POLICE WANT POT CRUSADER BARRED FROM STATIONS

EDMONTON - Wearing a conservative blue suit, B.C. marijuana activist Marc
Emery lit up a water pipe in front of Edmonton police headquarters Sunday
afternoon and was promptly arrested.

The leader of the B.C. Marijuana Party contends possession laws no longer
exist because of recent Ontario court decisions.

Before lighting up, Emery said the fact that people can be political and
take action makes Canada "the greatest place on Earth."

Two Edmonton police constables stepped into the crowd and led Emery inside,
to a chorus of boos and jeers from about three dozen supporters who decried
the arrest as unconstitutional.

Federal Crown prosecutors have told Edmonton police that laws prohibiting
marijuana possession are still in effect, said Insp. Dick Shantz. Officers
charged Emery with a single count of pot possession.

Police also tried to stop Emery's campaign by asking that a Canadawide ban
preventing him from going to police stations unless he has a legitimate
complaint be made one condition of his release.

"We're getting tired of dealing with him," Shantz said. "He's tying up our
manpower with his illegal crusade and we're not going to put up with it."

Others were also smoking marijuana but Shantz said no one else was arrested
because police did not have the manpower.

Emery, publisher of the magazine Cannabis Culture, was arrested in Calgary
on Saturday.

He was earlier arrested in Winnipeg, Regina, Moncton, N.B., and St. John's,
Nfld. He was not arrested at stops this summer in Toronto and
Charolettetown, P.E.I.