[JURIST] Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler [official profile] is under pressure to deny a US request to extradite Canadian marijuana activist Marc Emery [Emery Seeds website] in a case that is likely to spark debate over the countries' diverging drug policies. Emery is a founder of the BC Marijuana Party [party website] and his arrest in Nova Scotia last week by Canadian authorities acting on a US warrant under the terms of the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act [statute text] comes as the Canadian government is moving towards decriminalizing possession of small amounts of pot. He faces the possibility of up to a life sentence in the US for selling marijuana seeds over the Internet, a crime not prosecuted in Canada since 1968. Emery was freed Tuesday on $41,000 bond to await hearings on the extradition request. The Globe and Mail has more.