'PRINCE OF POT' ARRESTED

Marijuana-Seed Business Raided At U.S. Request As Protesters Chant Outside

VANCOUVER - Vancouver police raided a marijuana-seed business Friday run by
the leader of B.C.'s Marijuana Party under a request from the U.S.
government, while protesters outside chanted anti-American slogans.

Marc Emery, 47, who was referred to as the "Prince of Pot" on the search
warrant, was arrested in Halifax the same day. He is charged in the U.S.
with conspiracy to distribute marijuana, conspiracy to distribute marijuana
seeds and conspiracy to engage in money laundering.

Gregory Keith Williams, 50, and Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek, 34, who are
alleged to be Emery's business partners, were also arrested in Vancouver.

Chris Bennett, manager of Vancouver-based Pot-TV, was working in Emery's
Vancouver store Friday morning when two undercover police officers walked in.

"I was on the phone and these guys who looked like hippies walked in and
told me to hang the phone up," Bennett said.

Bennett was asked to leave the premises as police began their search and
seizure.

"They just sent me out," he said. "They didn't even search my body."

The search warrant included all records pertaining to the seed-selling
business, Marc Emery Direct, including client lists, invoices and employee
records from as far back as September 1995.

Police took down storefront signs and covered the windows with paper, while
pro-marijuana protesters chanted "Go Home U.S.A., Go Home U.S.A." and
banged on makeshift drums on the sidewalk.

"This is a place where people could pull out a joint and not have to fear
being reported to the police, and that was OK with Canadians," said
marijuana activist David Malmo-Levine. "It's really an attack on our
sovereignty."

The search was requested by the U.S. government through the Mutual
Assistance in Criminal Matters Act, Canadian legislation that was enacted
in 1985.

U.S. authorities say the search warrant and arrests are the result of an
18-month investigation into Emery's international seed-selling business.
Emery has been selling seeds by phone, mail or Internet since 1994.

Emery was arrested Friday outside a restaurant in Lawrencetown, N.S., just
outside Halifax, where he had been scheduled to speak at the town's second
annual marijuana festival.

He was held in a cell at Halifax police headquarters Friday night but will
likely be remanded to jail to await his transfer to B.C. early next week.

Emery's lawyer, John Conroy, had not spoken with his client yet but said he
expects an extradition hearing.

"Presumably they are arresting him in order to extradite him to the U.S. to
face charges there," Conroy said, adding that the extradition hearing would
be based on Canadian law.

Emery, who claims to be the world's largest vendor of marijuana seeds and
is publisher of Cannabis Culture magazine, is a well-known activist for the
legalization of marijuana who has been convicted 11 times on drug-related
charges.

He has said in the past that he can no longer travel outside of Canada
because U.S. authorities were seeking to arrest him.

"I haven't travelled in six years -- ever since I started the marijuana
revolution here," Emery told the Vancouver Sun in February 2003. "As the
world's most notorious marijuana advocate, the U.S. would probably try to
apprehend me if I travelled anywhere. That's why I never leave Canada. The
U.S. government's reach is long and severe."

In 2003 Emery embarked on a cross-Canada crusade to get his message across.
He launched demonstrations in a number of provinces, openly smoking pot in
front of police stations and getting himself arrested.

EMERY ON POT POLITICS

Some quotes by Marc Emery, founder of the B.C. Marijuana Party and Cannabis
Culture magazine:

- - "I'm shocked at how the marijuana community has been slandered by a guy
who is clearly mentally unhinged and grew up with guns his whole life and
in a Christian fundamentalist home. They mysteriously find 20 plants and
now there is a pogrom against the growers across Canada." March 2005, after
four RCMP officers were shot dead on a farm by a killer who had a marijuana
grow-op.

- - "The anti-democratic targeting of BCMP (B.C. Marijuana Party) candidates
and political material is an affront to our very democracy." May 2005 after
officials in Abbotsford ripped down the party's campaign signs and banned
candidates from all-candidates meetings during the provincial election.

- - "I was crushed to discover (the tunnel) had been discovered so early in
its history." July 2005 after police raided a tunnel under the U.S.-Canada
border used for trafficking marijuana.

- - "Three months for one joint?" August 2004 after being sentenced by a
Saskatoon provincial court judge.