Source: Halifax Daily News Contact: Sun, 29 Mar 1998 Author: Beverley Ware -- Special to The Daily News RCMP REFUSE TO BUST TOKING HEMP STORE OWNER Student wants to grow career; Hemp seller stages pot demonstrations ANTIGONISH - Joe MacEachern's store looks like many others along Main Street in Antigonish. He sells clothing, shampoo, writing paper, that sort of thing. But look a little closer and you'll see the labels on the casual shirts and pants list a unique ingredient. No cotton or synthetic fabrics here. All the products in MacEachern's store are made with hemp. From soaps and salves to necklaces and sweatshirts, the Grasshopper Hemporium has just about anything a good hemp lover needs. Two doors down from the courthouse on a street dotted with clothing boutiques and flower shops, in a tight-knit Catholic town - home to the region's bishop - seems an unlikely place to find such a business. "This is a good Catholic town and that's my point. These are good people and they smoke pot, from college professors to the cops themselves," says MacEachern. He's in a bit of hot water these days, and it's of his own making. MacEachern has been arrested for lighting up joints in public as he takes on the age-old battle to get marijuana decriminalized. "Definitely people think I'm strange. I've been described as a corrupter of youth and I just say, `Go ahead and stone me in front of town hall, I've been stoned before.'" The 22-year-old St. F.X. business student says you'd be surprised at the number of doctors, lawyers, surgeons and other professionals who regularly smoke pot. "The underground economy is run by it. You remove marijuana from the scene and you'd have to build a welfare office the size of an arena." MacEachern first took his battle public with a demonstration outside Antigonish town hall a month ago. He says about 300 people supported him when he lit up. Antigonish RCMP say just over 100 people attended. Sgt. Bill Kelly said MacEachern wasn't charged because he was just seeking attention. "That's what he wants, trouble . We have to be very careful about how we do react because we don't want to create any unnecessary trouble." MacEachern repeated his public display in front of New Glasgow town hall last week and was promptly charged with possession. He'll be in court next month. "I don't want to go to jail but when I believe in something, I really believe in it." He staged a third demonstration Friday back in front of Antigonish town hall that was to have attracted up to 700 people. Fewer than 200, most in their late teens and early twenties, showed up. MacEachern didn't light up, saying there's no point in getting arrested twice. Moncton defence lawyer Wendall Maxwell favors decriminalization of marijuana, but says MacEachern is going about it wrong. "He's putting himself up for a big letdown. Obviously, the judge is going to enforce the law as it exists. The change has to come through political pressure." He believes the public favors making the drug legal, citing support for snowboarder Ross Rebagliati, who tested positive for the drug at the Olympics. "I don't know anyone who felt he should have his medal taken away. "You have a 19-year-old sitting on a park bench drunk out of his mind and they do nothing. You have a 19-year-old sitting next to him smoking marijuana and he's charged and taken to court where he's called a heinous criminal. It's insane," said Maxwell, who has has never smoked himself. MacEachern had his first joint was he was 14. He said his adrenaline was so high he took seizures. He was hyperactive, aggressive and his head was racing with thoughts. Marijuana, he said, calms him. Now he smokes every second day. Without it, "I wouldn't be a participator in society, without a doubt. I'm obnoxious, really." Brochures by drug-addiction agencies list side effects of the drug as depression, paranoia, decreased hormonal levels, lowered sperm counts and lung damage. MacEachern dismisses the government stance on pot as part of a carefully crafted plan "forcing people to join the industrial revolution" and buy corporations' products. "I'm not paranoid. I'm right." Hemp is a fibre found in the stalk of the marijuana plant that is used to make paper and clothing. It doesn't contain THC, the hallucinogenic drug found in the flower tops and leaves that are dried to make dope. Hemp crops, says MacEachern, could be an economic panacea for Nova Scotia. But it will be a while before that happens; MacEachern has just been evicted from his store. He insists he'll find a way to sell his products, even if it's as a street vendor. "I see hemp as my career."