EDITORIAL: A Goodbye to Marijuana Princess Michelle Rainey

By Ron Crumpton

On Wednesday, the marijuana community lost a warrior, advocate and queen when Michele Rainey succumbed to her long battle with cancer. This leaves a big hole in our movement and our hearts.

Michelle K. Rainey

Michelle was only 39, but in her 39 years, she created more awareness to the cause, helped more people and did more to add to the legitimacy of our movement than most of us will in a thousand lifetimes.

Rainey was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease as a teenager, and like many medical marijuana patients, she found that marijuana eased the symptoms of her illness without the debilitating side effects caused by the chemical medications that her doctors had prescribed.

She became an advocate for marijuana and was responsible for organizing Marc Emery’s marijuana advocacy efforts.

She was one of the leading forces in the formation of the B.C. Marijuana Party, and she personally ran as a candidate touring in her Cannabus, which had been former U.S. President, and drug war king, Ronald Reagan’s old campaign tour bus.

She produced her own YouTube Show, Michelle’s Medicinal Marijuana. She distributed information on cannabis education and was a director of Treating Yourself magazine.

Later in her life, she was diagnosed with melanoma and lymphatic cancer. She succumbed to her illness Wednesday night. Her husband, Jeff Tek, and mother, Emilie was at her side at the end.

"Michelle needs to be recognized as one of the greatest activists this movement has ever had," said Emery in an email from a U.S. prison. "Michelle may have literally given her life to the movement, and when people think about what they can do for freedom in their lifetime, Michelle's life is a shining example of how much is possible, even under great duress."

In recent comments Michelle said, “I want people to keep working, keep working for change — too many sick people are still having difficulty getting their medication. That’s what I want as my legacy — change.”

Her short life was filled with pain and tragedy, but in the midst of her personal tribulations, she found the strength to stand up and fight for those who were unable to fight for themselves. She put aside her own pain to help others with theirs, and she educated millions to the truth about the world’s finest herb.

In short, Michelle changed the world, and for that, we should all be truly grateful.

Now it is time for the rest of us to stand up and continue the fight. It is time to pick up the torch that Michelle carried so proudly, so bravely because if we do not then all of the work that she gave her life for – was for nothing, and I for one cannot accept that.

Protesters in Montgomery Alabama: Let Marc Emery Go

By Ron Crumpton

Montgomery, Alabama – On Saturday, twenty to thirty marijuana activists from Alabama and Georgia turned out in a part of a global rally, its purpose was to protest the persecution and imprisonment of Marc Emery by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Emery considers the prohibition of marijuana to be a violation of many of our rights, including our civil rights. He also considers Martin Luther King Jr. to be one his heroes, and for these reasons, the planners chose to march the same path as the final leg of Dr. Kings 1965 Selma to Montgomery March.

The group started from the fountain at the base of Dexter Ave, they marched past King Memorial Baptist Church – where King served as pastor from 1954 to 1960 – and up to the steps of the capitol.
 
Along the way, chants of Free Marc Emery, No Victim – No Crime, and Free the Weed were heard as protesters made their way along Dexter Avenue.

As protesters stopped to have pictures taken with their signs in front of a vacant Montgomery police car, the officer came out of a nearby business, initially this seemed to cause a little anxiety for some, but the officer was very courteous and spoke to marchers and asked about the demonstration.

The members of the group would stop and talk to pedestrians who expressed an interest in what their protest was about.

It was hot, but other than that a beautiful day. The fact that it was Alabama, football season and a Saturday probably hurt turn out a little, but all of the marchers seemed very dedicated to ending the government’s persecution of not only Marc Emery but also their persecution of everyone that has ever smoked a joint.

The Alabama portion of Free Marc Emery Worldwide Rally was successful. There were no unfortunate incidents, and there were many people made aware of plight Marc Emery and the damage being caused by prohibition.
 

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Editorial: Marc Emery is the Latest Casualty in the War on Marijuana

Marc Emery was sentenced to a five-year sentence

By Ron Crumpton

Seattle – On Friday, in U.S. District Court, Judge Ricardo Martinez sentenced ‘Prince of Pot’ Marc Emery to five years on the charge of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana.

At least there was some good news; Judge Martinez did recommend that Emery be allowed to serve his time in his native Canada. However, both the U.S. and Canadian governments would have to agree on the terms of extradition for this to come to fruition.

During his trial, the prosecution painted Marc Emery as the criminal in this affair. They said that he broke federal law and provided criminals with a means to perpetrate a crime.

However, the real facts are that the United States government is the one that has given criminal enterprises across the globe a means to perpetrate a crime. The federal government created and still maintains these criminal empires because they do not want to legalize… a plant?

How the United States government can accuse Marc Emery for a crime in this, considering the number of lives that have been ruined or lost in a senseless drug war that the government started, is incomprehensible.

Just a quick point to the federal government; it is the government that is responsible for every single death in the war on marijuana!

There should never have been a death in the war on marijuana because there should have never been a war on marijuana. Congress fired the first shot when it passed the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937.

Thus, we have been fighting a war for the last 73 years over a series of laws, that violate our personal liberties and that violates our right to think for ourselves without being fed a bunch of bullshit propaganda by our government.

If it was not for these trumped-up, unconstitutional, destructive and unnecessary laws thousands of people like Marc Emery would not have to serve time in prison for a selling a fucking seed that produces a damn herb or for just possessing an herb.

If it were not for this despicable, treacherous, unimaginable and un-American war on marijuana, thousands of Americans from innocent schoolchildren, average Joes and law enforcement officials would still be alive today.

Marc Emery is the latest casualty in the war on marijuana, and his prosecution, or persecution, is just another case of how our government treats people when they have the courage to say “that is not true,” and it is how they treat those who try to educate the masses to the lies and injustices that their governments have perpetrated against them in the name of prohibition.

Marc Emery is a hero, and he has done so much to further the cause of legalization, but while he sits in prison, we cannot sit idly by and let his work go to waste. There is nothing that would be a greater betrayal the work that Marc has done on the behalf of marijuana enthusiasts everywhere.

There are many marijuana warriors currently incarcerated in the federal penal system as well in those of the states. Thanks to these people and others like them, the cause of legalization has gone from an indolent movement to a vigorous and vibrant society of like-minded individuals dedicated to a wonderful cause.

Tonight, Jodie Emery – and many other wives and lovers like her – will go to bed without the one they love because our government insists that it must continue this insane war on marijuana for the good of the country, when the only way for the government or anyone else to win this war… is for the government to end this war!