Pubdate: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 Source: Daily Courier (PA) Copyright: 2000 Daily Courier Contact: http://www.dailycourier.com/ Author: Ron Seymour UP IN SMOKE: WE TALK TOKIN' WITH THE POT PARTY'S MAN I don't inhale. Not because I'm philosophically opposed to sucking cigarette or marijuana smoke into my lungs, but because I don't know how. I was never cool enough to learn how to smoke. While the other junior high kids were working on their Fonzy impression, slouching and sneering with a smoke dangling from their lips, I was reading the World Book Encyclopedia and listening to BBC radio 4 on my shortwave. As a result, I was always first to raise my hand when teacher asked which countries led the world in the production of pig iron. But I also got my head flushed down the toilet a lot. My smoking career began and ended at age 16, the night some friends and I puffed a couple of packs of cigarettes in a parking lot behind an R-rated movie theatre in downtown Calgary. In rapid succession, I went from being debonair to being woozy to being violently ill to being a non-smoker for life. As for marijuana, I can count on one hand the number of times I have succesfully experimented with the demon weed. For some reason, I rarely experience any kind of high, zipping instead right through to the paranoia stage where you angrily accuse your friends of serving you dog food when they're just offering a plate of lasagna. Sorry about that, Al. So, I'm no pothead. But I'm not a narc, either, and I don't call Crime Stoppers every time someone around me lights up. Besides, the police don't bother much with simple possession any more, preferring to go after those who grow it. Obviously, there's some hypocrisy at work here, or at least a double standard. If the authorities essentially take the view that it's OK to use marijuana, why should they zealously prosecute people who are just catering to the demand? Seems like a form of reefer madness to me. I was talking pot this week with Marc-Boris St-Maurice, the oddly eloquent 31-year-old leader of the Marijuana Party of Canada who's trying to give Stockwell Day a run for his money in the Sept. 11 Okanagan-Coquihalla byelection. I say oddly eloquent, because I half expected him to be a glassy-eyed hippie, with incoherent ramblings punctuated by giggles and non-sequiters. But he ain't nothing like that. Fact, he talked better than me. Ron: Why should marijuana be decriminalized? Boris: One out of every four Canadians admits to having tried marijuana. With the law broken so often, it undermines respect for all laws and institutions. No serious studies have shown any significant physiological health risks associated with the use of marijuana. R: But if I smoke pot, won't I wind up stabbing my grandmother through the heart with a darning needle in a crack cocaine-induced rage? B: It doesn't lead to harder drugs, it doesn't induce criminal or violent behaviour. Marijuana is a 20-billion a year industry in Canada. If it was regulated and taxed, people would know what they're buying. R: Do any real politicians share your interest? B: In 1979, Joe Clark signed a letter saying that one of the priorities of his government in the first term would be to decriminalize marijuana possession. We've tried to get a hold of Joe now, to make him reiterate that commitment. But he's not taking our calls. R: How many times have you been busted for using pot? B: I've been arrested six or seven times, aquitted a few times, convicted a few. So I have a criminal record, but I don't lose sleep over it. At the end of July, we were pulled over by a cop in Sault Ste-Marie. Just for fun, we'd stuck a picture of Stockwell Day on the dash and added a picture of a joint so it looked like it was coming out of his mouth. The cop used that as probable cause to search our vehicle, and I was charged for having less than an ounce of marijuana. My court date is Sept. 11, the same day as the byelection. I haven't decided if I'll go back, or send a representative. R: Sounds like you're puffing on something. You smoking a fattie right now Boris? B: It's terribly inappropriate to enquire as to a person's individual marijuana use. I've never seen anyone who is compaigning for gay rights asked if they're a homosexual. R: What do you do for a living? B: I'm a musician in a band called Grim Skunk. R: What do you do for a living? B: Being a musician is a regular job. I've crossed Canada and visited 24 other countries. R: Your criminal convictions must be a problem when you cross borders? B: I don't go to the US any more. I'm actually taking a hiatus from the band right now, because they want to do more touring in the States. R: You think all your pot smoking has made you dopey? B: Lemme ask you this. Do I come off as someone who can't make intelligent comments? R: Moving on, you're from Montreal. Do you know the Okanagan has a reputation as a pot growers paradise, with lots of grow op's and lenient judges? B: I know it's one of Canada's top marijuana producing regions. Actually, because the byelection is on Sept. 11, I'm afraid that a lot of our potential supporters, the people who could help us with the campaigning and getting out the vote, will be busy with the harvest. - -Ron Seymour is a Daily Courier reporter. His column appears Wednesday and Friday. Tel. (250) 470-0750 - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck