EMERY JAILING SPAWNS PROTESTS

SASKATOON -- Pro-pot activists are staging protests and writing letters
after well-known marijuana supporter Marc Emery was sentenced to three
months in jail for passing a single joint. Emery's supporters gathered at
Saskatoon's provincial court building yesterday to protest the jail
sentence, which came last week after Emery pleaded guilty to trafficking.

"We'll be here every day until Marc Emery is released," said protest
co-ordinator Dana Larsen of Vancouver, editor of Emery's Cannabis Culture
magazine.

"I don't think this will succeed in getting Marc out early, but I think it
will draw attention. Our goal really is to stop this from happening to
anybody else."

Emery, president of the B.C. Marijuana Party and a former London bookstore
owner, was charged with trafficking after he passed a joint while speaking
at a political rally at the University of Saskatchewan earlier this year.

While it was Emery's eleventh drug-related conviction, it was the first time
he has been sentenced to jail.

The B.C. Marijuana Party has also begun a letter-writing campaign to federal
Justice Minister Irwin Cotler. In July, Prime Minister Paul Martin promised
to reintroduce legislation to decriminalize possession of 15 grams of pot or
less.

"The sentence, viewed by many as extreme, has evoked outrage in the
marijuana community," said the party in a release.

"Mr. Emery has the dubious distinction of being the first person in Canada
to be charged and convicted of trafficking for passing a joint."

Larsen said he wants to prevent others from being jailed for simply passing
a joint. "I think most Canadians would think that's pretty extreme . . . and
would look upon Saskatoon as a backward place because of that, like the
Alabama of Canada.

"I don't think anyone else has ever been convicted of trafficking this
quantity before."

Seven persons joined Larsen yesterday. They carried a pot-leaf version of
the Canadian flag and handed out flyers entitled Free Marc Emery.