Interview Marc Emery - Expogrow Irun 2014

Transcript of the interview with Marc Emery:

Hello Marc, Hello Jody it’s a pleasure to have you here in Expogrow and collaboratinf in the International Social Cannabis Forum and we steel a little of your time for this Interview for Alchimia, for most of cannabis lovers you’re a well-known couple, but for those who don’t know anything about you, we could say that, you’re Canadian, that you’re a putting a lot of effort on putting cannabis into the light, and to show the people it effects, how to grow it, and cultivating it, and for doing that, you have founded a magazine the Cannabis Culture Magazine, an internet base Tv Channel called “Pot Tv” , and you have founded already three political parties for supporting cannabis legalization too, so it seems that the cannabis legalization is really important for you.

What made you decide to do your best for getting cannabis free, and what does the cannabis contribute to your life?

Well, I have smoked cannabis, pretty well every day from 1981 to when I went to prison , I didn’t smoke cannabis in prison for 4,5 years, so it’s nice to know that I had no withdrawals when I stopped smoking cannabis.

I felt no bad effects I didn’t not even think about smoking cannabis in jail, but I thought a lot about the politics and I wrote a lot about cannabis, so even in jail I were still being very active writing and expressing my thoughts to my wife and she was very busy.

To me the cannabis prohibition is the greatest injustice in the world, because since 1960 over 30 million people have been arrested by police on the planet, millions of people have gone to jail, I, myself have been arrested for cannabis several disobedience 28 times, have gone to jail 23 times, ahm and so I been in jail 5 years in the US, I have been putted in jail 3 months in Canada for passing a joint, and it’s a terrible thing that something so good, is, the people how believe in the cannabis culture are treated so badly,
so I think it’s the most immediate concern in the world that we can change fast.

Because, you know, you cannot change poverty fast, you know, solving poverty is going to be very difficult it will take a long time
or housing or homelessness, or many of these problems, they take time to solve.

Cannabis we can solve in one moment, by taking the word cannabis out of this schedule of controlled drugs, and just leaving it for the provinces or the states within a country to regulate, right, so, we can make this happen very quickly and that’s why I think it’s an excellent use of our personal time and resources for Jody and I but for all activists.

Thank you, when did you start selling cannabis seeds and why the USA blamed you with that hardness for doing that?

I was inspired by Ben Dronkers of Sensi Seeds Bank, and so on November 30 of 1994, I remember the day, I started selling seeds.

And over the 10 years after that I gave away 5 million dollars to all these activism. See, I started selling seeds to race a lot of money quickly, and my whole idea was to race money very quickly and give it all away, I don’t need this money, right.

I wanted to give this money to people who I thought that had good ideas, who were fighting the US Government or who are doing the ballot initiatives in Colorado in the year 2000, actually Arizona too that year, Washington DC in 1998 and I was doing many things with this money and we were archiving good political things and the DEA eventually, they see this and the begin very worried and when they arrested me in 2005 after I was selling seeds for 10 years, they talk all about my legalization efforts, they said he’s giving lots of money to legalize it, he’s advertising it in his magazine, we must stop this money he’s giving, right.

They don’t even talk about that it’s all about seeds, cause it’s so embarrassing, they called me one of the top 50 most wanted people in the whole world in their press release, and all I’m doing is selling seeds and using this money for good political activity.

Because you have never been in the USA before you’ve been arrested?

Right yeah, I only stayed in Canada because I thought , you know, maybe if I go to the USA they will arrest me, for being that guy, right, so, I stayed just in Canada, but then eventually they came and get me anyway, they don’t wait.

But that’s not fair

Well, you know, what though it did not work because now I’m more famous and more influential and while a was in the United States, both Colorado and Washington said; legalize, many other places want to legalize, more medical marijuana play so, the DEA did not succeed, the just put me in jail for 4 and a half years, but that’s not important, it’s important that the movement keeps going and legalization efforts continue, and see, so in that way we are successful and that’s the only way we can measure results; are we successful in freeing the people and stopping the imprisoning ?

