BZP – made illegal in the Republic of Ireland earlier this year – would carry a UK prison term of up to two years for possession and 14 years for dealing.
The drug, originally a worming treatment for cattle, can cause serious heart problems, vomiting, anxiety attacks, mood swings and seizures.
The Home Office’s consultation paper on the drugs also includes proposals to ban some anabolic steroids, which have been linked to infertility and liver problems.
Man has heart attack at forty , Ronald Mcdonald to be hung next week, Burger King to be impeached , the local grocery store is set for demolition this tuesday. please send in your license application for your daily brown rice ration.
23 year old woman gets paper cut on finger , all sources of pulp to be incinerated, all books, magazines and pamphlets should be sent to your local crematorium. Stone tables will replace the menace that is paper.
I cannot get my head around why we feel we need to protect everybody. People are going to use these drugs if they want to use them. Regardless of how illegal you make them. Stop punishing people because of a few idiots/unfortunates.
I really do despair at the incompetance and stupidity of people sometimes, not just governments but parents who feel they will be doing some good by taking young timmys one off case as a reason to ban drugs.
Wow, two more limbs added to the gangster money tree. They sure seem to have powerful friends strategically placed within governments.
So I wonder if the cattle farmers and industrial companies know their solvents and deworming medicine is now illegal?
WTF! The reason the so called “kids” — and I don’t consider 20-somethings kids — are doing these drugs is that they are legal and the reason they are dangerous is that they are unregulated.
We live in a high stress, fast paced, totally neurotic world where our personal empowerment is zapped and the rush to make things better is stymied at every turn.
If life preservation and safety are the real issues, then a good first step would be to legalize cannabis. Then at least we would have a choice between the horrors of alcohol addiction and the stigma of being a pot head.
The next step would be to decriminalize all other drugs and use the money from enforcement to treat addicts. No, not just force them to go to stupid meetings or go to jail, actually offer them something like, oh I don’t now, jobs? psychiatric evaluation? a place to live while they heal?
One final comment: laws that criminalize certain behavior do not inspire good behavior. It’s a total falacy that, if anyone cared to ask a sociologist or anthropologist (ie a scientist), is apparent simply be looking at any society in history.
So are they going to ban gasoline and rubbing alcohol and similar chemicals as well? Hey, you can get pretty high sniffing gasoline! When are governments going to realize that banning chemicals isn’t the solution – EDUCATION IS.
Laws are not a replacement for good parenting and education of the world’s youth, even if it makes people feel better under the false impression that law enforcement is going to “control” chemical substances. It’s terrible policy and we already know this.
Come on, politicians, why don’t you put your money and effort into education and compassionate, helpful programs that will take care of the PROBLEM, not Band-Aid the symptom.
Jodie Emery speaks at the Vancouver Art Gallery shortly before her husband, Marc, was extradited. (Photo by Miranda Nelson)Marijuana activists Jodie and Marc Emery have always kept interesting company. But people might be surprised to learn that Marc, who was recently extradited to the U.S., has spent quite a bit of time with officials from the Canada Revenue Agency.
“They would have meetings with him,” Jodie Emery told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview. “Officials from Revenue Canada would sit down and say, ‘Hey Mr. Emery, how is it going? Good, good. How are sales? Oh, slow time of year? That’s too bad. Well, hopefully you can sell some more.’ ”
While the meetings were apparently congenial, the CRA wasn’t wasting its time. According to Emery, between 1999 and 2005, her husband paid over $580,000 in provincial and federal income tax on the sale of marijuana seeds alone. And the CRA is currently after an additional $300,000, Emery said.
She questioned whether or not this made the CRA culpable for profiting from a criminal act, which is illegal under Section 462.31 of the Criminal Code of Canada.
Bradley Alvarez, a spokesperson for the CRA, told the Straight that privacy legislation prevents him from talking about specific cases.
“What I can tell you is the fact that the Income Tax Act does not distinguish between income…being legal or illegal,” he said in a telephone interview from his office in Vancouver. “All it says is that any income that you make is reportable and subject to income tax.”
