PRO-MARIJUANA ACTIVIST FAILS TO GET RISE OUT OF CITY COPS

A man hailed as the prince of pot taunted Charlottetown city police
Wednesday by smoking marijuana in front of their police
headquarters.

The police ignored Marc Emery, a Vancouver resident on a cross-country
tour to protest Canada's pot laws.

Emery plans to smoke pot on the front steps of police stations across
the country. He's already been arrested in Moncton, Winnipeg and Regina.

However, police officers in P.E.I.'s capital city seemed unwilling to
get in the middle of Emery's fight.

They drove by as clouds of smoke billowed from Emery's bong, however
nobody approached him or the handful of local supporters who turned
out to support his cause.

Emery, who wants to get arrested so that the courts can throw out
Canada's marijuana laws, said he was relieved that he didn't get arrested.

"Whenever I don't get arrested, it is a total, utter relief," said
Emery.

"I know the police department knows what's going on. I hope they are
acknowledging that there is no marijuana law in Canada anymore and
that they recognize that the provincial court in Summerside has moral
and legal sway over this particular jurisdiction and that in fact this
is acknowledgement that marijuana is no longer unlawful according to
the police in Charlottetown and that you should all exercise your freedom."

A provincial court judge in Summerside set a national precedent by
putting a pot smoking charge on hold because the federal government
said it was about to legalize small amounts of pot.

Emery said his own example - of being arrested in one city in Canada
while being ignored in another - is a prime example of the patchwork
of laws that now exist.

As Emery took his first toke, the crowd next to him
applauded.

"Here's to freedom, here's to Charlottetown, here's to the wonderful
time I' ve had in the Atlantic provinces in and out of jail . . .
here's to marijuana being legal forever and always in this country."

The issue is front and centre in an article published in Cannabis
Culture, a magazine and Web site owned by Emery and dedicated to pot
heads.

In a story posted on its Web site following the Charlottetown protest
Wednesday, the magazine writes: "Indeed police seem totally baffled
about what to do with marijuana smokers in general, and Marc Emery in
particular. When Cannabis Culture called the Charlottetown police
station an hour before Emery's appearance there to ask if he would be
arrested, police seemed unaware that a demonstration was about to take
place."

The Guardian also tried to get somebody from the Charlottetown Police
Department to explain why Emery was not arrested in P.E.I. like he was
in Moncton, but nobody was available to comment.

Emery is now off to Newfoundland where the Royal Newfoundland
Constabulary has said it will arrest him and anybody else who smokes
up during a planned protest there Saturday.

There were about a dozen supporters at the Charlottetown protest
Wednesday.

A blond-haired young man from Summerside who would only give his
first-name as Jonathan said he wanted to come out to support Emery.

"I support him all the way," he said.

John, from Charlottetown, said he wants to get the message out that
smoking pot is no longer illegal, a message that may not be shared by
all police forces.

"I've been smoking marijuana for three decades myself," he
said.

"I think P.E.I. does recognize that pot is legal."

Emery said smoking pot is a P.E.I. tradition.

"Although I'm told there is a shortage of really great marijuana in
Prince Edward Island, let me tell you that there is a historical
tradition here.

"When Sir. John A. Macdonald arrived and came to Province House in
1864 to establish the Confederation of Provinces in fact his ship was
loaded with rigging, and ropes and sail clothes that were made from
the very same plant that I'm about to smoke here."