Yes we are successful so, you know, my sacrifice is a good sacrifice.

Wise words, I think. Talking about Canada, what’s the actual situation of cannabis in Canada and what have changed with the last reform, what we have been talking before?

O.K. Canada is a very big country, so in some places it’s like another country like in Vancouver, if you came to Vancouver you would say: “oh  it’s wonderful, there’s fifty clubs there are also lots of marijuana, people smoking marijuana on the street, people, we have this big lounge for years and years 400 people every day come to our lounge and they smoke marijuana being big rooms,
people smoking, and there is no police, nothing bad happens, every day, right , so if you came to Canada you say:

“ Oh Canada is a wonderful place it must all be like Vancouver” it’s not all like Vancouver ! Just like Spain is not like Barcelona, right, in fact it’s a very good example, Barcelona is Barcelona and it’s in front of the rest of Spain, well, Vancouver is in the front of the rest of Canada.

You go to a place like Saskatchewan where I was and I got 3 months in Jail for passing one joint. That can still happen!
That’s something really crazy!!

Now I say that, but in a place a went to jail for 3 months in Saskatoon, that was in 2004, now they have a Cannabis Cup there, in that very same city, every year for 3 days people smoking non-stop, hundreds of people, we put it on Pot Tv, we show everybody that smoking, the police don’t do anything, 3 days, I’m smoking and no police, so that’s changed a lot, from they gave me 3 months in jail to now nobody cares, nobody.

So that it’s a very extreme place in Canada and even they are having improvements.

So if you keep pushing and pushing you get the improvements, but you need brave people, you know, who are willing to go to jail, and maybe that man in Saskatoon who runs this Cannabis Cup, maybe one day they will come for him and he have to go to jail for a while, but I’m sure he will keep pushing.

O.K. that’s the way I think. And  talking about the Cannabis regulation in the USA

Yeah

What do you think the way it’s been progressing, I mean, it’s a good example for the South-American or European Countries, at the same way over legalization or regulation of Cannabis, and how do you relate it with the Cannabis Social Club movement in Barcelona? We more or less have talked about this, but…

Well the good thing about the movements internationally like in Latin-America and Europe is this video.

Because these videos, a lot young people like to watch videos, and they like to see the buds and they like to see all this activity and I’m now here in Spain, but I know you have a lot of viewers in South-America, Mexico and Central-America and so we are informing people internationally, so someone in a small Village in Argentina or in Chile or Colombia is watching this and they are getting these Ideas

“ Oh I would love to have something like a club in my town” maybe in Santiago de Chile or maybe in Buenos Aires or any of these places and they will get Ideas and so this is helping our movement,
this communication, this technology, which 20 years ago did not really exist. We just started Pot Tv 14 years ago, and now there are hundreds of wonderful marijuana activists using the video to spread information and, and everybody dreams of having a club or even owning a club or running a club and so we put these Ideas and the people said; ahm I’m sure just in our discussion we will find one person who says

“Yes I want open a club and I will do it right now!” and that’s how these things happen and so the example is spread around the world.

Nice

Yeah

Do you have any advice for pushing cannabis activism in Europe, I mean, what can we do for supporting cannabis legalization, for improve the percents?

Me personally; a man from Ireland wrote me, Northern Ireland in Belfast and he wrote me:  How can I start activism in Belfast, we are not very organized and I wanna know what I should do to start?”

I said, let me ask you a question: “If you put a sign up in front of the Parliament in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and you had a sign that’s says: “Why are the pot people being arrested? and then you have a bong there and you smoke in that bong once every hour, for a whole day, I said, what would happen” ?

And he said: “ I would probably be arrested!” and I said: “and will you go to jail ?” and he said “ probably not, but maybe.”

