Prince of Pot says his empire is crumbling

Keith Fraser The Province

Marijuana activist Marc Emery says about a dozen of his employees have fled their jobs or been laid off since he was arrested and held for extradition to the United States.

The so-called Prince of Pot says there are only five or six paid employees left at his magazine, store and TV program.

He said the workers who left were afraid of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, which ran an undercover operation against his marijuana seed-selling business.

"All three people who are the graphic artists on the magazine kind of ran off," he said outside the courthouse. "The reason is when the DEA says your boss is the No. 1 crime kingpin around the world, when I'm bigger than the Hells Angels, when they make me sound like the most important person, it makes people nervous."

Emery, Gregory Keith Williams, 50, and Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek, 34, who are all out on bail, made brief appearances in court with their lawyer, John Conroy.

Outside court, Emery, who is charged with selling seeds to U.S. grow-ops and money-laundering, said the group needs more legal help but is strapped for cash.

"We'd like to have four or five lawyers on our case but they charge on average of about $300 an hour," he said. "Three lawyers to show up in court for an afternoon would cost approximately $3,000.

"Substantially, the money raised [so far], the $10,000, got eaten up on legal bills, used up in the first week getting bail."

Emery, Williams and Rainey-Fenkarek next appear in court Sept. 16.

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Newshawk: CMAP http://www.mapinc.org/cmap Pubdate: Friday August 26, 2005 Source: Province, The (CN BC) Contact: provletters@png.canwest.com Website: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/theprovince/ Author: Keith Fraser