ALL THE DOPE IS ON POT-TV

Longtime marijuana advocate airs shows over Internet from home-based studio

It gives a whole new meaning to the term smokescreen.

Broadcast from a basement in bud-friendly B.C., Pot-TV has been
getting 25,000 hits a month since it began producing a daily
marijuana news show and various other programs over the Internet last
spring.

"B.C., as you probably know, is the heartland of cannabis culture in
North America," said Chris Bennett, one of five full-time employees
and host of Pot-TV's Burning Shiva, an exploration of the cultural
use of cannabis throughout history.

Viewers can tune into The Big Toke, a cannabis comedy hour, The Grow
Show with Marijuana Man, Cannabis Common Sense or Shake 'n Bake, a
cooking show that puts a whole new spin on baked goods.

"It's the best job I've ever had," said Bennett.

Pot-TV also offers the Healing Herb Hour to discuss medical uses for
marijuana and Yours in Defence, a legal discussion hosted by a
Colorado-based lawyer.

This is no Cheech and Chong venture.

Marijuana advocate Marc Emery has spent $220,000 since the beginning
of the year to get Pot-TV up and running, "and it produces no
revenue," he said.

Emery supports the station the same way he supported his Cannabis
Culture magazine until it began to break even a few years ago -- by
selling marijuana seeds.

"I'm the world's most famous and well-known marijuana seed seller,"
said Emery, who makes more than $1 million a year that way.

Emery's basement on the Sunshine Coast has been converted into a
studio with 15 computers, cameras and microphones. Programs and news
items come in from around the world.

Emery would like to have mainstream advertisers to fund the station.

"We should be getting like, you know, the Hostess munchies ads or
Coca-Cola, because that is our market."

But Pot-TV is too controversial for the mainstream, he said.

Emery is no stranger to controversy. Crusading for cannabis is his life.

The magazine Cannabis Culture is occasionally banned, most recently
in Timmins, Ont. He is the candidate for the Marijuana Party in the
upcoming federal election.

Emery's Cannabis Cafe and Hemp B.C. store, which sold marijuana and
allowed consumption on site, was raided and had all assets seized
four times before the city revoked the business licence.

Emery says he is doing nothing illegal with Pot-TV. Police aren't sure, either.

"It's supposed to be against the law to possess or distribute
information that helps people to use drugs, but when the law was made
we certainly didn't know Web sites existed yet," said Sgt. Chuck
Doucette of the RCMP drug awareness section in Vancouver. "The whole
Internet thing has presented unique challenges for law enforcement."

Doucette said authorities are trying to address that loophole with new laws.

"In the meantime all we can do is sort of counter it with the
information that we have that says that drugs are harmful and try to
caution young people to make wise choices," Doucette said.