I said: “well, would others coming do that with you ?“ and he said: “ Yes” and I said: “Well, then that’s how you start;

You have 20 people and all they have a different sign they all are willing to smoke a joint every hour and they tell the police:
“We gonna be right here in front of the Parliament and we’re gonna smoke marijuana every hour and if you arrest us we will challenge you and if you don’t arrest us we will go home!!!”

And then I said: “If you get arrested the process begins, you go to trial, you talk to the media, you go to the people, you try to win the people to your side and you will be successful because history is on your side, people admire and respect people who are willing to go to jail for their principles or for a cause and you’re being honest”
and I said:

“and then, If you don’t go to jail, then, you think about your next decision, maybe you should start your first club in Belfast, ok, if the police won’t arrest you smoking in front of the parliament, now maybe you should have your own club, and then if you get arrested for that, you can go and make your explanations to the people and the media and maybe you’ll be able to keep you club, right, but that’s how you do it, you have to force the issue, right, because no one is going to send you an invitation in the mail saying “ Hey welcome to Belfast, please open a club !” No! I will have to decide.

“Ok I’m willing to be brave I’ll be courageous, if I go to jail then I’m accepting that , but maybe we won’t be to jail, maybe they will accept it instead or something in between but you will make progress, just one person can start and then other people will join you.

So we have to be brave and keep pushing!

It’s always the brave because, you know, a lot of people here, if you look around, they may influenced by money, money is important, but bravery is much more important, because a courageous person with no money can probably do a lot more than a not courageous person with a lot of money, money is not what wins legalization, it’s a brave heart and a good vision and diplomacy, you know, you don’t won’t to offend people, so you hold a nice sign that says “ Why are the cannabis people put in jail?"

“It’s injustice” and that way if they arrest you everybody in the public will understand what you’re saying and now you can make your case in the courts and in the media and maybe you go to jail for a week, maybe not at all, maybe you get a fine but it’s worth it!! 

So, I mean it’s your first in a Spanish cannabis event like Expogrow are you enjoying the ambient? What do you think about the Spanish marijuana? Have you tried something since you’re here?

I think that all the marijuana I’m smoking is from Spain and it’s very good it’s consistently good it’s very, very nicely cured and flushed because it burns nice and I like everybody in Spain has been very nice and I like that all the clubs are organized and I also think everybody here is very professional

I think Spain, is ahead of the rest in Europe, in the way the clubs are organized and how many clubs… there are more clubs here than anywhere except Amsterdam,  Holland, in the Netherlands there are over 600 clubs I think Spain has over 350 clubs, so it’s catching up to Holland and I think it’s far more organized and I think politically it’s more stable than Holland, I think Holland is in danger of losing their clubs, where Spain is going to become more, more clubs, soon and quickly, the money is here, the support is here and they are very professional and that’s always very important.

And finally could you send a message for all the people that don’t have many knowledge about marijuana for helping them to understand the point of view of the people who supports it, both for medical and recreative uses what would you say to them?

The best thing we can do is be a good example, so each individual the way we behave, if we’re promoting marijuana, people will think if you are a good person, if you are behaving a good person than all marijuana people are good people, so we have to be a good example, ambassadors, we have to be marijuana ambassadors,
so, if we are well behaved and respectful and are polite then the public will get the impression that we are nice, respectful polite person, and that marijuana people are like that, and that’s the best thing we can do because over time this stigma is changed,
when they know a good person who smokes marijuana, then they think,

“well hes’s good person so maybe I should reconsider” ,

we are the best example and so I think first we have to become good examples and then we will change people’s minds.

Finally we will be really pleased if you could say hi to all the colleges  in Alchimia and thank you for this time !

On behalf of Canada, I wish greetings to the people of Alchimia , I hope you’re visiting the Costa Brava, soon to see you !!

Thanks a lot

You’re welcome

Here you have, some presents.

Oh, goodies! And there are some seeds too!