SASKATCHEWAN MARIJUANA PARTY OFFICIALLY REGISTERED

REGINA (CP) - The Saskatchewan Marijuana Party has joined six other
parties as an officially registered provincial political party with
Elections Saskatchewan.

Like other marijuana parties in the country, it is expected to
advocate the legalization of possession and cultivation of cannabis.

But Saskatchewan Marijuana Party leaders aren't talking right now.

President Ethan Erkiletian said the party won't make an official
statement until June 20.

The timing is related to the June 19 Weyburn-Big Muddy by-election,
although the party does not and can not have a candidate in that race.

The party's leader is Nathan Holowaty, a Saskatoon pot activist who
formerly was president of the NDP campus club at the University of
Saskatchewan.

A December, 2004, article in the Sheaf campus newspaper said the
Saskatchewan Marijuana Party was being formed in part because the
provincial justice system took a punitive approach toward marijuana.

It says the party's formation was given impetus by the March, 2004,
arrest and incarceration of British Columbia marijuana activist Marc
Emery in Saskatoon for passing a joint in Kiwanis Park.

Mr. Emery, the leader of the B.C. Marijuana Party, said upon his
release from jail in October, 2004, that a marijuana party would be
established in Saskatchewan that would field a full slate of
candidates in the next provincial election.

The Marijuana Party joins the NDP, Saskatchewan Party, Liberals,
Progressive Conservatives, Green Party and Western Independence Party
on the provincial registry.