Transcript

Century of Lies / July 22, 2012

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DEAN BECKER: The failure of Drug War is glaringly obvious to judges, cops, wardens, prosecutors and millions more. Now calling for decriminalization, legalization, the end of prohibition. Let us investigate the Century of Lies.

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DEAN BECKER: The following is from the November 29th 2009 edition of the Century of Lies program featuring Canada’s Prince of Pot, Mr. Marc Emery.

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DEAN BECKER: … probably most, if not all, your adult life, you’d been working to share and bring the truth in focus.

MARC EMERY: Well, two things happened to me that were pivotal in my lifestyle. Thirty years ago, I first discovered Ayn Rand in the summer of 1980 and I first started smoking marijuana in December 1980 and those two combined have basically alchemy, that kind of alchemy’s led to about thirty years of non-stop activism on behalf of liberty and for the last twenty years, against marijuana prohibition.

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DEAN BECKER: Alright, that was Marc Emery. Here to talk about his circumstance is his wife, Jodie. Hello, Jodie.

JODIE EMERY: Hi, Dean.

DEAN BECKER: Jodie, I’m sorry. That was probably tough for you to hear. But I want people to understand this is a gentle man, a man of courage and intellect and a man that the U.S. is abusing. I just got to say it.

Please, Jodie, tell us about your husband. Where is Marc now?

JODIE EMERY: Right now he’s in a medium security federal prison in Yazoo City, Mississippi. That’s where he’s been since April of last year. He spent some time in the GEO Group private prison facility in Georgia prior to that and Seattle, Nevada as well.

DEAN BECKER: Seattle, Nevada…The fact of the matter is you live in Vancouver. This is quite a distance for you to travel, isn’t it?

JODIE EMERY: Oh, absolutely and Marc is a Canadian citizen as am I and Marc never went to the United States when he sold seeds at all. So the fact that he was able to be indicted on conspiracy charges within the United States for activities he carried out in Canada and then extradited to the United States and imprisoned for a 5-year plea deal when he was faced with 30 years to life – yeah, it is a great injustice.

If anybody wants to know what the story of this is you can go to http://freemarc.ca and that’s Marc with a ‘c’ or by googling him. He blogs from prison and I do weekly video updates where I let people know how he’s doing.

You’ll see that his latest blog at http://freemarc.ca and the front page of http://cannabisculture.com shows that we just received documents from the Drug Enforcement Administration admitting that millions of dollars went to drug reform activities and that’s where all the money went. You can read that blog right now online and you can see yourself how the DEA admits Marc did send money to political campaigns and activists around the world.

We knew that from the day of Marc’s arrest in 2005 when the DEA press release – which is also found on the front page of http://freemarc.ca, showed that it was not even about seeds. Seeds were never even mentioned. It was all about how Marc was the leader of a legalization movement and financed the marijuana movement with millions of dollars. So Marc did a lot that we couldn’t even cover even if we had an hour but if people want to find out more about who he is if they don’t know just read the Wikipedia entry. Google the name Marc Emery and you’ll find some fascinating information.

DEAN BECKER: You know, the fact of the matter is I am a recipient of Marc’s largess, of his commitment to change. The fact of the matter is back in ’05 I think it was things were not going well for me. I talked with Marc about I wonder if I can get internet access under the bridge and he sent me I think it was 5 perhaps more thousands of dollars to keep the Drug Truth Network rolling.

I’m not ashamed of that. I have often wondered if the feds here would come after me for having received that money but they’ve never said a word. But the fact of the matter is he has helped people all over this world.

You were talking about all the documents, all the effort and millions involved in “tracking Marc down.” I want to share this with you. We’ll be right back.

Marc Emery from the Century of Lies show on November 29th, 2009.

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MARC EMERY: One of the fascinating things is, when they pursued John Lennon, the US Federal Government produced over four thousand, eight hundred pages of material that they had been researching on. Martin Luther King had a similar amount, about five thousand pages. You know the Canadian government already has six thousand pages on my activities, from surveilling me and being in contact with the U.S. and what have it.

So at six thousand pages and we asked for them, under a Freedom of Information Request and every single word is blocked out, of all six thousand pages {laughter from Dean} and two thousand pages of those, because it goes to a foreign state, the U.S. But you can see from a very early age, from 2002. Right after I had called John Walters, the U.S. Drug Czar, on a visit here in Vancouver.

The Canadian government, the American government and all the associated police agencies were all conspiring to gather evidence, so I would be tried in the United States. Including the Canadian government at the time, the Vancouver police, actively worked to collaborate with the U.S. government, to get me charge there and not here, and there’s six thousand pages that people should be asking for. In face, I think a U.S. request from a journalist, to the state department or justice department. Ask for all the pages on it’s attempt to bring Emery to the United States, would be fascinating and that people should do that.

