MOM MOURNS SON LOST TO MEAN STREETS

"I wonder if, 10 years from now, I will look back on this with
disapproval."

Allister Marselje wrote the entry in his journal as he sat in a tiny
Granville Street hotel room, smoking a joint.

He was 21 years old and determined to muddle his way through a
difficult life: Dealing pot, surviving on Vancouver's mean streets and
trying to navigate safely through the seamy underbelly of the city's
marijuana culture.

As the Calgary woman reads his journal today, Allister's mother finds
proof her son was starting to learn. He was thinking about his life
and ready for a change. Sadly, Allister never had the luxury of
looking back with the wisdom of time on a misspent youth.

"My heart is not only broken, it's shattered," said Gwen Robertson,
Allister's mother. "He was my one and only boy."

Allister's beaten body was discovered last December in a dumpster
behind a pot-smoking cafe off Vancouver's West Hastings Street.

Police believe he was the victim of a struggle, detailed in Friday's
Province, for power and money in the city's lucrative, world-famous
marijuana underworld.

After reading the article, Allister's mother contacted The Province to
tell her son's story.

Like many young people who find their way on to Vancouver's streets,
Allister was the product of a broken home, some bad decisions and a
stubborn nature.

He was also a generous, sensitive child whose death drew more than 200
people to mourn at his funeral.

Allister told his mother he wanted to learn about life the hard
way.

"I told him once that it must be nice to know everything," she laughs.
"He said 'Yeah, I wish you did.'"

Allister grew up between two homes after his parents divorced. He quit
school in Grade 11 and moved out of his mother's Calgary home when he
was 17. By the time he was 18, his girlfriend was pregnant.

Robertson still recalls finding marijuana for the first time in her
son's bedroom. She called police, who gave him a lecture, put him
through an anti-drug program and forced him to write a pair of essays
on marijuana abuse.

"If he thought a rule was stupid, he wouldn't obey it," said
Robertson.

Allister wasn't ready to become a father, and he and his girlfriend
split. He headed to the West Coast, where he gravitated downtown to a
pot culture often depicted as harmless compared with the tougher
worlds surrounding heroin and cocaine.

While in Vancouver, Allister made a living by weighing, bagging and
delivering one-gram bags of marijuana to sellers at the Cross Town
Traffic Cafe.

Police allege he was beaten to death at the back of the cafe because
he was believed to have information about a contract on the life of a
major player in the cafe's business. The contract may not even have
existed.

Charged with Allister's murder is Alhaj Hadani, 28. Ross Living, 22,
and Jamie Yochlowitz, 25, are charged with manslaughter. All three
will appear in court tomorrow to set a trial date.

As 1998 was drawing to a close, Allister appeared to be pulling his
life together.

He was in contact with his ex-girlfriend and looking forward to
playing an active role in his son's life. He had also set things right
with friends from the past, and told his mother he was looking forward
to coming home for Christmas.

"The guy had a lot going for him," says Robertson. "He was much more
than a high-school dropout. He was more than a plastic-bag pot dealer.

"He was finding his way through life."

Robertson says she is now putting together a scrapbook of memories,
articles and pictures of Allister. She has been asked to speak about
Allister to the troublesome 14-year-old son of a frustrated friend.

"I don't know what I'll say," said Robertson. "I'll just go by my
gut."