ROCK BAND LOBBIES FOR LAXER POT LAWS

Vancouver has always been the hotbed of marijuana activism in Canada,
but now a group of Nova Scotians is hoping to revive the campaign for
looser cannabis laws, not with public protests and civil disobedience
but with a familiar East Coast export: music.

A 10-member, underground rock band that calls itself the Indus Guys --
or In Disguise -- has launched a website promoting a series of
original songs singing the praises of pot, as well as a political plea
for Canadians to call their MPs and demand an end to 81 years of
marijuana prohibition.

"Drop a Quarter, Make a Change," urges the website, indusguys.com,
suggesting that pot-users across the country make anonymous calls to
their MPs from public pay phones.

"A lot of people are afraid to come forward and say anything because
their jobs are at risk, or any of the other repercussions that happen
as a result of admitting anything to do with marijuana," says the
band's leader and guitarist, who goes by the name George W. Kush.

"We're trying to make some noise, in a very nice, polite, intelligent
way," he says. "We're saying to people, 'Go call your MP. Put a
quarter in a pay phone so he doesn't know who you are, and make sure
you tell him your contribution to society, whether you're a ditch
digger or a lawyer, or a tradesman."

The band includes a professional East Coast musician, a concert
promoter, a senior-care worker, an architect, a mining engineer and an
avionics draftsman, among others. Some, including Kush, have criminal
records for cannabis cultivation.

Kush says he doesn't expect any such changes to come under the Harper
government. But he says once the Conservatives leave office, a new
government may be more sympathetic, so the time to start pushing for
action is now.

"We need a national referendum on prohibition," he
says.

The website shows photos and videos of the band in action in a field
of shoulder-high cannabis crops in rural Nova Scotia.

Kush says the group had some nervous moments making the video,
especially when a government chopper passed overhead.

"If they'd seen us, they probably would have chuckled -- chuckled us
right off to jail."