FORMER FEDERAL CANDIDATE CHALLENGES POT GROWING LAW

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 Courtenay provincial court to face charges of
producing marijuana for the purpose of trafficking. She was arrested in
Black Creek on May 14, 2004.

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 a
court application.

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
offered a plea, if the law is defective.

Evers wants the court to rule that the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act
and the Medical Marijuana Access Regulations violates 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 take by the RCMP. 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," she said. "I met a
lot of people who used marijuana for medicinal purposes."