DEAN BECKER: I think they should. Marc, we are flat out of time. Sounds like the…

MARC EMERY: Good talking to you.

DEAN BECKER: Oh, you bet, my friend. It sounds like they’re just running the printer out of ink, with all those blacked out names.

MARC EMERY: Oh, well. Imagine the millions they’re spending to arrest the guy who’s basic message is: Think for yourself.

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DEAN BECKER: That’s quite a message and it’s still ringing true. I understand Marc is, I hate to say it, doing well in prison. What’s he up to?

JODIE EMERY: Well, it’s true considering how bad it can be. We’re grateful that things are going as well as possible. He is taking up music. He never played an instrument before but he learned guitar, bass guitar so he’s been playing the bass guitar for about one year now. Lots of rock and roll, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Lynyrd Skynyrd – all sorts of music. He lists most of that in his blogs, again, that you can see at http://cannabisculture.com and http://freemarc.ca

He’s keeping fairly fit. He eats as well as possible. He doesn’t eat any junk food except when I visiting him and it’s just vending machines that we have to eat from. He walks around the track for a couple hours each day. He reads a lot. I have a lot of magazine subscriptions for him, plenty of books that people get for him so he’s been keeping very active mentally and, you know, not too active physically but certainly enough to keep healthy and fit.

So, yeah, considering – we’re grateful that we have each other first and foremost. A lot of prisoners don’t have any friends or family that are able to make it through this ordeal. It’s very difficult and most people – their relationships suffer when they’re in prison or someone they love is in prison.

Marc and I are deeply grateful that we have each other and our love and also that we have so much support. We have people all over the world who cared so much. Marc and I take that strength of support and try to turn it around and help others as well.

We received many messages since Marc was extradited in 2010. A lot of people letting me know they’re inspired just by the way I’m holding up and keeping going with my activism and inspired how Marc is dealing with it too because even the darkest of circumstances if you are able to focus on what’s positive then it’s not so difficult.

So we’re certainly grateful for the support and realize how fortunate we are and hope to be helping as many other people as we can through our activism and also just our dealing with this separation and great injustice that happens to him and many others every single day.

DEAN BECKER: Once again, we are speaking with Jodie Emery, wife of Mr. Marc Emery.

Jodie, I guess Marc was the only seed seller in Canada. Is that true?

JODIE EMERY: No it wasn’t true. Other seed sellers have been arrested in Canada and fined for $200 or someone else got two months of conditional sentence so no prison time. But none of them ever gave money to political campaigns.

Marc was the only person to put his face and name to his business and said, “Here I am. Here’s my cell phone number. I’m down at this building every day. You can find me. I’ll talk to anybody – any mainstream media, any police.”

He lived openly and he said what he was doing. He was selling those seeds not for personal gain because he only had $11 when he was raided because every day at the end of the day all the money was gone but he generated millions of dollars through those seed sales, sending valuable, life-saving seeds to Americans and people all over the world and using the money that they willingly sent him to finance political campaigns, activism, organizations, individuals, court cases, ballot initiatives – all sorts of things that have gotten us to where we are today.

And that’s why Marc was targeted. He was brave enough to send seeds to Americans when nobody else would. Some people might call that stupid but I think everyone in California, Colorado and anywhere else in the U.S. with medical marijuana can say that the strain variety that they’ve been able to work with through Marc’s early bravery when no one else would even send seeds down to the U.S. that helped save a lot of lives and there’s still a lot of lives being saved every day because of that.

So his work was almost greater than almost anybody else that you can think of it especially in the seed business because no one else gave millions of dollars so selflessly and also campaigned in elections at every level and being so visible in his fight.

But, of course, if anybody watches the documentary or movies about Marc you’ll realize he’s always been very brave. He’s always fought for liberty. He fought against censorship of music, of literature.

In fact, when Marc started, in 1994, books and magazines about marijuana where illegal in Canada. He brought High Times magazine and Jack Herer’s book, “The Emperor Wears No Clothes” up into Canada, announced that he was selling them and breaking the law and daring the Police to arrest him – a strategy he’s often used of civil disobedience and, of course, he helped get those laws overturned.

So Marc’s brought books and magazines about pot into Canada. He brought hemp into Canada in many ways, medical marijuana he helped sponsor, and bongs and pipes and paraphernalia – he did that, too when nobody else was doing it.

