BC Marijuana Party platform

The British Columbia Marijuana Party:

A Commitment To Cannabis And Justice

The BC Marijuana Party believes that democratic societies such as Canada should allow for and provide individuals with the most freedom possible. The only legitimate criminal prohibitions relating to individual conduct are those necessary to prevent significant harm being done unto others.

Marijuana prohibition is unjust and illegitimate, and must be repealed. The persecution of the cannabis community has had terrible consequences. We have criminalized millions of our fellow Canadians merely because they prefer cannabis to coffee, or wine. Along the way, we've spent millions of taxpayer dollars trying to stomp out drugs, succeeding only in creating a vast black market economy. Marijuana prohibition does not reduce demand, nor does it reduce supply.

Prohibition is a completely failed social policy, yet our leaders – including the BC Liberal government – are not advocating for repeal. Instead, they want to ramp up prohibition, jail more people, seize more homes, take more children from parents, perpetuate anti-drug lies: simply put, a US-style War on Drugs, in Canada.

This prohibitionist campaign does not end at persecuting merely the cannabis culture – other marginalized groups are victims of societal intolerance. The BCMP is ready to stand up for their rights. We are a party of inclusion. We respect people and our differences. We believe in justice.

The BCMP also believes that government has a responsibility to the people, and must be accountable, because without accountability democracy becomes a tyranny run by the privileged minority, corporations, lobbyists, and big party machines. When a majority of Canadians favor reforming our marijuana laws but their wishes are ignored by the government, we have a party in power that is not accountable to the people.

In British Columbia, it is time for change. The Liberal government should be calling for cannabis legalization, as marijuana is BC's biggest cash crop and a substantial number of residents earn their living in the cannabis trade. Canna-tourism is flourishing as BC's reputation for combining a beautiful tolerant environment spreads throughout the world – yet our friends and family continue to be persecuted and jailed, and instead of calling for their release, the BC Liberal government is scheming up new ways to persecute our culture and increasing funding for anti-marijuana initiatives. This must stop, and the BCMP is here to ensure that it does.

With your help, we can win the fight and Canada can become an example for tolerant, compassionate, and fact-based cannabis policy.

Our Platform for British Columbia


Addressing the issues that BC citizens are most concerned about


ECONOMY
• Tax and regulate marijuana and other illegal drugs, and use the funding for housing, hospitals, schools, and transit
• Move the underground economy from criminal control into the legitimate economy by making illegal drugs legal
• Stop spending money on police drug enforcement, and re-prioritize budgets to focus on better law enforcement (identity theft, violent assaults, gun crime)
• Offer tax incentives to help the forestry industry convert to hemp manufacturing and production, and produce materials domestically
• Spend less on prison expansion, and more on homes, hospitals, and schools
• Become the leading country in producing hemp, the most renewable and sustainable resource, for jobs in manufacturing and industry

ENVIRONMENT & ENERGY
• Become the leading industrial nation in producing hemp ethanol, plastics, concrete and building materials
• Invest in hemp technology to keep energy production and manufacturing jobs in Canada
• Cut down on carbon emissions by using hemp fuel and solar power
• Utilize hemp instead of trees for making paper products (toilet paper, paper towels, tissues, writing and copy paper) to save and protect our forests

HEALTH CARE
• Change illegal drugs from being a legal issue into a health issue
• Reduce illegal drug addict visits to hospitals by creating substance maintenance programs and expanding the supervised injection site facility
• Eliminate disease spread and death from unsafe drug use by getting users in maintenance programs and providing a safe supply of controlled-dose drugs
• Release non-violent drug offenders from prisons and use the money to open up new hospital and long-term care beds for patients
• Expand medical marijuana research and begin licensing and regulating compassion clubs/medical marijuana dispensaries
• Create a safe and secure indoor production site for licensed medical marijuana patients to grow their medicine without fear of home invasion
• Reopen Riverview Hospital to provide safe immediate housing for the most at-risk in society, including the poor, women, and minorities
• Use the taxes from marijuana sales to build more hospitals, cover medical expenses of the growing elderly population, provide drugs for addicts through maintenance programs, and supply other essential drugs like insulin
• End prescription requirements for adults who regularly use the same drugs, which would save millions of dollars by reducing expensive doctor prescription refill visits

CRIME & GANGS
• Get rid of gangs and organized crime by legalizing and regulating illegal drugs, which would remove their financial incentive and shift the enormous drug trade profit to the legitimate financial markets
• Stop public shootings and targeted hits by people involved in the drug trade
• End the spread of grow-operations and drug labs by creating a safe, secure and regulated industry for producing and distributing drugs properly
• Reduce home invasions, property crime, and prostitution by removing the need to engage in criminal acts to get illegal drugs
• Help the poor and addicted get into treatment and maintenance programs
• Prevent young people from joining gangs and getting drawn into the drug trade
• Release non-violent drug offenders from prisons to keep space open for truly violent, dangerous and/or repeat offenders
• Pardon the millions of Canadians who have simple marijuana possession on their criminal record so they can travel and hold a job without problems
• Clean up the Downtown Eastside by getting addicted people into maintenance programs and treatment, and eliminating the open drug trade
• Eliminate drug sales to minors

JUSTICE & POLICE
• Stop the use of Tasers by police
• Require police to undergo regular mental health screening, and ensure officers complete anger management courses if any acts of brutality are documented
• Abolish the RCMP in British Columbia and establish a provincial police force
• Create an independent police complaints office to review and respond to problems
• Release non-violent drug offenders from prisons and better monitor and rehabilitate the violent and/or dangerous criminals released into society
• Shift police resources from drug enforcement to law enforcement
• Refrain from convicting anyone for possession to free up court time and jail space
• Move drug squad officers from “grow busting” to murder and gang investigation
• End police and judicial corruption
• Advocate for rehabilitative justice instead of punitive justice
• Focus on victim compensation, and rehabilitating offenders


Do you have any concerns that were not covered?
Please contact us an express your thoughts! We would love to incorporate more of the issues that matter to you, the voter.


Marc@CannabisCulture.com
Jodie@CannabisCulture.com