Marc Emery gets 5 years in prison

B.C. marijuana activist Marc Emery has been sentenced to five years imprisonmenton drug distribution charges bya U.S. federaljudge in Seattle, Wash.

The sentence handed down Friday afternoon is in accordwith a dealthe Vancouver entrepreneur struckwith U.S. prosecutorswhenhe pleaded guiltyin May.

U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo Martinez recommended that Emery, 52,be allowed to serve his timein aCanadian prison.

Prior to sentencing, Emery admitted breaking the law by selling marijuana seeds to U.S. customers and promised he would not break the law again.

Emery was arrested at his Vancouver shop in 2005 by Vancouver police, who were working with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. He was accused ofselling marijuana seeds to U.S. customers through his mail order business.

Since Emery voluntarily surrendered for extradition in May, he has been held at the maximum-security SeaTac Federal Detention Centre.

He spent three weeks in solitary confinement after his supporters podcast a video recording he made in the prison, but has been in the general population since, said his wife.