So seed selling he certainly was the biggest and most well-known in the world but he also paid income tax – one-half a million dollars to the government - which they knew was from a seed seller and all sorts of things that he was very visible about. And, again, that’s why he’s in prison.

People think, “Oh, it’s just about seeds.” But, it’s not. It’s about him leading the charge and financing, giving life blood to a movement that he said was to plant the seeds of freedom and overgrow the government. We can see, now, has reached kind of a tipping point while he sits in the United States and sees this happen.

In fact, Marc’s own prosecutor, John McKay, former U.S. District Attorney and appointed by George W. Bush, he is advocating for legalization. He’s done that for a couple years now but he came up into Vancouver to have a press conference with our former Attorney General and me up on a stage talking about legalization. He is backing a legalization initiative in Washington State where they would allow stores to sell marijuana to all adults over 21.

That’s phenomenal that that sort of thing is happening and you know we’re winning when the non-pot using people are on our side. That’s who we’ve been trying to convince forever. We need the support of the politicians. We need the support of the mainstream. We need the support of people who are not in it for any sort of personal gain because they can be taken much more seriously.

So we’ve seen a lot of success come from both the grassroots, our own people (the culture of cannabis) but also from the anti-prohibition movement which is, of course, in lock step with the pro-marijuana movement at this point.

There’s a lot of great things happening and Marc and I are happy to see that sort of progress. In the U.S. there’s a lot of exciting things going on. In Canada we have…Oh, God, we have a really bad, bad time coming up with mandatory-minimums introduced, massive prisons, private prisons, increased drug war, lots of spying and military…I mean, most people don’t even realize what’s happening in Canada but I can tell you it’s a nightmare scenario that we’re going to see a lot of damage done to the cannabis cause and the cannabis culture in Canada over the next couple years. We definitely need the Americans, our American brothers and sisters to keep fighting because we need that example to point to so we can say that the U.S. drug war has been going on for 4 decades and it’s a failure and they’re reversing it. Why are we following that failed path?!

So, keep fighting down there because we depend on you guys to help us prevent that sort of disaster up here.

DEAN BECKER: It’s taking care of one’s neighbor and I agree with you there. You guys were leading the way there for a decade or more with the court rulings, “It’s legal…No, it’ not.” That’s still going on I understand. There’s another challenge to its illegality.

JODIE EMERY: Oh, yes - especially with medical marijuana. There’s a lot going on with that. But our government, our federal government hates medical marijuana but they have to run the program so they’re kind of being very difficult about it.

DEAN BECKER: Yeah, as always. You know, the fact of the matter is, Jodie, you were talking about Marc, your husband, being singled out. We had a very similar situation here in the U.S. where one of our leaders, a gentleman who garnered money, who put his money where his mouth was and that’s Richard Lee, president of Oaksterdam University and how they singled him out in April of this year because, again, he was speaking the truth, sharing that truth, paying for that truth to be distributed and they came after him.

The face of the matter is we have to show support for Richard Lee, for Marc Emery, for those who are willing to step forward, who are willing to put their necks on the chopping block and demand that we address this problem.

JODIE EMERY: Put their money where their mouth is. I mean this is something more people need to do. There’s a lot of money being made in the medical marijuana industry right now. We’re talking billions of dollars in the United States marijuana industry right now and those people need to kick back. They need to give money and put it where their mouth is because people like Marc and Richard Lee are gone. They’ve been taken out because they did the right thing.

There’s a lot of people out there making millions of dollars who … you know, they have a right to make money in the free market – I’m all for that – but, when you got people going to prison in Ohio who have no legs but they use medical marijuana and you’ve got a dispensary operator in California raking in millions of dollars and throwing parties and not supporting one little anti-prohibition effort – that really ticks me off because this drug war is still going on. There’s still a lot of people suffering and dying and going to prison and there’s a lot of people doing really well in this faux-legal market, this medical marijuana market which I’m all for. It’s helping a lot of people and it’s putting our movement forward but those people who have more freedom than the rest of the people – they need to kick back. They owe it to everybody else or when they got nothing left there’s going to be nobody to help them.

So I want people to hear that. If you’re running a medical marijuana or regular marijuana business and you are making a lot of money you better cancel your next vacation and give that money to an elected representative who supports medical marijuana or anything of that sort – you’ve got to give back because when they take away all the big money people we need all the smaller people to at least kick in a small amount so we have a big amount to work with. That makes it happen.

DEAN BECKER: Jodie, let me interrupt you. You’re talking about, I guess, the little people – the ones that don’t get the exposure. Here’s a story I pulled off the Tulsa World.

