opfeatures@gmail.com Marijuana Culture in the Lower Mainland: Continued the downtown area.” Possession of marijuana, despite the amount is, howev- er, still illegal. The short answer of why the cops don’t reg- ularly raid places like The New Amsterdam is because it’s probably not worth the time. For the possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use is not an indictable offence. Police officers have the option of merely giving the person in possession nothing more than a warning. Generally, the police have more important things to do. Selling pot can be considered an indictable offence and the police certainly notice when retail outlets begin selling pot over the counter. But certainly no one would have the gall to attempt such a thing, right? Well, actually, there is the now-famous case of the Da Kine Smoke and Beverage Shop on Commercial drive. In September of 2004, police raided Da Kine. The shop had been open for four months before the raid, and feasibly may have been selling pot the entire time! The owner, Carol Gwilt, actually went public about what was going on at Da Kine, before the store was raided. Eight people were arrested as result of the raid, but amazingly, the store re-opened the following day (but they weren’t allowed to sell pot anymore). Certainly, there many marijuana activists in the Vancouver area, but few can doubt that standing in the centre of it all is the “Prince of Pot” himself, Marc Emery. With the threat of his extradition to the US, Emery has quickly become one of the most famous marijuana activists in North America. Emery is a founder, former leader, and president of the British Columbia Marijuana Party. He once ran the HEMP BC retail store, and later had stakes The Cannabis Café, a precursor to Blunt Bros. and The New Amsterdam. He is also the creator of Cannabis Culture Magazine, the Website, Pot-T'V, and until recently, he was also the owner of Marc Emery Seeds. Marc Emery Seeds was a mail-order seed company that shipped marijuana seeds across Canada and the US For six . years, Emery ran his seed company openly, and made no pretense as to what kind of product his business sold, a fact Emery freely admits. “Revenue Canada received $578,000 in personal income taxes (1999 to 2005) on income that was explicitly from the sale of marijuana seeds, and they ALWAYS were aware of it. It said “Marijuana Seed Vendor” on my tax returns. I explained my entire banking and money systems and always gave income tax all access to my accounts so they could verify everything I said was true...they knew how it all worked because I had nothing to hide.” Emery had nothing to hide from the Canadian govern- ment, because, in his own words, “No one in Canada has ever been sentenced to jail for selling seeds. Only two peo- ple have ever been fined: myself in 1996 and-1998; and Ian Hunter, fined $200 in 2000.” Unfortunately for Emery, US drug laws are well defined and much, much harsher. On July 29, Emery was arrested for extradition to the US. Emery had sold over 60,000 seeds to US citizens. Under drug kingpin legislation in the United States, if Emery is extradited, he may face the maximum penalty of death. There seems little doubt, either way, that marijuana cul- ture in the Lower Mainland will continue. If Emery is extradited, he then becomes a martyr for the cause. If he is tried in Canada, he will get a far lesser charge and will (sooner or later) continue his work. Another west-coast pro-marijuana activist of consider- able note is former Vancouver mayor and current Canadian senator, Larry Campbell. Campbell is famous for his “four pillars” approach to drug control, and for the establishment of Vancouver's first safe injection site for heroin users. Campbell’s idea was to legalize marijuana and “tax the hell out of it.’ Considering BC’s annual revenue from marijuana sales has been estimated between four and seven billion dollars, (wow, that’s rea//y a lot of money) this would certainly be a proactive course of action. Mote important to marijuana culture than all the big players combined are the masses of pot smokers that con- tinue to smoke marijuana and support the cause. An exam- ple of the devotion of local pot-smokers is the gathering for 4:20 Day (April 20). Last April, an estimated 5,000 people gathered at the downtown art gallery to “celebrate.” The festivities mainly included those 5,000 people all lighting up at 4:20pm and creating a gigantic smoke-cloud over the Vancouver Art Gallery square. There was also a giveaway for the best pro- marijuana sign, and the top prize was a half-ounce of, high- grade marijuana. Marc Emery even showed up to promote Pot-TV by giving away rolling papers that advertised the website. Although there is significant pressure on Canada from the US for us have tougher drug laws, Chrétien’s liberal government introduced a bill to decriminalize marijuana. The bill was reintroduced under the Martin government, but nothing came of it. Needless to say, our current con- servative government did not reintroduce the bill. Still, the mere introduction of the bill marks a victory for marijuana smokers. It suggests that the Liberals and the NDP both support decriminalization. NDP leader Jack Layton even supports legalization. Doesn’t legalization just make sense though? Vancouverite Dave Davis, 67 (retired), a non-pot smoker offers his opinion: “T think it should be legalized. I know a lot of people that use it. They’re decent people. Maybe they don’t drink, they smoke marijuana [instead], so what’s the difference? What is the worse drug? Alcohol kills a lot of people. We don’t know what marijuana will do to you.... If they sold marijuana at the liquor store, it would be the same as the booze. It would stop all this crap. So why doesn’t the gov- ernment make their money off it, because they [pot smok- ers] are going to do it anyway.” Sy Photos by Jatinifer Aird