MARIJUANA ACTIVIST ARRESTED; UNABLE TO MAKE SPEECH AT LCC

The B.C. marijuana party was here last Thursday and it has Student's
Association President, Preston Scholz seeing red, not green.

Scholz who was responsible for the meeting was told it was about voter
apathy and tuition cost; however, the meeting turned into a discussion about
legalizing marijuana.

"This was not the intent. It was supposed to be talking about a number of
issues. It wasn't supposed to be about marijuana, but that's what it turned
into, and that is where I had to try to get things to move on. They just
kept coming back," said Scholz after the meeting.

Founder and leader of the B.C. marijuana Party, Marc Emery, was going to
make a speech, but was arrested and charged with trafficking in
Saskatchewan. Therefore, independant activist, Sarah Schmit, and her
brother, Charlie Christensen, replaced Emery.

"I had no clue who the man (Emery) was. They told me he was a member of the
NDP, and he wanted to get students between 18 to 24 to vote," said Scholz.

In front of about 50 people, Schmit and Christensen talked about legalizing
marijuana in Canada and how marijuana can affect people.

They complained that people stereotype marijuana users.

"I'm engaged. I'm setting direction in my life, and I'm not unmotivated,
whatsoever. I like to thank marijuana for that," said Christensen who is a
daily marijuana user.

After about a half-hour of discussing marijuana, the meeting became tense
when Scholz interrupted by saying they were taking too much time on
marijuana.

"What I'm saying is as a person who is responsible for this meeting, I have
located an executive stating that this is not what is seen. I will stop it
if I have to," he said in the middle of discussion.

Schmit refuted that marijuana is an important issue for students; however,
she changed the subject to tuition costs and environment problems.

Near the end of the meeting, Schmit made a sarcastic comment. "I don't think
censorship should be allowed in school."

All the students who were told the meeting was about marijuana, but when the
proposal was brought to Scholz, marijuana wasn't the issues. It was about
voter apathy and tuition costs, he said after the meeting.

Legalizing marijuana has nothing to do with the students in LCC, said
Scholz.

Scholz said the flier of the meeting shouldn't have been handed out on
campus early last week.

"I have to explain to some people why this happened, and why I allowed it ot
happen when it did and that is a huge problem I have," said Scholz.