MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION MOVEMENT PICKS UP STEAM

MONTREAL (CUP) -- The movement pushing for the legalization of marijuana is
gaining strength as a nascent pro-pot political party gets ready to run
candidates in the upcoming Quebec election while Torontonians are being
invited on the Can-Abyss train.

The Bloc Pot is being organized by 28-year-old Montreal musician Marc St.
Maurice, a six-year veteran of marijuana activism.

He has collected the nearly 1,000 signatures needed to get official party
status and is looking for 10 people to run for office. St. Maurice says
lots of people have stepped forward, adding that it only remains to work
out who will run in what riding.

One of those who has thrown his hat into the ring is Larry Duprey, who owns
a pot paraphernalia store in Montreal.

By putting pot on the political agenda, Duprey says activists are looking
for a gradual change in official attitudes towards marijuana.

"We've got to look at the edges of this law. We have to dance around it
till we get to the centre," he said.

Charlie McKenzie, former chief janitor of the Parti Rhinoceros who now does
human rights research for a United Nations agency, is a consultant for the
Bloc Pot.

"Bloc Pot will engage at the provincial level because enforcement is a
provincial jurisdiction. Bloc Pot can have an effect because of the
polarization of politics in Quebec," he said.

St. Maurice says that electoral races are so close in Quebec that any
percentage lost is a threat to the main parties. This will ensure, he adds,
that marijuana will be an issue in the next provincial election.

"I'm confident we'll get a man in somewhere," St. Maurice said.

According to the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, the number of
people arrested for marijuana-related offences has steadily risen over the
past several years. The number increased to 29,562 in 1996 from 27,662 in
1994, reports Now, an alternative Toronto weekly. And those being caught by
the long arm of the law for marijuana offences are facing stiffer penalties
because of tougher anti-drug legislation which the federal government
brought into effect earlier this year.

There are also efforts in Ontario to raise awareness about the need to take
a different legal approach to marijuana. Every Thursday night this fall at
the Comfort Zone, a Toronto club, the National Organization for the Reform
of Marijuana Laws has been spreading the word about the legalization
of marijuana.

"The Can-Abyss train is going to go through that abyss, hopefully pick
everybody up, and arrive at destination legalization, whereby we remove the
criminal records from these people," Umberto Iorfida, president of the
organization, said. He adds that 1.2 million Canadians have a police record
for possession of marijuana.

Iorfida says drugs are a health issue and the government1s criminal
approach has backfired.

"We're treating [marijuana] as a criminal substance [when] we should be
treating it as a drug," he said. "We should be sending people who mess up
on marijuana or any drug, for that matter, to doctors."

He adds that he foresees the legalization of marijuana by the year 2000 due
to government cutbacks.

"It will come because the country can no longer afford the so-called 'war
on drugs,'" Iorfida said.

The Can-Abyss campaign is also raising awareness about the hemp plant,
which is essentially the marijuana plant grown without the active
ingredient which gets users high. There are, according to Iorfida, over
30,000 commercial uses for this plant, and most are more environmentally
friendly than materials and processes already in use.