Alvarez explained that the CRA has a division called the special enforcement program, which assesses income derived from illegal activity.
Numbers supplied by Alvarez show that, during the 2009–10 fiscal year, the program conducted a total of 921 audits that resulted in federal tax assessments totalling $73.4 million.
According to Caitlin Workman, a CRA spokesperson based in Ottawa, a body of federal and provincial case law has established that collecting taxes on illegal income does not constitute a breach of the Criminal Code.
In 1983, then–B.C. Supreme Court judge Beverley McLachlin ruled that the proceeds of a crime constitute income as defined by the Income Tax Act.
In her decision, she quoted a 1927 court decision that stated: “There is no doubt that the word income in the Income Tax Act is sufficiently wide to include money other than that received from bona fide transactions. The fact that profits are derived from an illegal business does not make them immune to taxation.”
Furthermore, McLachlin dismissed the argument that by taxing illegal income, the CRA is profiting from a crime.
“The Tax Department would be in violation of section 312 only if it had in its possession property which it knows or wilfully blindly ignores is obtained by unlawful means,” McLachlin wrote. “The monies used to satisfy the tax debt may come from lawful means, even though they are calculated on unlawful activities…”
Neil Brooks, an expert in tax law at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University, argued that it would be downright odd if the Canadian government did not try to tax illegal income.
“It would seem to me to be quite strange that we would treat—for tax purposes—people that were making their income illegally more favourably than we treated people who were making their income legally,” he said in a telephone interview. “Income tax is supposed to be levied on the basis of people’s ability to pay.”
Brooks noted that privacy protections built into the Income Tax Act make the release of information on specific cases a rare occurrence. But he said that some people who make their income illegally do report that money to the CRA.
“They worry more about being charged with tax evasion than they might worry about being charged with their illegal activity,” Brooks explained. “Al Capone is the paradigm case—the Americans sent him to jail on tax evasion.”
In an interview conducted on May 25, five days after Marc Emery was extradited to the U.S., Jodie Emery described the federal government’s actions as “ironic and somewhat unjust”.
“Let’s ask the federal government and Revenue Canada if they can explain how it is fair that Marc Emery gets extradited and sentenced to five years when they accepted the proceeds of crime,” she challenged.
What are your thoughts about the federal government extraditing Marc Emery after taxing his marijuana profits?
“The whole thing is absurd; he hasn’t done anybody any harm. There was a huge movement to try and prevent his extradition. I presented thousands of petitions in the House of Commons, and the fact that he has been extradited to the U.S. and will now serve a prison sentence that he had to plea-bargain down is outrageous. It’s something that he was never charged with in Canada, and if he had been, he would have just gotten a small fine. There are many levels to this, one of which is a slap in the face to Canadian sovereignty.”
“A lot of laughter, if you can represent that in writing. I just think that while this is tragic for Marc and his family, it is silly for the government to charge taxes, obviously implying that the activity is legal. And then letting him be prosecuted—but in other words, persecuted—letting him be persecuted by the United States of America. I’ve always believed that this is the wrong thing to do. And I continue to believe that.”
“The issues are entirely separate. The taxation system is neutral, whereas the extradition has to do with a perceived criminal activity and is an entirely separate branch of the government. Taxation is based on your source of income, and the Crown doesn’t owe somebody a duty—as a result of collecting taxes on their income—to stop an extradition. There is not a public-policy override on the fact that it is not a legal business or that it’s not a socially acceptable business. As long as it’s a business or at least a source of income, the government can tax you on it.”
“I didn’t even think of that. I guess he more than paid for his extradition.…They need to make up their mind. That’s like speaking out of both sides of your mouth. I just never realized that of course he pays taxes.…At one point, someone said that the fact that Marc Emery has participated so wholeheartedly in promoting the discussion around the legalization of marijuana is the only reason they are targeting him. And I guess this really shows that that is true.”
