POT ADVOCATE AIMS FOR MAYOR'S CHAIR

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.