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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Canada: OPED: Pot Party Politics
Vancouver Sun (Canada) Friday 24 Nov 2000 Pubdate: Fri, 24 Nov 2000 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Website: http://www.vancouversun.com/ Author: Paul Geddes, Special to the Sun. The author is an instructor of economics at Columbia College, Vancouver; president of the West Coast Libertarian Foundation and the Marijuana party candidate in the riding of Port Moody-Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam. 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.
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