PETITION CLOSED

  • The time period for signing this petition has ended.
Free Marc Emery (and End Cannabis Prohibition)!
  1. Signatures
    246 out of 1,000,000
    Petitioning
    1. The President of the United States
  2. Created By
    Tom Pearson
    Homewood, AL
About this Petition Petition Letter

On the morning of May 10, 2010, Marc Emery, the "Prince of Pot," founder of Cannabis Culture Magazine and former cannabis seed vendor, turned himself in to Canadian authorities to face extradition to the United States. The extradition order, signed by the Canadian Justice Minister, requires that Marc be turned over to US authorities to serve a five-year prison sentence ostensibly for selling cannabis seeds online.

There are many online cannabis seed sellers, who have never been arrested or prosecuted for their activities, but the US Drug Enforcement Administration and other law enforcement agencies here have specifically targeted Marc for punishment. Unlike other seed vendors, Marc used his fame and the revenues from his seed business to advocate for and fund cannabis law reform in the US, Canada and around the world. Evidently his activities in support of cannabis law reform were not very well received by the DEA and others who saw Marc's crusade against the US-led "War on Drugs" as a threat to the continuation of that war.

Cannabis prohibition is a waste of resources and saddles otherwise law-abiding, peaceful people with criminal records and societal stigma. Prohibition not only turns peaceful Americans (from all over the Americas) into criminals, it creates violence by driving cannabis production, distribution and use underground and into the hands of violent, black-market cartels, who are currently murdering thousands of individuals each day in Mexico and elsewhere. Prohibition has also resulted in an erosion of liberties for all involved and has created gaping holes in the US Bill of Rights, which is supposed to serve as a safeguard of our rights. As a result, US law enforcement and our justice system are being used to harass and fleece hundreds of thousands each year.

President Obama has pledged to look at reforming US cannabis laws and has taken one step towards allowing US states to set their own cannabis policies. However, violent drug raids continue unabated and the reach of the US drug law enforcement regime is spreading further. Prohibition is senseless, wasteful and unnecessary. Marc Emery's imprisonment is just the latest tragedy in our ongoing war against our own citizens.

Please join me in demanding that President Obama reaffirm his commitment to cannabis law reform and, as a sign of his commitment to positive change in cannabis policy, grant Marc Emery, a peaceful Canadian political activist, a full pardon!

Also, please contact Judge Ricardo Martinez in Seattle, Washington and tell him that he should let Marc Emery return home to Canada with a no-prison sentence instead of the 5-year term in the plea deal. Mail:

Honorable Ricardo S. Martinez
U.S. Courthouse
700 Stewart Street, Suite 13134
Seattle, WA
98101-9906

More information: http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/content/2010/05/10/Its-Official-Conservatives-Extradite-Marc-Emery

If you don't think cannabis raids are unnecessarily violent, please watch this video from Columbia, Missouri. Warning: this video may be disturbing for some viewers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbwSwvUaRqc

Recent Signatures

Pardon Marc Emery and End Cannabis Prohibition

Dear Mr. President,

During your campaign for president, you repeatedly made promises to reform the cannabis laws in the US and to reevaluate current policies with regard to enforcement of our drug laws. Since taking office, only two small steps have been made toward reforming US law and policy regarding cannabis: 1. No longer using the term: "War on Drugs" and 2. Attorney General Holder's directive to US Attorneys not to prosecute patients and caretakers conforming to their state's medical marijuana laws. While these changes are good first steps, you have repeatedly dismissed and even joked about numerous national calls for a reevaluation of cannabis law and enforcement policy.

Millions of Americans have suffered arrest, prosecution and harassment because of their use of cannabis for medicinal or recreational purposes. Law enforcement continues to invade the homes of American citizens (even those of patients and caregivers in states that have approved medical marijuana use), often with tragic results. Criminalizing cannabis users not only clogs the US legal system, including filling our prisons with non-violent offenders, but our prohibitionist policies often mean a lifetime as a felon for many of our citizens, which affects their ability to find employment, engage in the political process, receive loans toward education and many other needless impairments.

Recently, a Canadian political activist and magazine publisher, Marc Emery, was extradited to the US to serve a five-year prison sentence for the "crime" of selling cannabis seeds online, some of which were bought by US consumers. Mr. Emery is being singled out by US authorities because he has spent much of his life peacefully advocating for an end to cannabis prohibition in North America and around the world.

Cannabis prohibition wastes resources that the US and other countries simply cannot afford. Harvard Economist Jeffrey Miron has estimated the cost savings from ending cannabis prohibition at nearly $8 billion and the potential revenues from regulating and taxing cannabis at billions more.

You yourself have experimented with cannabis and know that claims that it is harmful are unfounded. Indeed, cannabis is safer than alcohol. The time for joking about reforming cannabis laws has passed. The human and financial costs have become unbearable.

As a concerned citizen, I'm asking you to commit to cannabis law and policy reform with a view toward ending prohibition altogether. As a sign of your commitment to implementing these reforms, I ask that you pardon Marc Emery and allow him to return to his home country of Canada immediately.

Sincerely,

[Your name]

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