IS THE MARIJUANA PARTY GOING UP IN SMOKE?

Defection Of Members, Changing Views May Render Party Obsolete

Heathcliff Campbell came very close to dropping out of the federal
election race. Last week, the Marijuana Party of Canada candidate for
Vancouver Centre was approached by marijuana activist Marc Emery, who
tried to convince Campbell to throw his support toward New Democrat
candidate Svend Robinson. Campbell admits Emery made a convincing argument.

"I agree that there shouldn't be division in the ranks," says
Campbell. "It's even more disconcerting for the public at large to
see the two [marijuana] parties not united. That can cause confusion
in people's minds- and the public might be disillusioned with both of
them and decide their support is best put elsewhere, and certainly
that's not my aim."

After enjoying some initial success when it first splashed onto the
national scene in the 2000 federal election, the Marijuana Party of
Canada is now struggling for survival. The party has suffered from
high-level defections and public disagreements with its provincial
counterpart, and as the major political parties adopt a more liberal
stance on cannabis, the Marijuana Party of Canada may no longer even
be relevant.

In the 2004 election, the federal Marijuana Party attracted 0.2 per
cent of the national vote, down from 0.5 per cent in the 2000 election.

This year the party is running only 23 candidates, after having run
at least 70 in the previous two elections. Its founding leader,
Marc-Boris St-Maurice, quit the party last year to join the Liberal
party. Now, the B.C. Marijuana Party has thrown its support behind
the federal NDP party.

However, the Marijuana Party's few surviving members say it still has
a place in Canadian politics. With some of the major parties
proposing varying degrees of decriminalization (the Conservative
party wants tougher laws), the Marijuana Party is still one of the
few voices advocating full legalization.

Campbell's platform is unique to any other candidate in his riding.
Aside from full legalization, he says marijuana should be distributed
to people who can demonstrate a genuine medical need for the drug;
hemp should be used as a cash crop for farmers to revitalize the
rural industry; and he wants to turn his campaign office into a
compassion club -- something other Marijuana Party candidates have
tried in past elections without success.

It's for these reasons that Campbell says he's decided to stick it
out for the election. Even so, it's officially too late to withdraw
his name from the ballot.

"I'm simply offering voters another choice out there," says Campbell,
"because some people feel it's just too much to come right out and
openly support the federal Marijuana Party candidate. So this way
they've got the alternate choice in Svend Robinson and the NDP."

But Campbell's decision is little conciliation for Emery, who ran as
a federal Marijuana Party candidate in Vancouver Centre in the 2000
election, but has been campaigning for the federal NDP party since 2003.

However, Robinson's campaign manager says they have had no contact with Emery.

One of Canada's most prominent marijuana activists, Emery is
currently facing extradition charges to the United States for selling
marijuana seeds. He says the Vancouver Centre race will come down to
the wire between Robinson and the Liberal's Hedy Fry, and the NDP
needs every vote it can get.

"I'm disappointed that [the Marijuana Party] is, in fact, running
candidates," says Emery. "Unfortunately, they're all eccentrics,
typically, and they're all doing it for alternative reasons- and
can't possibly provide any benefit to the marijuana community by
running." (Earlier this week, Emery became the target of an
investigation by Elections Canada for failing to register as a
third-party advisor for the NDP; a website he recently launched,
eNDProhibition.ca, openly endorses the party. If found guilty, he
could face jail time, but most likely he will just be fined.)

Emery says the NDP and the Green party have the most progressive
policies on marijuana. The NDP wants amnesty for past possession
convictions, reduction of fines for personal possession, and
non-punitive measures for personal cultivation. The Green party wants
to regulate marijuana as a product similar to alcohol and tobacco.

Both parties did not support the Liberal government's proposed
decriminalization bill, which would fine people caught with less than
15 grams of pot. That bill would have withheld criminal charges while
doubling the length of prison time for convicted growers. The bill
died with the fall of the Liberal government.

But the Liberals' move toward decriminalization and the stronger
support from the other parties, including the Bloc Quebecois, has
turned marijuana legalization from a fringe issue into a mainstream
policy. That could mean the Marijuana Party of Canada may have served
its purpose and is no longer needed.

"I think the event will overtake [the Marijuana Party]," says Stephen
Easton, a professor of economics for Simon Fraser University, who
wrote a report for the Fraser Institute on marijuana growth in B.C.
"The fact is that so many people have used marijuana and aren't
screaming, slobbering lunatics. Eventually, this generation that has
familiarity with marijuana will come to power, at which point
[legalization] will just happen."

The Marijuana Party is running two candidates in Vancouver:
Heathcliff Campbell in Vancouver Centre and Marc Boyer in Vancouver Quadra.