By James Connolly Editor NEXUS ’87

A GREAT SUCCESS is not an exaggeration of the first yearbook meet- ing. Sixteen keen year- bookers were at the meet- ing, and the preparations for this year’s yearbook were underway. The new editor, Karen Hughes, has a competent staff to work with, and with a new pub- lisher this year, we ex- pect NEXUS ’88 to be the best yearbook ever put out at UPEI. To be part of the experience, join the staff or volunteer a little of your time. Find out more by stopping by at the next meeting Thursday 24 Sep 87 at 5:30pm in our

new office (shared with The GEM). We’re now located in the basement of the Util- ity Building (the security building) which is located behind both the rink and the cafeteria. No previous yearbook experience is re- quired. So drop in this evening at 5:30 or later to our office.

The 1987 NEXUS (last year’s yearbook) is not yet available. The earliest the book will be available is mid-December (or in the spring). Several problems led to'this delay.

Last year’s editor [me] wasn’t sent to a training conference over the sum- mer, so the book got off toa

The Yearbook

late start. This meant that only a small staff was avail- able. The publisher’s rep- resentative was replaced in September ’87 by a brand new fellow who was subse- quently fired for failing to communicate properly with the yearbook staffs around the Maritimes. To compli- cate matters, Main build- ing was moved, and in the process all.of the yearbook materials (photos, layout - & design mats, and office supplies) were locked away from mid-April until the first of July. Since then, slow but steady work on the book has been underway.

To that point I would like

to add something. Work to cover many on-campus activities has drawn to a practical halt. Except for the debating team, the biol- ogy club, and the engineer- ing society, no other on- campus organization both-

/ered to get in touch with

the yearbook staff or sup- ply agendae of upcoming events. It is a rather unfair situation when a group ig- nores the yearbook all year long, and then has the gaul to ask why their organiza- tion wasn’t “properly” cov- ered in the yearbook. I re- ‘ally wonder.

I can add one note of hope to this: all campus- organizations,

Student fights for right to grow pot on campus

VANCOUVER (CUP) — University of British Columbia’s self-proclaimed “professional : troublemaker” is going to court to fight for what he considers his constitutional right to cultivate marijuana on campus.

Long-time student Blair Longley thinks people should be able to get a li- cence to cultivate cannabis for personal consumption.

Longley said laws pro- hibiting cultiva- tion of cannabis contradict Section One .of the Char- ter of Rights, which says le- gal limitations on personal freedoms must be “reason- able and demonstrably jus-

tified in a democratic soci- ety.”

“The question at hand is whether or not it’s rea- sonable to sentence some- one to jail for seven years’ for growing the cannabis plant,” said Longley.

“If anybody listens to the arguments it’s impossi- ble to think that it’s reason- able and justified. It ap-

Pears crazy and bizarre,” he said.

Longley said he is happy to be going to court as. it will finally give ] im a platform to express his views.

To protest the drug aws, he has been openly

‘

growing marijuana in com- munity gardens at Simon Fraser University and UBC since the Charter came down in 1982. He said police have often destroyed

' his crop but have been re-

luctant to lay charges.

Longley said marijuana is not dangerous enough to justify the degree of crimi- nality attached to it.

“The law would be rea- sonable if it (pot) drove people delirious until they died, but it’s not that way,” he said.

“Tobacco’s more poi-

. sonous, more addictive, and

a worse substance to smoke. (Cannabis)...is not toxic, nor does it become physi- ologically addictive.”

Cannabis is only harm- ful if smoked, as is any sub- stance, said Longley. And] though he admits cultiva- tion implies consumption, Longley claims his fight is not to legalize smoking the drug.

“The smoking is irrele- vant,” he said. “What I’m saying is that it should be legal to grow it in your gar- den.” Longley prefers his pot in omelets, and said eating it is “nutritious.”

Longley says it is hyp- ocritical to make cannabis illegal when opium poppies and other narcotic herbs are freely grown and legally

available through seed cat- alogues.

Because gardeners can legally grow poppies as long as opium is not produced, “the é parallel situation would be you could grow cannabis as long as you weren’t produc- ing hash,” he said.

Longley said he also op- poses marijuana laws be- cause they are the product of racist policies:

Marijuana, along with opium, was first outlawed in Canada not because of medical dangers but to per- secute the Chinese and de- ter immigration, said Long- ley.

Racist sentiment against the Chi- nese was strong in the early 1900s and many elements of their culture, including opium and Indian hemp, were made illegal, he said.

“Tt is possible to make a case that it was rational to prevent Chinese immi- gration, and one of the tools was making various parts of their culture illegal,” said Longley. Even though the original reason for it is ob- solete, “it’s a tool of per- secution that’s still operat- ing,” he said. ©

The Narcotics Control Act prohibiting the use of opium and other drugs, in- cluding Indian hemp, was

passed in 1923. In the same year, the passage of the

Chinese Immigration Act placed a head tax on Chi- nese immigrants. ~- 3s

151A St. 892-9995

no matter how big or how small, should make them- selves known to the year- book staff. A quick memo (sent for FREE through campus mail) to us at UPEI YEARBOOK will let know that you exist, and

will encourage us to get in touch with your representi-

tive. Do it soon, or your group simply won’t be cov- ered in this year’s yearbook either; and that would be a disgrace to both the editor and the society involved. «=

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