Marc Emery on his candidacy for Mayor of Vancouver (November 15th election)

A survey I filled out is supposed to show up on the Vancouver sun website soon. Here are some of my answers.

My major vision for Vancouver is the unilateral Repeal of Prohibition. Repealing prohibition and organizing a safe, taxed, regulated and transparent drug distribution structure under the aegis of the City of Vancouver will immediately impact on Crime Gang activity, homelessness, property crime directed at tourist vehicles and local homes, prostitution, and street disorder and decay in the downtown east side.

With addicts and the mentally ill accessing clean, quantified drugs under supervised and regulated conditions, our ability to help them rebuild their lives will be greatly improved. They will no longer need to steal for drugs. Women will be able to exit the street prostitution used currently to pay for their drugs. Without the profits of illegal drugs, the gangs will disintegrate and no longer be an attractive option for teenagers looking for lucrative money prospects.

Addicts who see that their drugs are available without crime or crime gangs will begin to re-establish themselves as potential employees and have a normalized daily lifestyle. Addicts will no longer be contributing to decay and street disorder in the downtown eastside.

The federal government's insistence on prohibition only assures that our city will see more crime and street disorder. Therefore, the Mayor must act boldly and usurp this responsibility from the federal politicians who with their policy of prohibition support organized crime.

The 2010 Vancouver Olympics will proceed amidst a worldwide recession. All the Olympic facilities are over budget and will leave a shocking financial hangover to the City and Province. Revenue for the Olympics will be way below projected revenue due to the financial meltdown. The Construction boom in this city will be a big bust in 2009 and 2010, leaving many construction bankruptcies in its wake. Homelessness will be more severe; the police will have more petty crime to deal with in an economic downturn in full effect.

The Police budget is 22% of total city expenditures, and expands substantially each year because of the unwillingness of the federal, provincial and City governments to accept that Prohibition is the main engine of our social disorder problems and crime problems. The 13 gangland killings in Vancouver this year would not have happened if Prohibition had been repealed January 1st.

I am concerned that BC and Vancouver government revenues will be greatly reduced in 2009 and 2010, so spending prioritization becomes critical. The city will experience significant trauma over the next 24 months and neither the two main challengers have any ideas to remedy these consequences.

I think police have far too much influence over policy in this city and province. The RCMP should be abolished in British Columbia and replaced with a re-established British Columbia Police Service. Taser use should be banned. Police should be forbidden from lobbying Parliament or government. The Civilian oversight of the police at the municipal and provincial level should be strengthened hugely.

Peter Ladner and Gregor Robertson have offered no solutions to the problems created by prohibition. They are advocating more police, more civil rights violations, more profits for gangs and a continuation of our drug problems.