cannabisnews.com: Pot Advocate Aims for Mayor's Chair





Pot Advocate Aims for Mayor's Chair
Posted by CN Staff on May 02, 2002 at 16:48:41 PT
By Jeremy Sandler, Vancouver Sun 
Source: Vancouver Sun 
Marc Emery, president of the British Columbia Marijuana Party, would fire Vancouver's entire police force and deliver heroin and cocaine to addicts in their homes if his candidacy for Vancouver's top job is successful.Emery, an outspoken pot advocate who bills himself as the world's largest vendor of marijuana seeds and is the publisher of Cannabis Culture magazine, took out $25,000 worth of advertising in today's newspapers to announce he is running for mayor and to outline his campaign.
In an interview at a pro-pot rally Wednesday, he described what Vancouver would look like if he was the mayor's chair."What I am proposing is a radical change," he said. "We give out heroin free to heroin addicts and we deliver it to their door in needles already sterilized and quantified. That way they don't need to come down to the Downtown Eastside. Women won't need to prostitute themselves for these drugs, people won't get plucked off the streets in the same numbers, people won't be spreading diseases -- as a result of their need for drugs -- prostituting themselves and we'll get rid of the whole underpinning of organized crime by giving out the heroin and cocaine for free."And then, furthermore, what we've got to do is replace the entire police force," Emery added. "Give them one year's severance pay and just say, 'Thanks, but you're not what we need.' Then you'd simply hire the best police officers from around the world on contract, not in a unionized force and you'd pay them more and you'd have a much higher standard of accountability."Asked about the feasibility of firing every officer Emery said: "It needs to be done, so it will have to be done. Nothing will change until then."An assistant to Emery said the party plans to run a full slate of candidates for council and the park board, and will help like-minded candidates around B.C.Emery also ran for Vancouver mayor in 1996, garnering 1,125 votes and finishing fourth, beating out candidates like Zippy the Circus Chimp, Barb E. Doll and Frank the moose, but well behind the winner, outgoing Mayor Philip Owen. In last year's provincial election, Emery's Marijuana Party ran a full slate of 79 candidates, including Emery in Vancouver-Burrard, but failed to win a single seat.Emery said on other issues, he favours less taxation, less government and more individual freedoms.He believes Vancouver is ready for his platform and it's better than what will come from the mainstream candidates."Jennifer Clarke is just the same colourless ... clone of Philip Owen," he said. "There's no difference except they have a sex difference, but there's no difference in style, belief. I don't know if that makes Vancouverites excited. I don't know why it should."Clarke, the favourite to be the ruling NPA's mayoral candidate in the election, said she welcomes all candidates into the fray, but questioned Emery's commitment to civic politics."I am not sure how serious Marc is -- he has tended to be a one-issue candidate," she said. "I think the citizens of Vancouver want a mayor who has a balanced approach and someone who will take care of a whole range of issues that the citizens want addressed, not simply focusing himself on selling marijuana seeds."While saying he's serious about his campaign, Emery laughed heartily when asked if he'd change his name to Ernest Jane if he won, making his official title Mayor E. Jane."I've got to remember that if I ever write a satire on pot," he said.Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)Author: Jeremy Sandler, Vancouver Sun Published: Thursday, May 02, 2002Copyright: 2002 Vancouver Sun Contact: sunletters pacpress.southam.caWebsite: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/Related Articles & Web Sites: BC Marijuana Partyhttp://www.bcmarijuanaparty.ca/Police Raid Marc Emery http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12159.shtmlMarc Emery: I'm My Adversaries Worst Nightmarehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11403.shtml 
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Comment #1 posted by E_Johnson on May 02, 2002 at 23:21:35 PT
Join the Partnership for a Pun Free Media
While saying he's serious about his campaign, Emery laughed heartily when asked if he'd change his name to Ernest Jane if he won, making his official title Mayor E. Jane."I've got to remember that if I ever write a satire on pot," he said.
Every day American journalists are writing satires on pot but unfortunately their editors keep trying to pass them off as serious news.
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