British Columbia Marijuana Party
The British Columbia Marijuana Party (BCMP) is a minor political party in the Canadian province of British Columbia that advocates the legalisation of cannabis.
The BCMP was formed following the 2000 federal election. Marc Emery, the founder and current president of the party, formed the party the day after the 2000 vote. The BCMP made provincial history during the 2001 provincial election that came six months later, by being the only party to ever field candidates in all of the province’s ridings during their first election campaign.
Brian Taylor served as the party’s first leader during the 2001 provincial election. Taylor had been a prominent cannabis activist and was the former mayor of Grand Forks.
The Marijuana Party was excluded from the televised leaders’ debate, even though they were running more candidates than either the Green Party or the Unity Party, both of which were included. BC Marijuana Party members protested during the televised debate.
In 2001, the party won 51,206 votes, 3.22% of the popular vote.
The party’s current leader is Emery, who also remains as president and chief organizer, despite currently facing extradition to the United States for selling marijuana seeds from Canada by mail-order.
In the 2005 election, the party fielded 44 candidates, who won a total of 11,519 votes, or 0.64% of the province-wide total.
Marijuana Party of Canada
The Marijuana Party is a Canadian federal political party that aims to end prohibition of cannabis. With the exception of this one issue, the party does not have “official policy” in any other area. Thus, Marijuana Party candidates are free to express their own personal views on all other political issues - even if such views contradict the personal opinions of other Marijuana Party candidates or the party leadership.
The party was founded by Marc-Boris St-Maurice, an activist and member of the punk group GrimSkunk. After a 1991 arrest for possession of marijuana, he vowed to legalize cannabis. He started by creating the Bloc pot, a Quebec political party and eventually, as the current law prohibiting the possession of cannabis is a federal law, founded the federal Marijuana Party. On February 28, 2005, St-Maurice announced his intention to join the Liberal Party in order to work for liberalized marijuana laws from within the governing party.
Blair T. Longley became the new party leader following St-Maurice’s resignation.
In the November 2000 federal election, the party nominated candidates in 73 ridings in seven provinces and won 66,419 votes (0.52% of national popular vote). In the June 2004 federal election, the party nominated almost the same number of candidates (71), but won only 33,590 votes (0.25% of the national popular vote). In the January 2006 federal election, the party ran candidates in only 23 ridings and received 9,275 votes (0.06% of the national popular vote). In Nunavut riding, however, the party’s candidate won 7.88% of all ballots cast and finished in fourth place, ahead of the Greens.
The decline in the party’s fortunes can largely be linked to two factors. First, in January 2004, changes were made to Canada’s electoral laws which significantly reduced the fundraising abilities of so-called “fringe” parties including the Marijuana Party of Canada. Second, a number of currently-elected federal political parties, including the Liberal Party of Canada, the Bloc Québécois (Bloc) and the New Democratic Party (NDP), have been making small moves toward decriminalization of the drug. Additionally, the currently-unelected but vastly larger Green Party of Canada also endorses the full legalization of cannabis (in a manner similar to alcohol) as one part of their much broader platform.
The Marijuana Party of Canada could not exist without past victories in court. One such victory made each federal candidate’s $1,000 nomination deposit fully refundable. Another reduced the number of candidates required for official party status from 50 to only 1.
The Marijuana Party is involved in another court case against the Canadian government to challenge the constitutional validity of minimum requirements for taxpayer subsidies. Presently, election financing laws provide $1.91 per vote per year (indexed to inflation) to any party which receives 2% or more in a federal general election. This system provides millions of dollars in support to larger parties while smaller parties receive nothing. This trial ended on July 5, 2006. On October 12, the trial judge ruled in favour of the smaller parties having the right to receive the same quarterly allowances as the bigger parties. This case is indexed as Longley v. Canada (Attorney General). The Crown has appealed and the smaller political parties have cross appealed to the Ontario Court of Appeal on June 27, 2007. A decision in those appeals is expected in the Fall of 2007. The Marijuana Party has potentially the most to either gain, or lose, from the outcome of the appeals in Longley v. Canada (Attorney General).
Marijuana Policy Project
The Marijuana Policy Project, or MPP, is an organization in the United States whose stated aim is to minimize the harm associated with marijuana. MPP advocates taxing and regulating the possession and sale of marijuana, arguing that a regulated industry would separate purchasers from the street market for cocaine, heroin, and other hard drugs.
History -
MPP founders Rob Kampia and Chuck Thomas originally worked at the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML. In 1995, after months of in-fighting, NORML director Richard Cowan fired Kampia, Thomas, and two other staffers who had been pressing Cowan for organizational change. Kampia and Thomas began creating their own organization, implementing the ideas they’d pushed at NORML. On January 25, 1995, the two activists incorporated the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) as a not-for-profit organization in the District of Columbia. MPP has grown to 21,000 members and is the largest marijuana policy reform group in the United States. The organization has 30 staffers and an annual budget of about $4 million, plus a separate $2 million grants program.