It talks about the Governor there agreed to an early release for an inmate, Patricia Spottedcrow. A young mother who was busted…she got a 12 year sentence in a blind plea before a judge for selling $31 of marijuana to a police informant. It was her first offense but because children were in her home they added some extra charges. But 12 years for $31 …I don’t know what that is. That’s a gram, a quarter ounce…I don’t know if it’s high-grade or low-grade but, the fact of the matter is it’s miniscule and yet they hand down.

And as a tie-in to this, her mother was also charged with a drug crime but she was given a 30-year suspended sentence so she could care for the children. This is all just outrageous – preposterous, isn’t it?!

JODIE EMERY: Absolutely. It’s a human rights violation. This isn’t happening to the alcoholics who beat up their wife and kids every day. Even if those families go to try to find help, they try to find as much help as they can – there’s nothing for them because all our money isn’t being spent on social services. It’s all being spent on war and drug war and policing and spying.

So, yeah, that’s another absolute atrocity. That’s a serious civil rights violation and that’s why when a lot of people say, “Well, why do you support marijuana legalization? It’s not that big of a deal. You just want to get high.”

It’s like, “No, this is serious. Lives are being destroyed here. There’s a lot of harm being done here and people are not being held accountable for that harm. Why would the government spend time and money harming harmless people?!”

It’s absolutely insane and those stories are such tragedies. Seeing people in prison when I go visit Marc and seeing these kids who don’t get to see their dad very often, they either run to him with “Daddy, daddy, daddy” and their arms thrown out and they’re so happy to see him or they crawl away in fear because they don’t recognize the man who’s their father because they’ve been kept away from his for so long.

These things happen every single day and it’s just so heart breaking. That’s why it’s so important. It’s not just about, of course, the freedom to use marijuana because you’re not hurting other people – it’s because this drug war, this prohibition is hurting other people and that’s what we need to stop first. That’s most important to me – that these lives are getting ruined by a policy that causes more harm than it does good. So, that’s what my conscience lies here.

DEAN BECKER: Look, Jodie, I’m with you 100%. You know if Marc and his band record something we’ll put it up on the airwaves for him. I’d like to hear it because as highly qualified man as he is I’m sure they’re going to end up doing some good work and I like the idea of some Cream or Hendrix, you know.

JODIE EMERY: It would be amazing if we could hear him play but, unfortunately, the only ones that will ever hear him perform with the band called the “Yazoo” will be the people in prison with him. They are not allowed to record so even I have never heard Marc strum a guitar. It will be amazing when he’s finally home.

His early release date for getting home is July 9th, 2014 so that’s a bit under 2 years away. We do hope he might get transferred next year. He’s going to apply again in April (that’s when he’s eligible to apply to be transferred to Canada) and we hope the U.S. federal government will approve him this time and also, of course, that the Canadian federal government approves it, too. But either next year or the year after that he is meant to come home and tomorrow is actually our 6th year wedding anniversary so, hopefully, he will be coming home for our next one together.

DEAN BECKER: Well, look, I see pictures of the two – just a beautiful couple, happy, so happy to be together and I wish you guys, you know, could be together sooner but it sounds like when you get together it’s going to be just fine.

Folks, one more time, we got about a minute left and we’re speaking with Jodie Emery. Jodie, share some websites. You are motivated. Help get these other folks motivated. Tell them where they can learn more.

JODIE EMERY: Well, Marc started Cannabis Culture magazine many years ago so our website, http://cannabisculture.com, is one of the top, lead websites on the entire internet – lots of news stories, original content, plenty of stuff there every single day.

Our sister site, Pot TV, Marc started that at a quarter million dollars, in fact when internet video was a brand new thing and Pot TV has been around for over a decade. We’ve got live shows every week. I’ve got my show that I record every Thursday. You can watch that at http://pot.tv.

And, of course, check out http://freemarc.ca – that’s Marc with a ‘c’, http://www.freemarc.ca We’ve got prison blogs from Marc. My weekly videos are posted there and lots of other information including the DEA statement and all the other interesting stuff about Marc’s case.

So I thank you all for your support and definitely check out http://cannabisculture.com

DEAN BECKER: Alright. Jodie Emery, thank you so much.

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JON STEWART: On the show yesterday you know that we talked about a scandal involving something called LIBOR. That’s the word. It doesn’t really shed any light on it, does it?

It’s the all important inter-banking lending rate which, funny story, turned out major banking financial institutions have been colluding to rig. It was a fascinating object lesson in financial (snoring)

If only there were a new, preferably simpler banking scandal towards which to turn our ire.

REPORTER: A money laundering scandal involving one of the world’s largest banks, HSBC.

