BAND BANGS DRUM FOR POT REFORM

(CNS) - Vancouver has always been the hotbed of marijuana activism in
Canada, but now a group of Nova Scotians is hoping to revive the
campaign for looser cannabis laws, not with public protests and civil
disobedience, but with a familiar East Coast export: music.

A 10-member, underground rock band that calls itself the Indus Guys
- -- or In Disguise -- has launched a website promoting a series of
original songs singing the praises of pot, as well as a political
plea for Canadians to call their MPs and demand an end to 81 years of
marijuana prohibition.

Drop a Quarter, Make a Change, says the website, suggesting that
pot-users across the country make anonymous calls to their MPs from
public pay phones. (In some parts of Canada pay phones are actually 50 cents.)

"A lot of people are afraid to come forward and say anything because
their jobs are at risk, or any of the other repercussions that happen
as a result of admitting anything to do with marijuana," says the
band's leader and guitarist, who goes by the name George W. Kush.

"We're trying to make some noise, in a very nice, polite, intelligent
way," he says. "We're saying to people, 'Go call your MP. Put a
quarter in a pay phone so he doesn't know who you are, and make sure
you tell him your contribution to society, whether you're a
ditchdigger or a lawyer, or a tradesman.'

"Make the politicians aware of exactly who they're hurting with these
prohibition laws."