RCMP REFUSE TO BUST TOKING HEMP STORE OWNER

Student wants to grow career; Hemp seller stages pot demonstrations

ANTIGONISH - Joe MacEachern's store looks like many others along Main
Street in Antigonish. He sells clothing, shampoo, writing paper, that sort
of thing.

But look a little closer and you'll see the labels on the casual shirts and
pants list a unique ingredient. No cotton or synthetic fabrics here. All
the products in MacEachern's store are made with hemp.

From soaps and salves to necklaces and sweatshirts, the Grasshopper
Hemporium has just about anything a good hemp lover needs.

Two doors down from the courthouse on a street dotted with clothing
boutiques and flower shops, in a tight-knit Catholic town - home to the
region's bishop - seems an unlikely place to find such a business.

"This is a good Catholic town and that's my point. These are good people
and they smoke pot, from college professors to the cops themselves," says
MacEachern.

He's in a bit of hot water these days, and it's of his own making.
MacEachern has been arrested for lighting up joints in public as he takes
on the age-old battle to get marijuana decriminalized.

"Definitely people think I'm strange. I've been described as a corrupter of
youth and I just say, `Go ahead and stone me in front of town hall, I've
been stoned before.'"

The 22-year-old St. F.X. business student says you'd be surprised at the
number of doctors, lawyers, surgeons and other professionals who regularly
smoke pot.

"The underground economy is run by it. You remove marijuana from the scene
and you'd have to build a welfare office the size of an arena."

MacEachern first took his battle public with a demonstration outside
Antigonish town hall a month ago. He says about 300 people supported him
when he lit up. Antigonish RCMP say just over 100 people attended.

Sgt. Bill Kelly said MacEachern wasn't charged because he was just seeking
attention. "That's what he wants, trouble
. We have to be very careful
about how we do react because we don't want to create any unnecessary
trouble."

MacEachern repeated his public display in front of New Glasgow town hall
last week and was promptly charged with possession. He'll be in court next
month.

"I don't want to go to jail but when I believe in something, I really
believe in it."

He staged a third demonstration Friday back in front of Antigonish town
hall that was to have attracted up to 700 people. Fewer than 200, most in
their late teens and early twenties, showed up.

MacEachern didn't light up, saying there's no point in getting arrested
twice. Moncton defence lawyer Wendall Maxwell favors decriminalization of
marijuana, but says MacEachern is going about it wrong.

"He's putting himself up for a big letdown. Obviously, the judge is going
to enforce the law as it exists. The change has to come through political
pressure."

He believes the public favors making the drug legal, citing support for
snowboarder Ross Rebagliati, who tested positive for the drug at the
Olympics. "I don't know anyone who felt he should have his medal taken
away.

"You have a 19-year-old sitting on a park bench drunk out of his mind and
they do nothing. You have a 19-year-old sitting next to him smoking
marijuana and he's charged and taken to court where he's called a heinous
criminal. It's insane," said Maxwell, who has has never smoked himself.

MacEachern had his first joint was he was 14. He said his adrenaline was so
high he took seizures. He was hyperactive, aggressive and his head was
racing with thoughts. Marijuana, he said, calms him.

Now he smokes every second day. Without it, "I wouldn't be a participator
in society, without a doubt. I'm obnoxious, really."

Brochures by drug-addiction agencies list side effects of the drug as
depression, paranoia, decreased hormonal levels, lowered sperm counts and
lung damage.

MacEachern dismisses the government stance on pot as part of a carefully
crafted plan "forcing people to join the industrial revolution" and buy
corporations' products. "I'm not paranoid. I'm right."

Hemp is a fibre found in the stalk of the marijuana plant that is used to
make paper and clothing. It doesn't contain THC, the hallucinogenic drug
found in the flower tops and leaves that are dried to make dope. Hemp
crops, says MacEachern, could be an economic panacea for Nova Scotia.

But it will be a while before that happens; MacEachern has just been
evicted from his store. He insists he'll find a way to sell his products,
even if it's as a street vendor.

"I see hemp as my career."