Marc Emery  Marc Scott Emery (born February 13, 1958) is a Canadian cannabis rights activist, entrepreneur and politician. Often described as 'the Prince of Pot', Emery has been a notable advocate of international cannabis policy reform, and has been active in multiple Canadian political parties at the provincial and federal levels. Emery has been jailed several times for his cannabis activism. He is the estranged spouse of fellow activist Jodie Emery, with whom he operated Cannabis Culture magazine and Pot TV. Until the business was raided by police, the couple were co-owners of Cannabis Culture, a business that franchised pot dispensaries. Crown prosecutors later deemed the business to be illegal due to obtaining cannabis from illegal sources. At the age of 9, Emery started a business from his parents' home called Stamp Treasure, buying and selling stamps by mail order. Two years later he started another mail-order business called Marc's Comic Room that he started by using the money saved from Stamp Treasure. The business sold used comic books and earned him about $120 a week. He dropped out of high school in 1975 at age 17 to purchase a used book store in London, Ontario which he renamed City Lights Bookshop. Emery operated the store for 17 years, selling it in 1992. In 1982 and 1985, Emery unsuccessfully ran for Alderman in Ward 3 of Hamilton, Ontario. Emery worked on the New Democratic Party's campaign in London East in the 1979 federal election. He was a critic of slow police response times to robberies, advocating for private security officers for merchants and business owners. He started a campaign to eliminate the annual levy tax of $35 a year for downtown improvements, stating that it favoured a handful of the elite. He ran for the Libertarian Party of Canada in the 1980 federal election, finishing fourth in London East. Emery later left the Libertarians and became a London-area organizer for the libertarian Unparty, later renamed the Freedom Party of Ontario. Emery served as the Freedom Party's Action Director from 1984 to 1990. In 1984, Emery, the Freedom Party, and the No Tax for Pan-Am Games Committee (founded by Emery and Metz) successfully campaigned against London's bid for the 1991 Pan American Games, saying the city would lose millions. Emery ran as a candidate of the Freedom Party in the rural constituency of Middlesex, near London, in the 1987 provincial election. He received 499 votes for a distant fifth-place finish. In May 1987 during a strike by city workers, Emery paid for truck rentals and volunteers to do the jobs of the striking workers.