MARIJUANA ACTIVIST FREED AFTER 61 DAYS IN JAIL

SASKATOON (CP) - Marijuana activist Marc Emery was released from jail
Monday and kissed the cannabis-leaf flag his supporters flew for the
duration of his 61 days behind bars.

The 45-year-old president of the B.C. Marijuana Party was sentenced Aug. 19
to three months in jail after pleading guilty to passing a joint at a pot
rally in a park last March.

On Monday, he immediately launched into a contemptuous diatribe against
what he called Saskatchewan's intolerable attitude and promised to try to
change it.

He said he plans to establish a chapter of the Marijuana party in the
province within three months and offer a full slate of candidates in the
next election.

"I was joking with some people (prior) to jail, saying that going to jail
in Saskatoon was like being sent to Siberia. Now I get out and it is
exactly like Siberia," Emery said.

"This is a rough place to start out. It's one of the most inhospitable
places on Earth. . . to try and form a modern-day society. It's a place
where droughts hit every five or 10 years, the weather and landscape are
formidable and there are tensions between whites and natives.

"If you had to choose somewhere in Canada to live, you'd really need a good
reason to live in Saskatchewan . . . There is no beacon of tolerance and
enlightenment that makes you overlook everything else."

As well as leading the B.C. Marijuana Party, Emery owns a marijuana seed
store and Internet business in Vancouver and also operates a therapy house
to treat chemical dependence.