20ish Questions with
Princess of Pot Jodie Emery
by Skyler Cannabaceae
It’s July 17 and Jodie Emery is still waiting for her husband, Marc, to come home to her after spending nearly five years in a Mississippi prison. Emery’s sentence for selling seeds by mail to Americans from his home in Vancouver, British Columbia was completed eight days ago. He served his full sentence of five years after being extradited from Canada, minus time for good behavior. While researching Marc originally for this article, THC saw that his wife, Jodie, is on the ball as usual. She tweets updates of her husband’s status for the many fans of his, hers and their Cannabis Culture businesses. While Cannabis Culture Magazine has not been available in print since 2009, Jodie still runs the website, Pot TV and a small store in Vancouver among other ventures.
Jodie: I was interested in leadership. I was a leadership student; a teacher’s pet. I was also kind of authoritarian; I liked cops and anybody in uniform. I know, it sounds crazy, right? And then cannabis came along and changed everything. THC: Do you have any criticisms of Health Canada’s medical cannabis system? Jodie: Of course. The new program that’s been introduced should be modified to allow for personal gardens and dispensaries, but I do like the idea of allowing citizens to create and work for businesses that grow and distribute marijuana to people who want it and need it.
The latest news about plans for her and Marc include a 30-city tour around Canada in the fall to stump against Steven Harper’s Conservative Party candidates. Meanwhile, Jodie has just announced that she is seeking the nomination for elected office in the Vancouver East riding (district) representing the Liberal Party.
THC: Are they still allowing grows in the meantime?
THC caught up with the Princess of Pot by phone to get an update on Marc, ask her about her political ambitions and find out how much Canada’s policymakers are looking for U.S. states to lead the way in legalization.
THC: Do you see the political climate moving toward allowing personal grows or away from them?
The Hemp Connoisseur: First off, can you update our readers on the situation with Marc’s release? Jodie Emery: He is in a place in Louisiana awaiting deportation. It’s just paperwork and bureaucracy and we have no idea how long it will take. THC: We look forward to him coming home to you soon. You’ve been a cannabis activist for quite some time now. What was it that initially got you interested in cannabis? Jodie: Oh my goodness. In high school I was against marijuana and against drinking and against drugs. My friends introduced me to Cannabis Culture Magazine and Pot TV, then 9/11 happened, so I started questioning everything about government. So yeah, Cannabis Culture, Pot TV and the B.C. Marijuana Party election campaign of 2001, which is Marc Emery’s party, of course. THC: Were you interested in politics before cannabis?
32 August 2014
Jodie: My understanding is that some patients who have the right to grow have been given a continuation of that right to grow under an injunction won in court … so it’s in limbo.
Jodie: You never know what’s going to happen and that’s why you always work to make change happen. THC: And you’re working to make personal grows happen? Jodie: Of course. The right to freedom in cannabis legalization allows for growing. THC: What’s your ideal way for medical cannabis to be handled if you had to create the system? Jodie: Okay, in fairy tale dreamland? There would be no law for cannabis. It would not be in the Controlled Substances Act; it would just be a regular plant that people could grow commercially, medically, in their back yards, to share at a farmer’s market, to sell through a dispensary, to sell on a mass production [scale] similar to the massive corporations selling tobacco and alcohol, vegetables, sporting equipment, bicycles, clothing. Like any other business. Cannabis should be free for all to make a living on and it would be ideal for that.