Pot crusader says he feels "blessed"

Marc Emery, the leader of the BC Marijuana Party, founder of Cannabis Culture magazine and a man in peril of an extradition hearing later this year and possibly spending a lot of time in a U.S. jail for selling marijuana seeds, is fairly buoyant nonetheless. He said in an interview on CTV's Canada A.M. today that he is "blessed" by his international fame and "flattered" by the attention paid by U.S. drug enforcement officials.

Emery, who also runs the internet-based Pot-TV, has been arrested 21 times in Canada, mostly resulting in fines. He spent 62 days in 2004 in a Saskatoon jail for trafficking after passing a joint. Has it all been worth it? You bet, he says:

"Ten years ago there was no legal medical marijuana, no legal and thriving hemp industry, no hemp stores across Canada. Even books and magazines about marijuana ten years ago were banned in this country and so we've come a great deal," he said.

"In 10 years we've seen Canadians embrace and support a tax and regulated medical marijuana regime, as well as a retail and recreational marijuana regime. The Senate found and recommended that marijuana should be legalized in 2002. We're making tremendous progress."

In addition to selling millions of marijuana seeds, Emery readily admits spending millions of dollars from sales of the seeds on "democratic change" by supporting marijuana parties in several U.S. states, something U.S. prosecutors consider constitutes money laundering.

"I've definitely tried to thwart the DEA and the U.S. government's war on marijuana and I like to think I've been very successful," he said.