MARIJUANA PARTY OF CANADA - PRESS RELEASE: JUST WHAT IS STEPHEN HARPER SMOKING ANYWAY? 12-03-05


* Conservative Party is out of touch with Canadians on the marijuana issue

* Crackdown on marijuana is one U.S. import Canadians don’t want

For further information, please contact:

Tim Meehan – Candidate, Ottawa South election@timmeehan.ca 613-230-1937

Russell Barth and Christine Lowe – Federal Medical Marijuana Exemptees kegan23@sympatico.ca 613-761-6504

OTTAWA –Stephen Harper's Alliance-Conservatives want to import the failed, regressive US drug war to Canada. Is this what Canadians really want? A 2004 SES poll found that 57% of Canadians want marijuana users in Canada left alone [1]. While even the Liberals, with their lackluster attempts at easing some marijuana penalties, have pledged a crackdown on marijuana 'crime' by irrationally focusing on indoor grow-ops, there is a disconnect between their pronunciations and reality. After all, Health Canada-licensed grow-ops for medical marijuana patients are up and operating coast to coast to coast to coast.

Even if marijuana is eventually decriminalized, the product has to come from somewhere, and any push to tackle grow-ops (the vast majority of which are operated, contrary to police assertions, by people not involved with outlaw motorcycle gangs, Asian gangs, and other 'real’ criminals) will impact ordinary Canadians. Medical marijuana patients, whom have problems accessing the onerous and questionably constitutional Health Canada program right now, will bear the brunt of police action.

"To get truly dangerous non-medical drugs off our streets, Canadian voters need to ignore Stephen Harper's phony rhetoric which will not help tackling the truly serious problems with the truly dangerous drugs lumped in with marijuana, for example, crystal meth production, dealing and addiction, but in fact make it worse," said Tim Meehan, Marijuana Party of Canada candidate for Ottawa South.

"Diverting resources from treatment and harm reduction," continued Meehan, "into enforcement to target peaceful marijuana growers -- the vast majority of which are simply not organized, and who most Canadians feel are about as criminal as jaywalkers -- is simply bad public policy."

"The 30 Years War On Drugs that the United States has waged has been, according to their own statistics, a colossal failure, and making political points on the drug issue will only worsen the situation and attract and entrench the truly criminal element." said Meehan. "With increased penalties come increased profits. Has Stephen Harper ever heard of a man from Chicago named Al Capone?"

Ottawa Medical Marijuana Exemptees Russell Barth and Christine Lowe echo Meehan's concerns. "Drug dealers across the country are probably popping bottles of champagne! Mr. Harper must love organized crime and gun violence as much as he hates the idea of generating $3 billion in annual tax revenue," said Barth, a sufferer of fibromyalgia. "Stephen Harper's archaic ideas about 'getting tough' on drug dealers are not only misguided, but completely absurd. Mandatory minimums have failed in the U.S., and they will fail even worse here."

Barth also points out that "the more we 'crack down', the stiffer the competition for those that we don’t catch, which will only drive up the illegal profits and the gun-violence. The streets of Canada in 2006 will look like the streets of Chicago in the 1930’s: Police out-numbered and out-armed, and the streets awash with the blood of young people.” "I am absolutely terrified of a Tory victory in this election, which would put my life at risk," said Lowe, who suffers from severe epilepsy.

The Martin Liberals aren't very far behind Harper. Meehan points out that the substandard Health Canada marijuana grown in Manitoba has been widely criticized and is "absolutely the very worst cannabis I have ever seen, let alone used," according to Barth.

"Any dealer attempting to sell this product on the street would be laughed at or even shot. It doesn't even look like marijuana," said Lowe.

"Canadians expect more from a political party like the Conservatives who ostensibly champion economics. The War on Marijuana, which simply wastes money by trying to socially engineer unreceptive Canadians who choose marijuana over martinis, is as about politically popular in Canada as is the support for the War in Iraq.

According to Auditor-General Shelia Fraser, the policy costs billions per year with little tangible results. I intend on raising the issue with my Conservative opponent Allan Cutler – no stranger to the opposition of government waste," concluded Meehan. “It seems clear that Harper is trying to score points with the White House, and is willing to alienate Canadian voters to do so," said Barth.

© 2005 H.U.M.A.N.: Hemp Users Medical Access Network - Toronto Medical Marijuana