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‘Prince of Pot’ Marc Emery returns to a new Canadian marijuana landscape

‘Prince of Pot’ Marc Emery returns to a new Canadian marijuana landscape

When Marc Emery – the self-described "Prince of Pot" – returns to Canada on Tuesday, he will arrive in a country with a far different relationship with marijuana than the one he left five years ago.

Emery recently finished serving a five-year sentence in U.S. prison, after being charged for mailing marijuana seeds from British Columbia across the border into the United States.

He was extradited and sentenced, leaving behind him a busy life of marijuana advocacy. He is now promising to return to that mission tenfold.

Emery will cross the border from Detroit into Windsor, Ont., and meet his wife, Jodie. He is expected to offer a public statement to mark the occasion, though he has already spoken about his plans once he returns to Canada. He has vowed "political revenge" against the Conservative government that helped extradite him to face charges and Jodie has announced her desire to run for the Liberal Party of Canada in the next federal election.

In an exclusive interview with Maclean's, Emery said he would tour the country to rally support for legalization.

"I’ll be campaigning against the Conservative government in any way I can," Emery told the magazine, adding, "I plan to be very actively engaged in the run-up to the next election in October 2015."

But while Emery was once one of a few vocal national advocates, he is no longer alone in his quest. Canada now has a markedly different relationship with pot now than what it had five years ago.

Emery may have sown the seeds, as it were, but those seeds have taken root in his absence.

A survey released on Tuesday, for example, found that a majority of Canadians believe marijuana should be legal in the country.

[ Related: Canadians want softer marijuana laws, survey says, as prince of pot vows ‘political revenge’ ]

The Angus Reid Global poll found that 59 per cent or respondents the the use of pot should be legal in Canada, while 41 per cent say it should remain illegal.

Support for legalized pot is generally even across the country, although it does spike in British Columbia and Atlantic Canada, where 70 and 68 per cent approve of pot, respectively.

The survey finds that while most approve of legalizing pot, few feel it should be priority for Canada's justice system. Only 15 per cent of respondents believe "legalizing marijuana" should be the first or second priority for the federal government, with cracking down on white collar crime (38 per cent) and addressing terrorism (28 per cent) among the topics considered more pressing.

Regardless, the level of support legalization currently has is a step up from where it was in 2009, when Emery began his five-year prison sentence.

A 2010 Angus Reid Global survey asking the same question found that 50 per cent would legalize marijuana, signaling a slight but significant increase in support over the past four years.

On top of increased public approval, legalizing marijuana isn't the political non-starter it was back in 2009. Back then, the Conservatives held minority power in Ottawa, yet pot was not seen by opponents as a viable wedge issue.

NDP leader Jack Layton, who had spoken openly about his history with pot, only officially went as far as calling for a "national conversation" on the issue, though the party had previously made overtures toward decriminalization. And Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff came out against legalizing pot, saying Canadian youth should be working rather than smoking and that the move would cause problems with the United States.

Perhaps emboldened by the legalization of pot in two American states, today's Liberal Leader, Justin Trudeau, has made legalization one of the party's key tenets. And the NDP more vocally champions its decriminalization.

On top of that, the medicinal marijuana industry has recently undergone a legitimization process, of sorts, with production being handed to large companies rather than local growers. And a Quebec hospital has announced an official policy change to allow the use of weed vaporizers on site.

There is also a perceived "creeping acceptance" of marijuana use among police forces, highlighted by a high-profile call from the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police for a change in laws to allow ticketing for pot possession, rather than criminal sentences.

When Emery returns to Canada, he'll need time to understand the new landscape. But Canada has a long way to go before marijuana is legalized, if it ever will be. No doubt, the Prince of Pot won't take long before finding a new role in that campaign.

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