GROWERS DEMONIZED, POT PATRONS COMPLAIN

Real Issue Is Decriminalization, Advocates Say

VANCOUVER - B.C. marijuana advocates say they are being unfairly
vilified by the furor surrounding the killings of four RCMP officers
on a rural Alberta farm.

Well-known pot patrons Marc Emery and Kirk Tousaw, of the B.C.
Marijuana Party, said the fact that the Mountie killer had a small
grow-op on his property -- reported to be 20 plants -- is no reason to
label all growers as police-hating, violent lunatics who must be
censured at every step.

"I'm shocked at how the marijuana community has been slandered by a
guy who is clearly mentally unhinged and grew up with guns his whole
life and in a Christian fundamentalist home," Mr. Emery said. "They
mysteriously find 20 plants and now there is a pogrom against the
growers across Canada.

"It's the clamour of hatred out there to persecute the marijuana
people because of what happened to these cops," he said.

Mr. Tousaw said the "tragic killings" should prompt a re-evaluation of
Canada's current policy of drug prohibition.

"History is devoid of any examples of successful drug or alcohol
prohibitions," said Mr. Tousaw, the B.C. Marijuana Party's campaign
manager. "And in the case of marijuana grow operations, a crackdown
will simply mean that non-violent growers are pushed out of the
industry to be replaced by those more inclined to violence and
organized criminal activity."

Mr. Emery wondered why gun advocates, child molesters (the killer was
a convicted pedophile), Christians and people living in rural Prairie
communities weren't tarred by the same brush.

"The bodies of these officers aren't even cold and they are being used
as a flashpoint to cause a lot of harsh conditions for what ends up
being hundreds of thousands of Canadians like me who grow pot and
smoke it," Mr. Emery said. "Now we are being demonized, we are the
anti-Christ and it's all our fault."

He said politicians should be looking at the real issue --
decriminalization and eventual legalization.

"We will be paying for this for months and years ahead in tougher
legislation and more abusive behaviour by police officers toward us,"
Mr. Emery said. "The appropriate response is to become more diligent
in pursuing the legalization option."