Canadian authorities, acting at the behest of U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency officials, arrested seed distributor, activist and magazine publisher Marc Emery, often referred to as the "Prince of Pot", and two associates on July 29th, 2005 on charges of conspiracy to distribute marijuana seeds, conspiracy to distribute marijuana and conspiracy to engage in money laundering, following an 18-month investigation.

Emery and supporters spent years fighting extradition, but on January 14th, 2008, he agreed to a tentative plea-bargain with US authorities. The terms of the agreement were a 5-year prison term to be served in both Canadian and U.S. prisons. In return, he demanded the charges against his friends be dropped. On March 27th, 2008 the plea-bargain deal collapsed because of the refusal of the Canadian government to approve its side of the arrangement. On September 21st, 2009, he pleaded guilty to a charge of manufacturing marijuana. Emery surrendered into the custody of the British Columbia Supreme Court on September 28th, 2009 and is awaiting extradition to a US federal prison. He will try to get a transfer to a Canadian prison once he begins his term.

The arrest of Marc Emery was politically motivated. The US Drug Enforcement Administration stated in a press release from Administrator Karen Tandy that his July 29th, 2005 arrest was based on drug legalization efforts:

"Today's DEA arrest of Marc Scott Emery, publisher of Cannabis Culture Magazine, and the founder of a marijuana legalization group -- is a significant blow not only to the marijuana trafficking trade in the U.S. and Canada, but also to the marijuana legalization movement. His marijuana trade and propagandist marijuana magazine have generated nearly $5 million a year in profits that bolstered his trafficking efforts, but those have gone up in smoke today. Emery and his organization had been designated as one of the Attorney General's most wanted international drug trafficking organizational targets -- one of only 46 in the world and the only one from Canada. Hundreds of thousands of dollars of Emery's illicit profits are known to have been channeled to marijuana legalization groups active in the United States and Canada. Drug legalization lobbyists now have one less pot of money to rely on."

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