VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) - Marijuana Party officials kicked off their campaign in a British Columbia provincial election in a smoke-filled room at an art gallery here. Campaign manager Kirk Tousaw told about 1,000 people at the rally Wednesday that Marijuana is anything but a fringe group. "The majority of the people in this province smoke marijuana or have smoked marijuana," Tousaw said. "So either they're criminals or we're mainstream." 
The party's main platform for the balloting on May 17 is to wrest control of marijuana from Ottawa. | "Don't bogart that joint, Ottawa." |
"The provinces need to take over control, take back control from organized crime and begin to regulate and tax the marijuana industry," Tousaw said. | Bingo! Regulate and Tax, the key words that doom any plan to "legalize drugs". You have just priced your legal product higher than the street drugs and will still have the police busting people for buying and selling "untaxed" drugs, just as they do with cigarettes. |
Some in attendance said they didn't know the event had anything to do with politics. | "Politics? Oh wow, man, we just came for the bud" |
Pot smoking at the museum has been an annual event on April 20 for about a decade. The Marijuana Party plans to run candidates in 40 of the 79 legislative districts for the elections and asserted that Marijuana is anything but a fringe group. | "Fringes? Nah man, no fringes. Maybe a few tie-dyed shirts and bell-bottoms, nobody has worn fringes since....what was the question?" |
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