PRO-POT PITCHMAN'S PROTEST ATTRACTS FEW

Marc Emery travelled from British Columbia to protest outside the Sydney Justice Centre where a local teen was sentenced to serve 90 days in jail for selling marijuana at a school dance.  He said the drug should be regulated and sold more often.

SYDNEY - More reporters than protesters were with Canada's leading marijuana advocate on the steps of the Sydney Justice Centre on Thursday.

Marc Emery of British Columbia was in town to stage a pro-pot protest over the 90-day jail sentence handed last month to a Sydney high school student for selling marijuana at a school dance last year.

The protest attracted six major news outlets but only three protesters, local men in their 20s.  Mr.  Emery planned to stay the day extolling the virtues of smoking pot to anyone who would listen.

The millionaire owner of a seed-distribution business said God intended people to use marijuana to improve their lives, then called Judge David Ryan a sadist for sending Wallace Gouthro, 18, to jail.

"He's a bad man who should be withdrawn from the bench and people should protest this terrible thing .  .  .  an act of filthy hypocrisy," Mr.  Emery said.  "I dare say a school dance is a fine place to smoke marijuana .  .  makes you a better dancer."

Mr.  Gouthro was selling $5 bags each containing less than a gram of the drug to fellow students in a washroom during a Sydney Academy dance last fall.  He was caught with 20 bags.

Mr.  Gouthro, who is serving his sentence on weekends, did not show up for Thursday's protest.

Mr.  Emery, who said he wasn't under the influence due to a court order out West, said it should be legal to sell marijuana to teenagers in schools because "it's the safest of all possible substances we can give to young people, and we should encourage them to use marijuana."

He said no one can produce an example of the drug leading to a riot, abuse, family violence, cancer or other health ailments.

"No one ever gets cancer from smoking marijuana exclusively," he said.

Mr.  Emery said the federal government should regulate the sale of marijuana because it's safer than tobacco, which kills thousands of people a year.

"I don't even care if the government grows it as long as it's available so people don't have to deal in the black market and they can get it at a cheap, reasonable price," he said, noting it would be great if everyone could grow it in their garden.

"All the real killers are legal, so let's not be hypocrites here," he said, ranking tobacco, alcohol and obesity as the top health threats.

Mr.  Emery said he smokes marijuana and drives every day and is in good health.

"End the prohibition and make it legal," he said.

Sydney university student David White, one of the protesters, agreed that responsible use should be legal.

"Prohibition doesn't help anything," he said.  "The laws are wrong, we have to change it and it has to start somewhere."

Health Canada is researching the health effects of marijuana in a five-year study that began in 1999.  Several other studies are also underway.

The Health Canada website states: "While there are reports of therapeutic value of smoked marijuana, scientific studies supporting the safety and efficacy of marijuana for therapeutic claims are inconclusive."

Sgt.  Ken McKinnon, head of RCMP drug enforcement in Cape Breton, said that until marijuana is legal, enforcement will continue.

"RCMP supports the laws of the country as they exist," he said.  "We're duty-bound to enforce them."

It is illegal to possess, grow or sell marijuana or drive under its influence, but it's not illegal to smoke it.