MARIJUANA PARTY ROLLS INTO SASK. POLITICS

REGINA -- The proverbial "smoke-filled rooms" where political deals
are cut may take on a whole new meaning in Saskatchewan.

The Saskatchewan Marijuana Party has become an officially registered
provincial political party with Elections Saskatchewan.

Like other marijuana parties in the country, it is expected to
advocate the legalization of possession and cultivation of cannabis.

But Saskatchewan Marijuana Party leaders aren't talking right now.

Party president Ethan Erkiletian said the party won't make an
official statement until June 20.

The timing is related to the June 19 Weyburn-Big Muddy byelection,
although the party does not and cannot have a candidate in that race.

"We're trying not to step on anybody's toes right now," Erkiletian
said without elaborating further.

The party's leader is Nathan Holowaty, a Saskatoon pot activist who
was formerly president of the NDP campus club at the University of
Saskatchewan.

A December 2004 article in the Sheaf campus newspaper said the
Saskatchewan Marijuana Party was being formed in part because the
provincial justice system took a punitive approach toward marijuana.

It says the party's formation was given impetus by the March 2004
arrest and incarceration of British Columbia marijuana activist Marc
Emery in Saskatoon for passing a joint in Kiwanis Park.

Emery, the leader of the B.C. Marijuana Party, said upon his release
from jail in October 2004 that a marijuana party would be established
in Saskatchewan and that it would field a full slate of candidates in
the next provincial election.

Provincial chief electoral officer Jean Ouellet said registering
means the Saskatchewan Marijuana Party can field candidates under the
party name, raise and spend money and issue tax receipts for donations.

To register, the party needed 2,500 signatures on a petition. Of that
amount, 1,000 had to come from 10 different constituencies.

The Marijuana Party joins the NDP, Saskatchewan Party, Liberals,
Progressive Conservatives, Green Party and Western Independence Party
on the provincial registry.

The NDP government and Opposition Saskatchewan Party did not respond
to requests for comment.