After running in three federal elections as the Ottawa Center candidate for the Marijuana Party John Akpata has learned that you can connect cannabis to almost anything - the failing economy, mistrust in the government, the massive synthetic pharmaceutical industry, cancer, dying with dignity, common sense, freedom of speach, the oil industry, lumber, pulp and paper, and the list goes on and on. But if you're worried about being shrugged off as obsessive, well its probably best for a public career to pick a few key issues and focus on those.

However, it doesn't require any kind of intellectual hop-scotch to connect marijuana to issues of race and human rights.

A lot of Canadian drug law was inspired by Emily Murphy's book, The Black Candle. As John says, her brand of racism came before the more polished racism of the 60s. Under her pen name, Janey Canuck, she seemed able to harness all of the cultural prejudice and stigmatization of substances that had formed the Opium Act of 1908 to suppress the Canadian Chinese population, and repackage it for the 20s. Today, Murhpy, and her book, have a lot to do with the current status of marijuana laws in Canada.

Now Conservatism is still pushing harder and harder on prohibition, only further marginalizing minorities. John argues that the people who are feeling this most are, without a doubt, Canada's First Nations people.