PRO-POT PROTESTERS MAKE ANNUAL FALLS TREK

Marijuana activists have one more reason to like Niagara Falls now
that it is the home of Canada's justice minister, says Matt Mernagh,
organizer of Saturday's annual pro-pot protest.

Saturday will be the fourth annual protest Niagara Falls has seen
where scores of protesters take to the streets, demanding the
legalization of marijuana.

"My philosophy is for the Cannabis Control Board of Ontario," said
Mernagh, who said marijuana should be regulated, controlled and
taxed the same way alcohol is.

Activists like the symbolism of holding a protest near Highway 420.
In pot-smoking circles, 4:20 p.m. is considered the universal time of
day to toke up.

They schedule it close to April 20. Scores of activists will meet on
Victoria Avenue near Roberts Street at 2 p.m., march down Clifton
Hill and then light up at 4:20.

The Niagara Falls protest is one in a series scheduled for Toronto,
Ottawa and Hamilton today and Saturday.

This year, there's an added attraction to Niagara Falls because it's
represented in the House of Commons by Conservative MP Rob
Nicholson. Since January, Nicholson has been the federal minister of justice.

"He is a very important figure in politics in Canada," Mernagh said.
Pot advocates want him to intervene in the case of Marc Emery and
the so-called B.C. Three, a group of activists charged in the United
States with selling seeds in the U.S. through a Canadian-based
mail-order business.

American officials want them extradited to the U.S. for trial.

Organizers considered protesting in front of Nicholson's office, but
decided to keep up their traditional march along Victoria Avenue and
Clifton Hill to Queen Victoria Park, Mernagh said.

But Nicholson said his government doesn't have much interest in what
the protesters have to say.

"I want to send a clear message. We will not be decriminalizing
marijuana," Nicholson said in a phone interview from Ottawa.

The Conservative government will also make it a priority to fight
the spread of indoor marijuana grow houses, he added.

Legalization is a federal matter, but Niagara Centre MPP Peter
Kormos agreed with Mernagh's call to regulate and tax it like alcohol.

"Clearly, prohibition isn't working any better for marijuana than it
did for liquor in the 1920s," Kormos said.