TORONTO

The Prince of Pot has already begun to campaign for a renewed effort to legalize marijuana.

Marc Emery was in Toronto Wednesday, the day after he returned to Canada from serving four-and-a-half years in an American prison for selling marijuana seeds through the mail.

Now he is preparing to help lead the three million Canadians he says support legalization to the polls for next year’s federal election.

“People are cynical about voting, achieving any kind of meaningful change, but I hope to reverse that psychology and get people convinced that we can have a very unique election next year and make legalization a real topic of discussion,” Emery told the Toronto Sun.

He calls the group of Canadians who support legalization the “cannabis culture” and says he will motivate this “underestimated” voting bloc to make them heard. Emery believes the prospect of legal marijuana will lead many of his supporters to the polls.

“Maybe next November we will have legal marijuana in impending legislation, and that’s a very tantalizing prospect for millions of Canadians and I think it can be used as a way to get them to vote,” he said.

Emery touts legalization as a safety measure as it would allow for more transparency regarding the origin and quality of marijuana. Concerns over safety are increasingly relevant as the use of marijuana extracts such as butane hash oil, made using volatile gases, become more popular.

“The best, purest quality material like that is made with solvents and butane and that needs to be done under very good, safe circumstances and a legal environment would ensure that would happen,” Emery said.

He will be holding a welcome-home gathering at Yonge-Dundas Square Thursday from 3 to 5 p.m. People are invited to come out and see him before he returns to Vancouver on Sunday. He expects many will.

“It’s only Canadian elected officials that want to distance themselves from me, everybody else wants to embrace me,” Emery said.

And how does that make him feel?

“Like the conscientious rebel that I’ve always been all my life in Canada and it makes me feel proud.”

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