MARIJUANA LAWS QUESTIONED

Former Marijuana Party candidate Noreen Evers hopes to overturn marijuana
laws during a court appearance on Thursday.

Evers ran for the Marijuana Party in the North Island in the 2001
provincial election and collected 4.5 per cent of the vote.

She is scheduled to appear in provincial court on Thursday to face charges
of producing marijuana for purposes of trafficking. She was arrested in
Black Creek on May 14, 2004.

She says she plans to ask the court to quash the charge, claiming that the
marijuana prohibition in the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act has been
ruled unconstitutional by various courtsand is therefore null and void.

"Prosecution of a null prohibition affects not only myself but the public
at large as well as offends the administration of justice," she said in an
application to the court quash the the charge.

Evers bases her application on Section 601.1 of the Criminal Code of
Canada, which enables the court to quash a charge before an accused has
pleaded if the law is defective.

Evers wants the court to rule that the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act
and the Medical Marijuana Access Regulations violate the Canadian Charter
of Rights and Freedoms. She also wants the court to order police to return
grow equipment confiscated when she was arrested and to compensate her for
plants confiscated by the RCMP at the time.

She says the decision could have far-reaching consequences and could give
other people in similar situations to demand reparations.

"I didn't even smoke pot when I ran in the election. I met a lot of people
who used marijuana for medicinal purposes. It's very difficult to obtain
from the government and they wanted to legalize it for that reason.

That July I smoked it and my back pain just went away and that is how the
North Island Compassion Club came into being," she said.