Just after midnight tonight, Ontario lawyer Paul McKeever will release Part 1 of "The Principle of Pot", his new two-part documentary about the nature and motives of Marc Emery, the media-dubbed Prince of Pot. Part 1 runs 1 hour and 39 minutes and will be made available as a playlist on
YouTube.com. Part 2 will be released at a later date.
The launch is timed to precede a decision by Canada's federal justice minister, Rob Nicholson, about whether or not to approve the extradition of Emery to the United States, where he faces years of imprisonment for having sold cannabis seeds, in Vancouver, Canada, via mail order. The Minister's decision is expected within the next 81 days.
Emery's opponents, and the U.S. authorities who demanded his arrest in Halifax, have attempted to portray Emery as a profit-motivated drug dealer. Part 1 of McKeever's documentary will cover the period up to 1990; a period during which Emery was equally active as an advocate of individual freedom, but whose advocacy of individual freedom did not include campaigns concerning the issue of cannabis prohibition.
Being the result of countless hours of research, interviews, writing and editing, the video includes audio, video and textual information that has never been seen in any profile of Emery. Much of the audio and video having been drawn from the archives of Freedom Party of Ontario (with which Emery was active until 1990), it has never before been seen by the general public or media.
What: "The Principle of Pot" (Part 1) - divided into four segments (a playlist will be available)
When: approximately 12:01 AM (EST), Monday, January 18, 2010 (i.e., just after midnight on Sunday)
