MARIJUANA PARTY GETS LOST IN DOWNTOWN FOG

Nova Scotia's political potheads nearly missed their own news conference
yesterday when they learned the legislature is not on Barrington Street.

The Marijuana Party invited media to hear about its platform at the
"Provincial Legislative Building (Barrington Street)" at noon. Reporters
showed up on time outside the assembly on Hollis Street, but party
officials were nowhere in sight.

The media scrum moved up to Grand Parade and found a few party supporters
looking for the same announcement. One reporter took a cab to Government
House, which is on Barrington, the lieutenant governor's residence, hoping
to find Marijuana brass.

Spokeswoman Melanie Stephen-Patriquen finally emerged from the downtown
fog, explaining that she and a few other party members got lost on the
waterfront.

She said it's time for governments to stop persecuting pot smokers such as
her jailed husband, party leader Michael Patriquen.

"People need to get focused on the bigger issues, which are health care and
secondary education," Stephen-Patriquen said.

The Marijuana Party is calling on Ottawa to legalize cannabis and allow
each province to regulate the pot market. Stephen-Patriquen said legalized
pot would infuse $4 billion into the provincial economy, create 25,000
jobs, reduce crime and provide quality cannabis products to industrial,
medical and social markets. The party has one candidate in the provincial
election -- Jene Prudy in Antigonish.