JON STEWART: Wow! Money laundering – now there’s a bank scandal everybody can understand. Though, except amilia Bedelia…Though, Amilia, that’s not money laundering…My point is this…

While there are some very difficult to understand complex banking scandals – there are also some good old fashioned visceral malfeasant-type scandals – your money laundering. So let’s guess. This is some kind of HSBC-aided, tax avoidance money laundering thing for fat cats.

REPORTER: Among us who have made it their bank it of choice the ruthless leaders of Mexican drug cartels, suspected Al Qaeda money men and the Iranian government trying to get around U.S. embargoes.

JON STEWART: HSBC is laundering money for terrorists and drug cartels. Well, I guess that explains their slogan, “HSBC – helping people who want to kill you since 1991.”

Or….”HSBC – Blood money?! You had me at money.”

Or…”HSBC – The ‘S’ stands for “SHHHH”

We get a lot of those.

Anyway, I give you the Senate testimony of the head of HSBC, David Bagley. This should be good.

DAVID BAGLEY: I have said before and I will say again despite the best efforts and intentions of many dedicated professionals, HSBC has fallen short of our own expectations and the expectations of our regulators.

JON STEWART: Really?! Fallen short?! Fallen short of the expectations of the regulators. That’s something you say when you were supposed to submit a form by the 12th and didn’t get it in until the 15th.

The expectation you fell short of is the one that the bank my son’s lemonade stand’s account money is in isn’t also helping Al Quada buy shoulder mounted stinger missiles.

So that’s today’s global finance update.

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DEAN BECKER: the following segment courtesy of KPTV FOX in Portland.

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REPORTER: And it’s one of the hottest topics this election season – cannabis. Your vote could make or break a proposed tax act - how easily Oregonians could get their hands on marijuana if it passes.

This November Oregonians will have the chance to decide whether the state should legalize marijuana or keep prohibition in place. KPTV’s Kate Keagles is in the newsroom with what could happen if this law passed. Kate?

KATE KEAGLES: The Secretary of State’s office certified the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act after confirming that organizers had enough signatures on their petition.

In November you will get to vote for or against Measure 80. Today supporters got together in downtown Portland.

The law would allow people to grow and buy pot. Like alcohol you would have to be 21 and stores would need a state license to sell it. People could also grow marijuana for their own personal use.
MALE: That will take it out of the hands of the criminal market and the cartels, out of the hands of the substance abusers and kids who are marketing it today and put it in stores that are licensed and regulated, where the age limit is strictly enforced and substantial public revenue is raised.

KATE KEAGLES: The measure also allows farmers to grow hemp for fuel, clothing and food and then there’s the tax – 90% of taxes would go to Oregon’s general fund. Selling or having marijuana will still be illegal under federal law. The Office of Drug Policy considers pot to be a controlled substance. The Whitehouse website says it has a “high potential for abuse.”

So the main question come November if voters vote for it – how will it be enforced?

I reached out to the Portland police department how they would handle enforcement if the law passes. A spokesman told me they do not comment on political issues.

I’m Kate Keagles, the 10 o’clock news.

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DEAN BECKER: The following segment comes to us courtesy of KCBS, San Francisco.

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BARBARA TAYLOR: The legislation comes from Supervisor Eric Mar who is concerned about the health impacts of second-hand smoke when people are lighting up in public.

ERIC MAR: It’s widely known that second-hand smoke is responsible for as many as 73,000 deaths among non-smokers each year in the United States and there is no safe level of exposure to second-hand smoke.

BARBARA TAYLOR: His proposal would ban smoking at outdoor events on city property that require permits or permission from city agencies. There would be exceptions for small black parties and even for smoking something other than tobacco.

ERIC MAR: Importantly it does not prohibit the use of medical cannabis.

BARBARA TAYLOR: In San Francisco, Barbara Taylor, KCBS.

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DEAN BECKER: Alright, friends. Thank you for being with us on this edition of Century of Lies. I want to thank Jodie Emery. I want to thank her husband for the work he did, for the progress that he put forward. You know it was him that funded the effort in Washington, D.C. to legalize medical marijuana there. It was a decade or more ago. But, the fact of the matter is it was his money that got it passed and then the congress held it up as long as they could but it’s not going to be falling in place here real soon.

You know, folks, this drug war is an abomination. It’s up to you to expose it, to change it. Please visit our website, http://endprohibition.org Do it for the children. Prohibido istac evilesco!

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For the Drug Truth Network, this is Dean Becker asking you to examine our policy of Drug Prohibition.

The Century of Lies.

This show produced at the Pacifica Studios of KPFT, Houston.

Transcript provided by: Jo-D Harrison of www.DrugSense.org