Mann steps up for pot
By: Neil Horner, Parksville Qualicum Beach News (CN BC), 04-08-05


When voters mark their ballots in the upcoming May 17 provincial election in the Alberni-Qualicum constituency, one of the choices they'll have before them will be to vote for the B.C. Marijuana Party.

Candidate selection organizer Kirk Tousant made the announcement this week, noting that former federal Marijuana Party candidate Michael (Mick) Mann will represent the party. As yet, he says, the party does not have a candidate identified in the Nanaimo-Parksville constituency, although the search for one is continuing.

Speaking from his home in Port Alberni, Mann says his focus, like that of his party, will be on the marijuana issue, although he stresses that it touches on many others of concern to British Columbians.

"I'm going to try to get the message out that marijuana is safe and could be a large benefit to the community, both in the financial area, as the province is missing out on a lot of revenue, and for health, because it can be quite helpful in alleviating a lot of people's health problems," Mann says. "I want to show this is an acceptable way to treat certain illnesses and I want to point out the lies the Liberal government have been making about it - such as about how it is traded pound for pound for cocaine in the United States and is one of the reasons for guns coming into the province."

Rather than marijuana being the bane of communities, he says, it's the prohibition against it that's causing all the problems.
"With prohibition you create a black market," he says. "If you take that away then the price comes down and organized crime is not interested and it becomes a non-issue. There's no money in it for organized crime to get involved."

Hemp farming, he says, is also something that could be of benefit to Vancouver Island, with three fibre crops able to be harvested on the same piece of ground every year, rather than one crop of trees every 30 or more years. This, he says, would allow for more employment and would be more environmentally sustainable.

"I really feel we are missing out," he says. "It's a win-win situation. Hemp can be used for textiles, food and building materials. Hemp oil can even be used to run cars, while hemp fibre lasts three times as long as cotton."

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