POT PARTY POLITICS

VOTE MARIJUANA: Why would a relatively straight college prof run on the
cannabis campaign trail? It's all about liberty and personal responsibility.

Most people would label me a straight-laced, conservative, boring
book-reader. And yet in this federal election, not only am I supporting the
Marijuana party, I am actually a candidate for it here in B.C.

Many friends and family members are astonished. After all, I am a college
economics instructor, married for over 20 years, with two children in a
private Christian elementary school. And my idea of a celebration consists
of (at most) an occasional beer. So why the Marijuana party?

Because I think drug prohibition is just plain wrong. Since none of the
other parties seems to want to do anything about it, I've got to put my life
where my mouth is.

Isn't it time that Canadians listened to advice from Milton Friedman, George
Soros, The Economist and others of similar calibre?

The war against drugs is really a war against personal choice and
responsibility. If you value your remaining liberties, get out of your
armchairs, get down to the polling station and cast a ballot for the
Marijuana party.

Let's review some of the arguments:

- - Prohibition isn't stopping drug usage. Despite gobs of taxes wasted on
enforcement, drugs are easily available.

- - Prohibition is increasing the role of violence in drug vending. Criminals
can't compete against legal businesses that know how to serve customers with
the best product at the best price. But when a product is declared illegal,
customers can't make legal contracts with legitimate businessmen and
violence begins to have a comparative advantage.

- - Most importantly, prohibition is destroying the philosophical
underpinnings of a voluntary, cooperative society. In the name of caring for
us, the government jails us, invades our property, body-searches us,
monitors our financial transactions just to root out consenting adults from
choosing an alternative recreational option or to stop voluntary peaceful
commercial transactions between willing buyers and willing sellers.

At public meetings in my riding, I find that I have to keep making the same
points over and over again.

First, the freedom to be allowed to use drugs does not mean that you have to
use them. There are many legal activities in Canada that I would strongly
urge you to stay away from -- the music of Madonna, David Suzuki sermons or
eating cabbage. All are harmful to thinking minds, but I would never
advocate making any such distasteful activities illegal. To each his own.

In the same manner, even when drugs are legal, there will still be many
helpful saints who will support addicts trying to refrain from drug usage.
The difference being, if drugs were legal, these helpers would have to
respect the addicts' rights to make their own decisions about life.

Second, if we take away from people the right to make a wrong choice, we
give them no credit for making the good choices in life. If drug taking is
about morality, why do so many Canadians think that the flawed characters
who sit in Ottawa should be allowed to make our moral choices for us? And
how can we learn responsibility if the government, like an overbearing
parent, is constantly watching over us to make sure we don't make any
unapproved choices?

Third, I keep having to respond to the claim that marijuana is dangerous.
Well, so what? Many things in life have risks. Anyone who has lived in B.C.
for the last 10 years has much stronger scientific evidence that voting for
the New Democratic Party is much more dangerous for your health than
marijuana could ever be. Should we lock up all the irresponsible NDP
supporters? No. As with other risky behaviour, we must keep appealing to
people's better senses and hope that they will eventually learn from their
past mistakes.

In this election, I want to strike a blow for individual freedom,
self-responsibility and for the virtues of private property and
entrepreneurship.

Do you want to support one of the mainstream parties who differ with each
other only in how they want to control your life?

Send a real message to Ottawa that you are tired of politics as usual, and
in one part of your life at least you just want the traditional politicians
to go away. To paraphrase a recently deceased prime minister: The state
should have no role to play in our choice of peaceful social lubricants and
psychological crutches.

Choose freedom. Vote Marijuana.