MARIJUANA PARTY ON HIGH

VANCOUVER -- There was more than the usual buzz happening yesterday at the
downtown headquarters of the B.C. Marijuana party as news circulated --
along with the pungent aroma of burning pot -- that a Senate committee had
recommended legalization of marijuana use.

Marc Emery, perhaps Canada's best-known pot activist, was busy bouncing
among media interviews at the store, which is also home to the party's
extensive bookstore of how-to pot-pourri.

Emery was visibly ecstatic, admittedly stunned at the way the stereotypical
stodgy senators had suddenly become, well, dudes.

"It's a beacon of light from the Senate" said Emery, president of the
Marijuana party and a candidate for the mayor of Vancouver.

"It's wonderful," he continued to bubble as a few nearby customers thumbed
through books on cultivating pot. "I was stunned by the enlightenment in
this report."

He was even more delighted given the reaction he received at his appearance
before the nine-member committee and especially Sen. Colin Kenny, its
deputy chairman.

"Colin Kenny gave me such a grilling that I found very intimidating," said
Emery, who also publishes Cannabis Culture magazine and whose website touts
him as having for sale the largest collection of marijuana seeds in the world.

He now believes that the committee was "obviously willing to push people's
buttons to get the information they were seeking."

"It's the most far-reaching document of any western country or any place in
the world in regards to marijuana. It goes further than Switzerland,
further than Holland and is certainly light years ahead of the United States."

David Malmo-Levine, another longtime pot legalization activist, said he was
"ecstatic."

He is heading to the Supreme Court of Canada, along with two others, in
December to appeal a pot conviction.

'BLOWN AWAY'

"I'm euphoric. I'm blown away."

He will argue his own case before the nine justices, as he did before the
B.C. Court of Appeal, but now bolstered by the Senate committee's pot
pronouncements.

"The senators have gotten us all high out here on the West Coast," said
Malmo-Levine. "I'm glad that age does not seem to remove common sense from
your brain."

Recommendations

Highlights of a Senate committee report recommending that Canada legalize
the use of marijuana and hashish:

- - Marijuana and hashish should come under a regulatory system for
production and sale under licence for legal use by any Canadian resident
over 16.

- - Looser rules for the use of medical marijuana should provide easier access.

- - The law should be changed for those who drive after using both alcohol
and marijuana, with blood-alcohol limits lowered to .04% in such cases.

- - The government should erase the criminal records of 300,000-600,000
Canadians convicted of simple possession of marijuana.

- - The government should appoint a national adviser on psychoactive substances.

- - The government should call a conference of the provinces, municipalities
and other interested parties to set the ground rules for legal marijuana.

- - The government should finance research on drugs and prevention and
treatment programs, financed by taxes on the sale of legal marijuana.