Pubdate: Sat, 24 Feb 2007
Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)
Copyright: 2007 The Gazette, a division of Southam Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274
Author: Andy Riga, The Gazette
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

'REEFERENDUM' WILL TARGET WAR ON DRUGS

Hugo St-Onge is convinced he has the winning conditions for his 
looming "reeferendum."

His Bloc Pot party, set to run 50 to 65 candidates in the March 26 
election, is organizing the online plebiscite on the legalization of 
marijuana in Quebec.

It'll be a fair process, the Bloc leader insisted at a news 
conference at an Ontario St. bar yesterday. A non-party-member will 
oversee voting. Only those on the official voters' list can cast 
ballots (unless, of course, they're 16 or 17 years old, in which case 
anybody can vote).

"We want to send the absurd (pot) prohibition up in smoke," said 
St-Onge, who stands out from other leaders thanks to his penchant for 
hemp shirts, his beard and long hair that reaches his mid-back.

An accountant, St-Onge, 32, is taking his third stab at politics, in 
Gouin riding. In 2003, the Bloc ran 56 candidates, garnering 22,904 votes.

The party, running on an end-the-war (on drugs) promise, says pot 
laws waste police and court resources, endanger health and make drugs 
too accessible to children. It says it will unveil "a business plan" 
showing legalization would revive Quebec's regions, protect the 
environment, create a biofuel industry and cut health costs.

The reeferendum runs March 11 to 26, at www.blocpot.qc.ca.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman