POT INFIGHTING ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Where There's Smoke There's Fire As Marijuana Advocates Face Off In
The Run-Up To The Federal Election

Canada's budding marijuana movement has some festering political fissures
that could surface when activists from across the country gather this
weekend on Parliament Hill.

The movement is caught between two Marcs: rock musician Marc Boris
St-Maurice, leader of the ever-fledgling Marijuana Party, and former ally,
B.C.'s millionaire seed salesman Marc Emery, now crusading for Jack
Layton's NDP.

Both will present their cases at Saturday's Fill the Hill rally.

The brainchild of Carleton graduate Jody Pressman, 23, Fill the Hill was
planned well before the election call as a day of forums and pro-pot
speeches. Expected to join St-Maurice and Emery are Osgoode Hall law
professor Alan Young, Tory Senator Pierre Claude Nolin, and Philippe Lucas,
director of Canadians for Safe Access.

A year ago Canada was raising hackles in Washington and eyebrows in
Amsterdam - we seemed to be leading the world in marijuana reform and hopes
were high that pot prohibition would soon end.

That pipe dream fizzled when a Supreme Court decision upheld the marijuana
laws last December. The court tossed it back to the politicians who
dithered throughout the spring on a haphazard decriminalization bill that,
mercifully, died when the election was called.

"It was eye opening," said Jody Pressman. "There was a clear, predetermined
outcome to change the laws as little as possible."

Politicians have promised marijuana reform for over 30 years, he points
out, but marijuana offences are at record levels today, and he warns that
Parliament's failure to act comes with a heavy price.

"Our legislators need to be held to account," he said. "There is definitely
a correlation between these failed policies and how young people are least
likely to vote."

In previous elections many seeking change in the pot laws were drawn to the
Marijuana Party. While their numbers were never great, they certainly
helped put the issue in the public mind.

Last fall, NDP leader Jack Layton called on Marc Emery and did a taped
interview for Emery's POT-TV (www.pot-tv.net) - the marijuana movement has
been in turmoil ever since.

On tape, with the obviously overbuzzed Emery, Layton clearly - more or less
- - states: "The NDP would like to see legislation that allows people to
consume marijuana, particularly that they might grow themselves, and some
technique that would allow them to be able to purchase safely, knowing what
the quality is, and have that all be a legal activity."

For Emery it was both a revelation and a PR windfall.

"When Jack Layton came to my home and recorded those statements," he said,
"it's his way of indicating he wants thousands of new members to come and
take over the reins from these many moribund NDP riding associations filled
with old codgers."

Emery promptly saturated his websites with Layton's remarks.

"Now," he boasts, "the NDP is stuck with the position, even though the
over-55 folks who control 80 per cent of all NDP riding associations get
nervous every time they hear it."

Politicians change sides faster than a windshield wiper, but they rarely
turn on former allies as vehemently as the self-styled "Prince of Pot." In
various online forums, Emery accused Marc Boris St-Maurice and the
Marijuana Party of "ridiculous, treasonous, self-indulgent egotism" for
even thinking of running against Layton's NDP.

"Even though there will be Marijuana Party candidates of generally poor
quality, running without my endorsement," he wrote, "loyalty to our
movement requires that we support the NDP. Our movement is badly served by
letting sorry ass people represent them in shoddy campaigns that have no
achievable goals."

Over Emery's objections, the Marijuana Party will field 100-odd candidates
across the country. Party leader St-Maurice isn't losing sleep over his
former colleague's defection but concedes the personal slurs are bothersome.

"This second-grade name calling is unbecoming," he said. "It's one thing to
choose to work with another party - that's everyone's right - but it's
quite another to attack those fighting for the same cause."

Nor is St-Maurice all that impressed with the NDP's marijuana position.

"The NDP fall short of being outspoken marijuana activists," he said. "I
fear my predictions of the NDP being a dud when it comes to doobie are
about to come true."

As for the NDP, party officials last week issued a terse statement
disavowing Emery's crusade.

"Mr. Layton did not and does not endorse the legalization of marijuana,"
they said. "The NDP endorses its decriminalization."

Emery's activities were not sanctioned by the NDP, they said, nor is he
authorized to speak for the NDP.

Veteran activist Philippe Lucas, director of Canadians for Safe Access,
finds the movement's infighting disturbing.

"I've been quite torn throughout this campaign," he said. "The important
thing for the cannabis community to keep in mind is that we should
absolutely not vote for any party that considers us 'criminals.'"

Another veteran, Mike Foster, is running for the Marijuana Party in Ottawa
Centre.

"At this point," he said, "I think it is more effective to lobby the major
parties rather than join one. Once you join a major political party your
freedoms are limited."

Fill the Hill organiser Jody Pressman stays above the fray, choosing
instead to focus on the movement's objective.

"Whatever party," he says, "the answer is political activism. Get involved,
write essays, research the issue - all these and more, and the more we do
them the sooner Canadians will see an end to this unjust prohibition
against marijuana."