Wow! You really know alot about Marc, man, but I cant’ help wondering, after you tell us how you see it as pretty obvious that he was a nerd and then how you knew that there was a 99% chance he was shunned and teased and then how you knew that he then decided to be a cool guy then you knew how he realized that he had to use his verbal skills to con the wise men of Vancouver then oh man I love this part-you were right there as he kept going, kept escalating, kept being brasher and more arrogant, why oh why, in the end you leave us guessing as to whether or not it was worth it to Marc. Why do we have to ask him? Come on now man surely someone with your obvious insight can let us know if Marc feels he accomplished anything he set out to do or if he would do it all again bedamned of the consequences or even if the cause is a noble one or are you my fine anonymous friend just a dirty hairy troll as we all suspect?
Here’s what I think Marc Emery’s story comes down to. Judging from early videos of Emery, it’s pretty obvious that he was the classic “nerd”. 99% chance he was shunned and teased by the others. Then one day he decided that to become one of the cool guys he was going to have to start smoking Cannabis. Then he realized that by using his verbal skills he could say a bunch of pro-Cannabis stuff and all the cool Vancouverites would accept and encourage him. Now he was no longer nerdy used book store guy, he was “the Prince of Pot”, hero of the Cannabis subculture because he could speak well and they couldn’t.
Emery then had to keep escalating his pro-Cannabis activities, to keep the attention and adoration of the Cannabis users. Starting the seed company answered all his needs. Now he was the money man of the Cannabis subculture. What will get you more attention and at least fake temporary love than that? The possibility of imprisonment was little deterrent compared to the benefits of being Cannabis money guy, so he kept going, kept escalating, kept being brasher and more arrogant. As is generally the case with all such scenarios, the bubble eventually burst and it was time to pay the piper. Was it worth it? You’d have to ask Marc. I guess it depends on what your priorities in life are, getting stoner chics or freedom.
Funny you would say this, because some in the US seem to think that they have jurisdiction over criminal activities here in Canada. And Canadian laws WERE broken, the penalties just aren’t as draconian as in the US.
That information wasn’t removed, it’s still available on the page where we ask people to send Marc money.
The $300,000 is 5 years of interest stacked up on top of a smaller amount he owed when the raid happened. He paid diligently and handsomely for many years, with a small amount owing which has since ballooned into a ridiculous amount.
Here’s the info again, which is still available on our website at https://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/content/2010/05/22/Send-Marc-Mail-SeaTac-FDC
Marc does not make any income from the store or anywhere. I get paid so I am supporting him. Supporters of Marc WANT to help him, so if you don’t care, then go away.
Some people think Marc and I are filthy rich, but that is SO FAR from the truth. We own nothing or any value except for my modest wedding ring that Marc’s father’s small inheritance paid for.
Marc had $11 in his bank account the day of the raid in 2005 because he knew that if he ever got busted, the cops would take everything he owned or kept. The whole POINT of making money through seed sales was to give it away. Most people are instinctively greedy (that’s natural, not an insult) so they can’t comprehend why Marc didn’t keep anything. He’s a brilliant and selfless guy, that’s why.
Marc has more debt than most people. He owed Revenue Canada a couple thousand dollars when he got busted by the DEA on July 29th, 2005. Up until that point, Marc was making regular large tax payments because he had regular income that could afford the big payments owed. But after the bust, that income tax bill could not be paid because we had nothing at all.
Since 2005, the interest rate on that owed income tax is HUGE. Marc owes Revenue Canada over $300,000. We cannot afford to pay that off, it’s absolutely impossible. And if Marc makes any income, the government takes 150% of it — so we have to pay the government twice as much as anything we pay Marc! That’s why Marc has no money at all except for what I can afford to send him from my paycheque, and what supporters send to him or donate in the store.
We paid our lawyers ourselves, through our company. Thankfully our lawyers have been very generous because they know how unjust Marc’s case is compared to all the “bad dudes” they normally work for. They know Marc has no money. Yes, my store does well business-wise, but like all businesses, the vast majority of income goes to paying employees, rent, electric bills, payroll and PST taxes, buying stock, and making improvements to the building — not to mention all of the activism and campaigns we fund too, and that’s where all the “profit” goes.
So Marc does need money. If you don’t want to send him anything, then don’t. But there are many people who do, so this information is for them to utilize.
