WE'RE NOT ALL LUNATICS, POT GROWERS PROTEST

Marijuana Activists Say They Feel Maligned by Alberta Man's Killing of
Police Officers

B.C. marijuana advocates say they're being unfairly vilified by the
furor surrounding the killings of four RCMP officers on an Alberta
farm.

Marc Emery and Kirk Tousaw said the fact Mountie killer James Roszko
had a small marijuana grow operation on his property 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," Emery said.

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

While there, they discovered what a search warrant said were 20
"mature" marijuana plants, "several pots containing dirt with stems
coming out of them numbering close to 100," and a smell "consistent of
a marijuana grow operation."

Constables Lionide Johnston, Brock Myrol, Peter Schiemann and Anthony
Gordon died after they were ambushed and shot by Roszko while guarding
a shed on his property in Rochfort Bridge, Alta. Roszko later killed
himself.

Tousaw, campaign manager for the B.C. Marijuana Party, said the
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," he said.

Instead, politicians should be looking at the real issue -
decriminalization and eventual legalization, Emery said.

"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," Emery said.

"Now, we are being demonized, we are the Antichrist and it's all our
fault.

"We will be paying for this for months and years ahead in tougher
legislation and more abusive behaviour by police officers toward us
and less access to politicians to explain to them that ending
prohibition could end all these problems.

"The appropriate response is to become more diligent in pursuing the
legalization option."