[420 Girl]

Not legalizing marijuana is costing billions, says the Marijuana Party candidate in the Shuswap riding, and that's why he's running for office.

"I'm running to keep the discussion about pot honest," says candidate Chris Emery, running for a second consecutive time in this riding.

"I want the message to get out, not just to the general public, but to our next representative in the legislature. Re-legalize it - it used to be legal, we need to regulate and tax it. Right now we spend billions chasing folks like me around, yet we leave billions of tax dollars on the table. That's a double whammy. It's the economics."

Emery says the fact that marijuana is illegal fuels gangs.

"It's the lifeblood of gangs and the violence that it brings on. They ended alcohol prohibition and with it went bathtub gin, Al Capone and the Purple Gang."

Emery has been a Sorrento resident since 1995 and works full-time as an instrument electrical control systems technologist.

Emery says he stepped down after eight years on the executive of the South Shuswap Chamber of Commerce and two years as president in order to run.

He said after writing a couple of newspaper articles on pot prohibition and receiving positive feedback, he decided in 2005 to enter the political arena.

http://www.420magazine.com/forums/in...ks-honest.html