This tax lawyer is correct but the point is that from the US perspective the Government of Canada profited from the proceeds of a US crime even though no Canadian laws were broken. Canadian court rulings on taxes have no jurisdiction in the US.
This is a lie. Emery owes over $300,000 to Revenue Canada in taxes he never paid after his arrest in Canada in 2005. It was posted in the Cannabis Culture forums but was taken down quickly.
Yes, the DEA should charge the Canadian government, or the responsible officials, with money laundering, as they knowingly participated in the same activities that Mr. Emery did. Emery was charged with money laundering, wasn’t he? That makes the Canadian government his accomplice. In fact, I bet a good prosecutor could make a case for a conspiracy involving a large number of Canadians.
I would be willing to bet if the Canadian government was as pro-marijuana as Mr. Emery, such a thing might conceivably happen. But since this case was not about drugs per se, but about Mr. Emery’s political activities, nobody really cares about what actually happened or who was involved. Remember, Mr. Emery’s case is not about laws being broken, but about silencing a critic of the government.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. Doesn’t this make the current government guilty of some sort of proceeds of crime law? If they knowingly accepting the proceeds of a crime (and by cooperating with the DEA, they admit as much) doesn’t that make them guilty of something?
I’m sure the meaning of the word, marijuana, is different for many people. Ever see that South Park episode when the word, fag, is used to describe Harley riding douche bags? The meaning of the word is in its context, which can be used in a racist fashion.
Marc is a master of what I think “cheeky”means with a British sense of humoUr. Learned as ex-pat living in Asia about this interesting word.The intrigue that was set in motion has created good vibrations globally.I’ll be lecturing on FREE MARC at Meta Art House in Phnom Penh on July,4th.Teach people they should not say MARIJUANA. This M-word is VILE and RACIST and must be put in a locked box .The non-smokers can hear that message and learn.You have a ton of work to turn people ON to TRUTH and not blow smoke.Listen to TOM JAMES at Hemp usa.org and prevent illness with hemp achene nutrition.
So if you want to launder some drug money you just overpay your drug income tax and then wait for the nice fat refund. Bingo, your dirty money is now nice clean government issued money. Basically, you just send in your total income and they send back all but the taxes. Now you go to the bank and cash the government check. Everything that took place between you and Tax Canada is confidential. All anybody ever sees is the huge government checks coming into your account. You tell everybody you’re a “consultant” for Tax Canada, a really well paid one.
I had some additional thoughts about Michael Coren’s Sun TV interview with my wife Jodie and his subsequent Toronto Sun newspaper rant (both are attached to the beginning of my last blog) about me and the cannabis culture.
One of the favoured media propaganda techniques is the long ranting monologue preceding the interview of the guest (Jodie in this case) with opposing ideas. This rant (perfected by Bill O’Reilly at Fox News and emulated in this case by Sun TV host Michael Coren) is always full of idiotic lies. What do you say to someone who is arguing the world is flat? Well, you don’t get to say anything because the guest isn’t present during the taping of the rant, and doesn’t know it will show up in the broadcast. And even if Jodie were aware of the rant, how can you rebut a dozen lies in nine seconds?
As for the tacked on interview with Jodie, it’s a matter of the host skipping from subject to subject whenever one subject gets too hot. When Jodie brought up prohibition’s role in starting wars, justifying invasions and directing foreign policy, Coren tosses in a quick lie and zips off to another subject.
Coren says he can’t see why marijuana prohibition is a big cause (despite it being big enough for two states to vote in the majority to repeal marijuana prohibition). Again, Jodie starts to tell him how prohibition affects nearly every aspect of society and zip… lie… zip… he’s off to another subject.
Could it be Coren and people like him are just propaganda robots who automatically reject anything coming from the reality-based community? Whenever the ‘reality-based community’ brings up a point, the reaction is to dismiss it with some moronic lie, and then …zip… to move on.
