PARTY HOPES SEEDS GROW POTS OF CASH

The Marijuana Party of Canada is selling pot seeds to raise money.

"We're going to do it to fund the campaign and the movement in general,"
said party leader Marc-Boris St-Maurice, who is running against Prime
Minister Paul Martin in the Quebec riding of Lasalle-Emard.

"We're going to be doing this for the remainder of our existence until pot
is legal."

The party buys the seeds in bulk from Canadian suppliers such as Willy Jack
and Sensi Seeds.

Then it sells packs of 10 at prices ranging from $10 for non-viable
"decorative" seeds through to "thoroughbred, Cannabis Cup-winning" varieties
at $400 a pop.

St-Maurice said in a phone interview the party has sold only five or six
packs since the campaign began.

"It's by no means a gold mine yet, but it will come. It's a very political
action."

He said his goal is to raise money for the party and encourage Canadians to
break the law.

"A bad law should be broken and this is the way to . . . bring the law
down."

Adrien Contin of Elections Canada said: "If candidates break the law while
they are raising funds, they have to deal with the law of the land."

A Montreal police officer said last night it is unlikely St-Maurice would be
prosecuted for selling seeds.

The Criminal Code prohibits possession of marijuana, as well as growing and
trafficking, but selling seeds seems to fall into a grey area.

"It appears not to be illegal in that people who are doing it are not being
charged for doing it," said Neil Boyd, a professor of criminology at Simon
Fraser University and author of High Society, a book on marijuana in Canada.

Marijuana seeds have so little THC -- the psychoactive ingredient -- that
the courts might hear an argument that the seeds are not a drug, he said.

But court cases in Alberta and B.C. have set a precedent that possession of
viable seeds is a criminal offence, said lawyer John Conroy, although the
rulings may not bind courts in Quebec.

St. Maurice, meanwhile, has been charged with possession of marijuana, a
charge related to pot, not seeds.

The party is running 71 candidates across Canada, with nine in B.C.