MANN STEPS UP FOR POT

When voters mark their ballots in the upcoming May 17 provincial
election in the Alberni-Qualicum constituency, one of the choices
they'll have before them will be to vote for the B.C. Marijuana Party.

Candidate selection organizer Kirk Tousant made the announcement this
week, noting that former federal Marijuana Party candidate Michael
(Mick) Mann will represent the party. As yet, he says, the party does
not have a candidate identified in the Nanaimo-Parksville
constituency, although the search for one is continuing.

Speaking from his home in Port Alberni, Mann says his focus, like that
of his party, will be on the marijuana issue, although he stresses
that it touches on many others of concern to British Columbians.

"I'm going to try to get the message out that marijuana is safe and
could be a large benefit to the community, both in the financial area,
as the province is missing out on a lot of revenue, and for health,
because it can be quite helpful in alleviating a lot of people's
health problems," Mann says. "I want to show this is an acceptable way
to treat certain illnesses and I want to point out the lies the
Liberal government have been making about it - such as about how it is
traded pound for pound for cocaine in the United States and is one of
the reasons for guns coming into the province."

Rather than marijuana being the bane of communities, he says, it's the
prohibition against it that's causing all the problems. "With
prohibition you create a black market," he says. "If you take that
away then the price comes down and organized crime is not interested
and it becomes a non-issue. There's no money in it for organized crime
to get involved."

Hemp farming, he says, is also something that could be of benefit to
Vancouver Island, with three fibre crops able to be harvested on the
same piece of ground every year, rather than one crop of trees every
30 or more years. This, he says, would allow for more employment and
would be more environmentally sustainable.

"I really feel we are missing out," he says. "It's a win-win
situation. Hemp can be used for textiles, food and building materials.
Hemp oil can even be used to run cars, while hemp fibre lasts three
times as long as cotton."