Marc Emery

Marc Scott Emery (born February 13, 1958) is a Canadian cannabis rights activist, entrepreneur and politician.

Often described as the "Prince of Pot", Emery has been a notable advocate of international cannabis policy reform, and has been active in multiple Canadian political parties at the provincial and federal levels.

Emery has been jailed several times for his cannabis activism.

He is the estranged spouse of fellow activist Jodie Emery, with whom he operated Cannabis Culture magazine and Pot TV.

Until the business was raided by police, the couple were co-owners of Cannabis Culture, a business that franchised pot dispensaries.

Crown prosecutors later deemed the business to be illegal due to obtaining cannabis from illegal sources.

At the age of 9, Emery started a business from his parents' home called Stamp Treasure, buying and selling stamps by mail order.

Two years later he started another mail-order business called Marc's Comic Room that he started by using the money saved from Stamp Treasure.

The business sold used comic books and earned him about $120 a week.

He dropped out of high school in 1975 at age 17 to purchase a used book store in London, Ontario which he renamed City Lights Bookshop.

Emery worked on the New Democratic Party's campaign in London East in the 1979 federal election.

He was a critic of slow police response times to robberies, advocating for private security officers for merchants and business owners.

He started a campaign to eliminate the annual levy tax of $35 a year for downtown improvements, stating that it favoured a handful of the elite.

He ran for the Libertarian Party of Canada in the 1980 federal election, finishing fourth in London East.

Emery later left the Libertarians and became a London-area organizer for the libertarian Unparty, later renamed the Freedom Party of Ontario.

Emery served as the Freedom Party's Action Director from 1984 to 1990.

In 1984, Emery, the Freedom Party, and the No Tax for Pan-Am Games Committee (founded by Emery and Metz) successfully campaigned against London's bid for the 1991 Pan American Games, saying the city would lose millions.

Emery ran as a candidate of the Freedom Party in the rural constituency of Middlesex, near London, Ontario in the 1987 provincial election.

Emery operated the store for 17 years, selling it in 1992.

Emery moved to Vancouver, British Columbia in March 1994, and founded Hemp BC, a store selling cannabis-related paraphernalia.

Bongs and pipes were illegal to sell or promote in Canada and were not readily available at the time.

In late 1994, a court challenge sponsored by Emery convinced an Ontario judge to overturn the Canadian prohibition on marijuana and drug-related literature, making it legal for High Times magazine and marijuana grow books to be sold in Canada once more.

Emery began selling seeds after attending the High Times Cannabis Cup.

The business was featured on the front page of The Wall Street Journal in 1995.

In early 1995 he launched Cannabis Canada Magazine, which was renamed Cannabis Culture magazine in 1998.

The store was raided twice in 1996 and 1997.

Emery received charges relating to illegal sales of paraphanelia and seeds, as well as assaulting a police officer.

He was later convicted and given a $2,200 fine for the sales and jail time for the assault.

Emery was also banned from returning to the 300 block of West Hastings, where his businesses were located.

The store was repeatedly raided through 1998 after its sale to the store manager.

Her business licence was subsequently revoked by the city.

In August 1998, Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen had told The New York Times that Hemp BC was "going to be toast by September."

Emery switched his walk-in marijuana seed business to mail-order only, and continued to publish Cannabis Culture magazine.

From 1998 until his arrest in 2005, Emery paid provincial and federal taxes as a "marijuana seed vendor" totalling nearly $600,000.

In early 2000 he established Pot-TV, a marijuana-related video channel.

On December 15, 2016, Marc and Jodie Emery opened six illegal Cannabis Culture marijuana "dispensaries" in Montreal, Quebec as an act of "civil disobedience".

On 16 December 2016, Marc Emery was arrested at the Mont-Royal Avenue store, during a series of raids conducted by the Montreal police.

Jodie Emery was released later that night with no charges, while Marc was held overnight.

Following this arrest, Emery continued to open dispensary franchises in cities such as Hamilton and Ottawa.

At one time, a total of 19 Cannabis Culture dispensaries were in operation in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec.