While I am still at large and among you, I am still doing my thing here at Cannabis Culture Mag, getting issue 70 out. The Canadian gov't, US gov't and my lawyers will meet over the next several weeks and negotiate my fate! The strong backlash against me going to jail or being extradited has been very sharp and pronounced across Canada, in editorials, open line shows, call in programs, letters to newspapers, politicians speaking out on my behalf. I met former Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen on Seymour Street today and he told me "you have been right about this legalization all along...these damn Americans in Washington , DC keeping this drug war going. You shouldn't spend 5 days in jail, let alone 5 years. "

This was the Mayor who ran me out of town in 1998 and told the New York Times I was "toast", but since that time, Mr. Owen became a very articulate and knowledgeable anti-prohibitionist. This is the first time we had spoken as friends ever though, I used to go before him at City Council and urge him to stop funding the "Growbusters" police unit, and also to defend HEMP BC's business license, and I ran against him in 1996 for Mayor.

All three of Vancouver's recent Mayors (Philip Owen, Larry Campbell, and Sam Sullivan) have all spoken (Campbell) on my behalf or have promised to speak out on my behalf (Owen, Sullivan). The imminent possibility that I would get 5 years custody in Canada and the US over these seed charges blows peoples minds here.

So change does happen, but as you can see, sometimes it takes a decade and sometimes more, of concerted, principled work, but we can convert our adversaries and it IS being done.

Ron Paul Republicans like me are trying to be examples for others who want liberty. Liberty will not come easy or cheap. It never does, and few men and women in our lifetime really appreciate the fragility of our individual liberty and choices. The best thing about my last year, along with the devotion and loving support of my wife Jodie, is the reat strides by my hero and role model, Ron Paul!

It was wonderful to see Ron Paul caucus 21% in Washington State, 25% in Montana, 21% in North Dakota, 15% in Minnesota, 11% in Kansas, 8% Colorado.

Ron Paul does best along the Canadian border, Ron Paul supporters between the 40th & 50th parallel rule!

I feel like all those banners, buttons, signs, and posters we made, and even the Cannabis Culture cover helped a bit.

At the bottom is the great man's latest video and if you think McCain is going to be the Republican nominee, think again. McCain is unelectable, doing well only in blue states where he will get crushed by Obama or Clinton in the general election. With John McCain, the Republican Party will be severely disillusioned by the crushing defeat that November 2008 will bring. The libertarian wing of the Republican Party (thats everyone who registered Republican to caucus or vote for Ron Paul) is ascendant and motivated, while the other factions within the Republicans lose cohesion and influence. There are 21 primaries and caucuses remaining, including Wisconsin (40th to 50th parallel Ron Paul support hopefully carries the 5th state, Wisconsin, and the 6th state, Idaho), and Texas, Vermont.

The more Republicans think about John McCain's terrible record on taxes, immigration, 100 more years in Iraq, deficit spending bills, the empire, his 0% ACLU rating on civil liberties, his decrepit age & weird mean spiritedness, the better Ron Paul or Mike Huckabee will look as these days go by.

Mike Huckabee can only carry Dixie in the general election, but it would be a 15-17 states win, an achievement far surpassing the humiliating and crushing defeat that McCain would endure, winning in possibly 5 states, losing even in Arizona.

Ron Paul would be an under-dog in an election against Barack Obama, a closer race would be Ron Paul vs. Hilary Clinton, but he'd trump either Democrat on the war, spending, taxes, immigration, civil liberties. He'd have a chance in the general election, something Huckabee, and even less so McCain, do not. Ron Paul is a devout Christian who can maintain the evangelicals and fundamentalists in the Republican Party, Huckabee's current demographic, and Paul is strong with military men, McCain's alleged strong suit.

Ron Paul MUST be the next President of the United States. It ain't over till its over!

Ron Paul wants a march on Washington, D.C., perhaps on Memorial Day weekend, May 24, 25 or the 26th. It would need to be a minimum of 250,000 people, preferably 400,000+ people. I think someone ought to develop a website to that end and begin the mammoth task of organizing the largest Ron Paul demonstration ever put on! In Washington, D.C!

Only Ron Paul will end the drug war and legalize marijuana...and abolish the DEA and ONDCP (Drug Czar's office)

Only a President Ron Paul with the support of the American people can save me and millions like me from a life of prison!

Thanks for the 50th birthday wishes everyone,

Marc Emery
Feb. 12/2008