PAYNE PUSHES POT PARTY PLATFORM

STEPHEN PAYNE knows first hand the damage that can be done by Canada's
drug laws.

He's seen them from the wrong side of the prison bars.

He was out on the highway Monday, across from the RCMP station,
holding a sign that bent in the wind as traffic rushed past.

"Free the Drug War POWs" the sign said.

That's the key to Payne's message as he runs in the provincial
election as the Cariboo North candidate for the Marijuana Party.

"There are thousands of people, some of them my friends, who have
spent time in jail for marijuana offences," he said. "The marijuana
laws are very destructive. People lose their families, their friends,
their jobs, and their freedom. It's an abuse of the citizens of
Canada, a travesty of justice."

Payne and his party firmly believe that people should not do jail time
for what is essentially a victimless crime. In fact, he doesn't
believe that marijuana use should be a crime at all.

"No damage is done to anyone, and in most cases it's beneficial," he
said. "In my case, it stimulates my appetite and that's important,
because I've always been underweight. I don't believe anyone deserves
to be in jail for drugs. If there is a problem, it needs to be dealt
with, and prison time is not the way to deal with it. It doesn't solve
anything."

Payne's own brush with the pot laws came in Oakville, Ontario, when,
at a party, he was using marijuana for recreational reasons and
decided to step outside. At that point, authorities moved in.

"The police in a cruiser saw me and decided to do a U-turn," he said.
"I spent about a month in prison before my girlfriend bailed me out.
It wasn't pleasant. I was in there, living with maniacs, afraid for my
life at all times. There was a guy in protective custody while I was
there who was killed, and I had no protection whatsoever."

Noting that he lost his job as a security guard because of the
incident, Payne stressed that it is the laws against marijuana, not
the use of marijuana itself that causes the damage to society.

Indeed, were marijuana to be legalized, he said, there would be many
benefits to society as a whole.

"It would be a huge new industry that could be taxed," he said. "That
would help to subsidize health care and education."

Although he has spent much of his life in Ontario, Payne moved to
Vancouver some five years ago, and then to Quesnel two years ago.

He decided to take a stand in the current provincial election because
he realized that nobody else would.

"I've been involved in these issues for some time in Ontario, and I
noticed that nothing was being done here, so I called party president
Mark Emery and told him I would run," he said.

Besides the drug issue, the Marijuana Party has other planks to its
platform.

"We are against the gun registry as well," he said. "Particularly in
the rural areas, people need to protect themselves."

Anyone who would like to work on his campaign can contact Payne at
992-7610.