Pubdate: Tue, 21 Apr 2015
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2015 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/letters.html
Website: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Author: Jesse Winter
Page: A6

PRO-POT FORCES SPLIT OVER LIBERAL SUPPORT

Endorsement bad idea, say some in NORML

Hundreds of pro-pot protesters lit up on Parliament Hill Monday
afternoon, hoping to convince the government to lighten up on them.

The annual 420 rally to legalize marijuana saw a fraction of last
year's 15,000-person turnout. But rally organizer Craig Jones said
Monday's rain didn't faze the roughly 1,000 people who braved the
blustery weather.

Jones is the executive director of the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws in Canada, a group that's been pushing for
legalized marijuana since the 1970s.

Jones said the group has always been non-partisan, but with a federal
election looming in October, it decided to officially throw its weight
behind Justin Trudeau's Liberals. Trudeau has made legalizing
marijuana a central plank in his party's election platform.

"We debated about that in the organization a lot," Jones said. "But
this election presents such a stark choice. This feels like our moment
to break through and bring modernization to Canada's cannabis laws,
which is long overdue," Jones said.

But that decision is rankling some members of the local pro-pot
movement. Well-known marijuana activist Russell Barth said he and his
wife boycotted the 420 rally because of NORML's coziness with the
Liberal party.

"NORML is supposed to be nonpartisan, so any time they get cosy with
any political party they lose credibility," Barth said in an email to
the Citizen.

Hugo St. Onge agrees. He's a member of Bloc Pot, and will be
campaigning against Trudeau in his home riding of Papineau.

"I think they are just naive," St. Onge said. "They try to look at an
election like it's a referendum. It's not. I think they are putting
their name in the dirt by doing this."

Last week, a group calling itself Canadian Conservatives for Legal
Marijuana put up billboards in Ottawa urging Prime Minister Stephen
Harper to consider legalizing marijuana.

The group claims many Conservative party members would back such a
move, but they won't come forward for fear of crossing Harper. The
group's website quotes three Conservative MPs, including Scott Reid of
Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington, as being in favour of
legalizing marijuana.

Dennis Laurie, a spokesman for Reid's office, said Reid supports
legalization, but with restrictions: Municipalities must be allowed to
opt out, the legal age for purchasing pot should be 21, there should
be a limit on the amount that can be sold and it should not be sold
with alcohol or consumed in public spaces, Laurie said.
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