WRITER SAYS CANADIAN CRITICISM OF HIS 'POT EDWARD ISLAND' ARTICLE UNFOUNDED

(CNS) - The author of an article in a Boston newspaper that claimed
Prince Edward Island was a marijuana paradise has fired back at
Canadians who derided his story as wildly inaccurate.

Alan Earls, a reporter for the Boston Phoenix weekly, had described
P. E. I. as "Pot Edward Island," and claimed among other things that
it has become a haven for dope growers fuelled by cheap Quebec electricity.

In reality, P. E. I. gets most of its power from New Brunswick, and
Denis Morin, and RCMP spokesman quoted in the article about the
seizure of increasing amounts of marijuana in the province later said
that the figures were "quite minor in the scale of things for P. E.
I. and Canada."

In a response to his critics in Monday's edition of the newspaper,
Mr. Earls said they were motivated by "anger that a dumb American
would have the audacity to find fault with anything Canadian (it is
tough, I'll admit), let alone anything having to do with Canada's
garden spot, P. E. I."