The camera, when left alone to do its work, doesn’t lie. Jodie came across as a classy, intelligent person who dealt in facts. Coren comes across as a brainwashed ideologue grinning at his own stupidity, which he mistakes for intelligence. Coren, knowing full well how full of it he is, even predicts he will get loads of emails and twitter responses from the reality-based community calling him “evil”. Coren doesn’t see the relevance of his own remark. He laughs at it.
It is this disconnect between the evil done by prohibition and the inability of people like Coren to accept responsibility for what they are endorsing. This is sociopathic behaviour. Coren simply can’t empathize with the suffering he is promoting. Prohibition is no more serious a concern than “the right to masturbate”, he writes! It is indeed true with prohibition, that if you aren’t against prohibition, you are indeed for it – and therefore must accept the evil done by prohibitionist policy as your own. Prohibitionists are incapable of logical thought in this matter because logic would show they are supporting evil acts. Therefore, Coren avoids logic, and avoids any responsibility for who he is, and what he is.
Coren’s mistaken assertion that police ignore possession busts is limited and incorrect. Incorrect because, as Jodie points out, possession busts continue to rise, over 10,000 in Canada last year. But limited, too, because the big prohibition money for police is in seizures. That’s the main interest of police when it comes to prohibition. The police don’t get homes and cars and yachts and motorcycles and computers and furniture and anything else they want by making possession busts. Would-be-uniformed thugs don’t join police SWAT teams to make possession busts. They join to fuck shit up. To blast through front doors, to toss in stun grenades, carry heavy assault weaponry, wear intimidating black assault outfits, have slavering German Shepherds ready to attack anyone inside feigning resistance. Helicopters, tanks, all the SWAT team paraphernalia so beloved by adrenalized cops everywhere in North America – you don’t get that making possession busts.
Coren asked Jodie if she was a ‘pothead’, a juvenile tactic that says a lot about Coren and his audience. Coren seemed to be in a constant state of self-absorbed glee through the entire interview. He was so charged up while saying the dumbest things and was just bursting to say the next dumb thing, and the next.
A classic remark by Coren had a certain historical resonance, his final last-stand defense for prohibition and all it represents. When the lies don’t hold up (and they didn’t), when the facts are starting to get in the way (and they did), it’s time for the ultimate rationalization, the one that is history’s most popular justification for evil: “Well, it’s the law.”
Then at the end, Coren wishes me the best for the holiday season. See, that’s a disconnect. He can’t see legalization as a worthy cause, he thinks I doth protest my five-year sentence for selling seeds from my desk in Vancouver too much (there are more worthy prisoners and causes, he says), he issues me a robotic Christmas greeting to show his humanity while expressly supporting the propaganda from a prohibitionist system that put me in a US federal prison in the first place! That’s chutzpah for you!
The prohibition system has left over a million children without fathers in the US, and millions more in some level of despair over loved ones in prisons worldwide for prohibition. Coren and drug war apologists will nonetheless enjoy the holidays with their families. He does not see the evil, the contradiction. It does not enter Coren’s mind. Simply by wishing me a Merry Christmas, Coren is able to reassure himself he is an okay guy. After all, prohibition can’t be so bad as to ruin a Merry Christmas, can it, Mr. and Mrs. Emery? What’s 2,600 kilometers separation, really, for five years, because of some seeds?! Merry Christmas, Marc and Jodie – come on, lighten up, says Mr. Coren; It’s Christmas, for goodness sakes!
But I’ll be out soon, maybe 12 months if I get transferred back to Canada, 18 months if I don’t. The Prohibitionists, however, are forever locked inside a delusion they can never escape. Abandoning that delusion, they’ll have to see themselves as they really are. And that’s something they can’t handle. Therefore, their lives will continue to be an exercise in worthlessness. But enough of Michael Coren at Christmastime.
Christmas brings a feeling love and hope for humanity. People warm up at Christmas. They are nicer to each other for a brief period of time. I know from letters and cards that I am thought of at Christmas by many, and it’s a comforting feeling. All my work of over 30 years is coming to a big pay-off. Two US states have legalized, with many more (and hopefully British Columbia) on the horizon to legalize. Uruguay will legalize next year. The juggernaut is loose and cannot be turned back, though the prohibitionists will certainly try.
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