PROTESTERS PLANT POT IN VALLEY PARK

About 30 pot lovers armed with placards, joints and bags of seeds marched
into Edmonton's river valley yesterday, rolled up their sleeves and started
weeding.

The protesters, after a peaceful walk from Emily Murphy Park to the north
side of the river, dropped to their knees and symbolically planted more
than a thousand marijuana seeds to protest Canada's drug laws.

"People have to start acknowledging it for what it is," complained Kerri
McDowell, cradling her nine-month-old baby Indica.

"It's not a narcotic, it's a weed."

The Arbor Day plant-in, organized by the Cannabis Relegalization Society of
Alberta, drew a colorful crowd of students and pot lovers who want to see
cannabis decriminalized.

Brandishing signs saying "Prohibition doesn't work" and "A bust every 10
minutes," the protesters cheered at the honks and waves of passing
motorists.

McDowell and her husband Dean say they plan to fight the government's drug
laws in court after being slapped with charges of cultivation three weeks
ago.

There were no police officers monitoring the protest and no charges were laid.