T
The420Guy
Guest
B.C.'s Marijuana Party leader Brian Taylor figures his candidates could
stage a Gordon Wilson-style coup in the May 16 election, moving from
obscurity to stealing a handful of seats, likely in the Kootenays and
Vancouver Island.
"We are beginning to feel the momentum," Taylor said.
Taylor was in Agassiz Thursday to launch his party's health care platform
at Blacksea Organics Health Foods, a store owned by Chilliwack-Kent
candidate David Ferguson.
"We're not proposing we do anything out of the Canadian Health Act," Taylor
said. "We just believe there are different ways of doing things."
Canada's current health care system favours chemical drugs over natural
remedies, including marijuana, largely because natural remedies cannot be
patented by drug companies and controlled for profit, Taylor claimed.
"We need to recognize alternative medicines, ethnic medicines," he said.
New federal rules legalizing marijuana for medical use when all other
options have been exhausted are so restrictive they require users to gain
approval from three medical specialists, in an age where doctors are
overworked, and submit to
searches by "marijuana police, Taylor said.
"Where does the interference end? That's where our federal tax dollars are
going."
Federal drug regulators have restricted the use of several other natural
remedies in the past few years, including the popular golden seal. B.C.
should lead Canadian provinces in legalizing marijuana and ensuring
alternative medications remain unregulated, Taylor said.
However, current Chilliwack-Kent Liberal MLA Barry Penner said the
Marijuana Party is campaigning on issues the provincial government has no
control over because they are regulated by the federal government,
including drug regulations.
"It's a federal issue," Penner said.
Penner said all the provinces can do on the drug issue is lobby the federal
government, adding he and several other Liberal MLAs wrote to federal
health minister Allan Rock last year protesting a proposal to treat herbal
remedies as drugs.
Penner said he agrees any alternative medicine should be readily available
unless it has been proven harmful.
The Marijuana Party's health platform dealt with a handful of other issues.
Taylor said his party would create a harm reduction plan - paying for
preventative techniques to prevent future health care costs - and allow
prescription heroin and cocaine for addicts.
The additional costs of these programs would by funded by tax revenue from
legalized marijuana.
They also want to legalize prostitution so it could be controlled, to "take
victims off the streets" and reduce the spread of disease.
Local party supporters plan to rally in Chilliwack's Area 51 on May 3.
Newshawk: Herb
Source: Agassiz Observer (CN BC)
Box 129 #3 - 7092 Pioneer Avenue, Agassiz, B.C., V0M 1A0 Fax: 604-796-2081
Contact: observer@uniserve.com
Website: Home - Agassiz Harrison Observer
Date: April 27, 2001
stage a Gordon Wilson-style coup in the May 16 election, moving from
obscurity to stealing a handful of seats, likely in the Kootenays and
Vancouver Island.
"We are beginning to feel the momentum," Taylor said.
Taylor was in Agassiz Thursday to launch his party's health care platform
at Blacksea Organics Health Foods, a store owned by Chilliwack-Kent
candidate David Ferguson.
"We're not proposing we do anything out of the Canadian Health Act," Taylor
said. "We just believe there are different ways of doing things."
Canada's current health care system favours chemical drugs over natural
remedies, including marijuana, largely because natural remedies cannot be
patented by drug companies and controlled for profit, Taylor claimed.
"We need to recognize alternative medicines, ethnic medicines," he said.
New federal rules legalizing marijuana for medical use when all other
options have been exhausted are so restrictive they require users to gain
approval from three medical specialists, in an age where doctors are
overworked, and submit to
searches by "marijuana police, Taylor said.
"Where does the interference end? That's where our federal tax dollars are
going."
Federal drug regulators have restricted the use of several other natural
remedies in the past few years, including the popular golden seal. B.C.
should lead Canadian provinces in legalizing marijuana and ensuring
alternative medications remain unregulated, Taylor said.
However, current Chilliwack-Kent Liberal MLA Barry Penner said the
Marijuana Party is campaigning on issues the provincial government has no
control over because they are regulated by the federal government,
including drug regulations.
"It's a federal issue," Penner said.
Penner said all the provinces can do on the drug issue is lobby the federal
government, adding he and several other Liberal MLAs wrote to federal
health minister Allan Rock last year protesting a proposal to treat herbal
remedies as drugs.
Penner said he agrees any alternative medicine should be readily available
unless it has been proven harmful.
The Marijuana Party's health platform dealt with a handful of other issues.
Taylor said his party would create a harm reduction plan - paying for
preventative techniques to prevent future health care costs - and allow
prescription heroin and cocaine for addicts.
The additional costs of these programs would by funded by tax revenue from
legalized marijuana.
They also want to legalize prostitution so it could be controlled, to "take
victims off the streets" and reduce the spread of disease.
Local party supporters plan to rally in Chilliwack's Area 51 on May 3.
Newshawk: Herb
Source: Agassiz Observer (CN BC)
Box 129 #3 - 7092 Pioneer Avenue, Agassiz, B.C., V0M 1A0 Fax: 604-796-2081
Contact: observer@uniserve.com
Website: Home - Agassiz Harrison Observer
Date: April 27, 2001