The Marijuana Party is a Canadian federal political party that aims to end prohibition of cannabis.

The party was founded by Marc-Boris St-Maurice, an activist and member of the punk group Grim Skunk. 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 party. On February 28, 2005, party leader and founder St-Maurice announced that he is joining 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 2000 federal elections, the party nominated candidates in 73 ridings in 7 provinces and won 66,000 votes (0.52% of national total). It nominated 71 candidates for the 2004 general election and won 33,590 votes (0.3%). The decline may be at least partly due to the fact that the Liberal Party of Canada, the Bloc Québécois (Bloc) and the New Democratic Party (NDP) have been moving towards decriminalization of the drug.

Some party members were said to be considering endorsing the NDP because of its liberal stand on marijuana laws during the last campaign.

Party platform

From the Marijuana Party's "Complete platform, Adopted in April 2002":

• Demonstrate the social advantages to ending cannabis prohibition
• Develop and integrate legislation to legalize cannabis
• Amend the Canada Elections Act in order to offer solutions to the parliamentary representation deficit.
• Defend the victims of cannabis prohibition
• Promote international policy -- ending cannabis prohibition in Canada and subsequently pressure the international community into acting responsibly by adopting similar policies.
• Offer immediate access to medical cannabis

Provincial parties

In addition to the Bloc Pot party in Quebec, Marijuana Parties have several separate provincial counterparts, most notably, the British Columbia Marijuana Party which received over 3% of the vote in the 2001 provincial election, and the Marijuana Party of Nova Scotia . The Bloc Pot and the Federal Marijuana Party work together, however, the B.C. Marijuana Party and the Federal Marijuana Party do not work together.

External link

• Marijuana Party of Canada Official Website