Oh Captain my Captain – Why the 4/20 events need Marc Emery back

Another April 20^th has come and gone and Pot Smokers nation wide lit up in "protest" of Canada's continued criminalization of Marijuana. However, this time the London Police under a new Chief were firm in their stance that despite past leniencies, more officers were being added to the 4/20 scene which in London takes place at Victoria Park, downtown. There were also media releases put forth to all local outlets that arrests would most certainly be made. Sure enough at 4:20pm the smokers came out and sparked up and the police did their jobs. About 3 arrests were made and 4 charges of possession were laid.

The position by the Police was that it's still against the law and charges should be laid when said laws are disregarded. Fair enough. Then you have folks arguing that this is their annual form of protest against the laws to which the police again responded that you cannot protest a law by breaking the law. Again fair enough. So if it's a protest, where were the rallies? Where were the speakers? Were there people handing out pamphlets on the uses of hemp and marijuana for other things than just to get high? It appears that 4/20 is more just an excuse for folks to get stoned with their friends than a time to ask the tough questions. Questions such as why is this archaic law still in place? Or why is a smart and heroic Canadian like Marc Emery wasting years of his life in the American prison system?

It seems almost like when Marc went to the US to serve his sentence for the sale of mere seeds online, that the movement lost it's only true voice and leader. The movement has been reduced to a flock of sheep with no shepherd. They're standing in one spot consuming the grass (pun intended) with no impetus to move forward and encourage growth. Effectively the movement seems to be dying a slow death.

Let's face it, if it's going to be seen as a protest then the "protestors" have to stand up and take some responsibility for it. It's not enough to say this is a protest and light your joint and smoke it and then go home when your stash is depleted. It doesn't achieve anything but to blow smoke in the face of the law and the law makers and the law enforcers aren't cool with that I am betting.

To say "But this is what Marc Emery did" is a fallacy too. Yes Marc lit up on the Police Station steps and outside a court house but whenever he did that he did so with the full knowledge of the law and the consequences that could befall him. He had lawyers advising him and ready to fight along side him.

Marc didn't start with pot protests though; He started by challenging laws that prohibited business owners from conducting business on Sundays. He also protested the basic rights and freedoms of information and publication concerning the bans on the American publication "High Times" magazine. He was successful on both counts. The shopping laws were eventually overturned and "High times" is now readily available in any store that magazines are sold and not merely relegated to head shops and brown paper wrapped mail subscriptions.

The fact is however that Marc is incarcerated for the very thing that he was fighting for. Not even the smoking of, the growing of or the distribution of marijuana, but the charge of "conspiracy to cultivate cannabis/marijuana". Are you serious? This is what we've come to? Accusing people of and incarcerating them for encouraging people to take matters in their own hands. So now instead of charging the guilty we're letting the legal systems charge people literally with passing on knowledge! Fact is, you can't smoke the seed and expect to get anything from it. This is American politics at it's worst.

So now with Marc in prison, where is the anger? Where is the outrage? Who's leading the marches? People have put pretty pictures on their Facebook accounts of marijuana leaves and "Free Marc" photos but this alone does not a protest make. The marijuana movement has become the cause without the rebels and we're at risk of slipping back into the era of "Reefer Madness" propaganda and who is going to step up to the plate and unite the tokers together? It's not Marc, not yet anyway. But in 4 years or less when Marc is out of prison, how much of that life is he going to want back? Not to mention that conditions of his probation will likely prohibit him from such activities and association with certain parties.

Until that time, who will be the next Marc Emery? His wife Jodie is doing everything in her power to keep him amongst us through his letters from prison and her memories of visits with him wherever they happen to have him this month. She has proven a worthy spokes person in his absence but doesn't seem to carry the same air of leadership that her husband is capable of commanding. It's time for someone to step up, someone who's read all the same books, who knows all the same laws, who knows when to act and how to act. A leader is needed who knows what direction the flock needs to turn to today, the day after and not just on April 20^th of each year.

Maybe it's not one person at all but a group of them that will rise up and collectively navigate the trenches of the marijuana legalization/decriminalization movement. However, if they don't act soon, all that Marc has built up to this point may soon be lost and we'll find ourselves again at the foot of a very steep climb. To paraphrase Gary Cooper's character in Frank Capra's 1941 film "Meet John Doe";

"Wake up Marc Emery's of the world, you're our only hope!"