POT-LAWS PROTEST TOUR TOUCHED ORANGEVILLE

As Orangeville police looked on, Vancouverbased marijuana legalization
advocate Marc Emery addressed a small but supportive crowd Saturday at
Alexander Muir Park next to Town Hall.

Mr. Emery, also known as "The Prince of Pot," spoke against proposals
in federal Bill C-15 that anyone caught with five or more marijuana
plants face a mandatory minimum of six months in prison.

The Harper government's legislation also stipulates that, if growing
is done on a property that belongs to another person or in an area
where it may present a hazard to children, minimum jail time will be
nine months.

Publisher of Cannabis Culture Magazine and founder of the B.C.
Marijuana Party, Mr. Emery is facing extradition to the United States
where he faces a possible 10 years in jail for his business selling
marijuana seeds, which is legal in Canada but illegal in the U.S.

U.S. authorities maintain that Mr. Emery's selling of seeds is
equivalent to trafficking in the drug itself.

An underlying theme in his speech was that the mandatory incarceration
outlined in Bill C-15 will do more harm than good. "The best place for
criminal gangs to recruit young people is in jail," he said. "People
are going into jail as small-time drug dealers and coming out as
full-time gang members."

His wife Jody said marijuana possession "is a victimless crime. The
only victims are the people put in jail when they don't need to be."

Prior to the meeting, police informed event organizers that they were
staging a public event without permission. They remained in the
vicinity during Mr. Emery's speech but did not interfere.

Among those in the crowd was a young woman who said she and her
friends had been issued tickets by police for smoking marijuana and
were barred from all Orangeville public parks for a year. She added
that she had no recourse to challenge the decision.

Mr. Emery also reminded the crowd, composed mostly of people in their
teens to late 20s, that they needed to get out and vote if they wanted
change. "The only way to defend your autonomy is to get involved," he
said.

He urged them to vote for the Green Party, which has come out in
support of decriminalizing marijuana and proposes that it be taxed and
regulated like alcohol and tobacco.

Dufferin-Caledon Green candidate and party finance critic Ard Van
Leeuwen was in attendance. "

The Green Party is on record for the decriminalization of marijuana
and we support Marc Emery's efforts in this regard."

He said revenues from taxation of marijuana - which, by some
estimates, is an $18 billion underground business in Canada - could
bring up to $1.5 billion into federal coffers.

Mr. Van Leeuwen pointed to a 2002 Senate committee report that said
"scientific evidence overwhelmingly indicates that cannabis is
substantially less harmful than alcohol and should be treated not as a
criminal issue but as a social and public health issue."

The same committee also said, however, that "we are not endorsing
cannabis use for recreational consumption. Whether or not an
individual uses marijuana should be a personal choice that is not
subject to criminal penalties.

"But we have come to the conclusion that, as a drug, it should be
regulated by the State much as we do for wine and beer, hence our
preference for legalization over decriminalization."

Mr. Van Leeuwen also said the Green Party feels the justice system
would be better off to shift its focus from young, firsttime marijuana
offenders and, instead, get tougher with white-collar crime and
violent offenders.