Getting high on politics

You could call the B.C. Marijuana Party candidate in the May 17 Okanagan-Vernon voting "Stretch" and you wouldn't be off-base.
After all, 30-year-old Michael Toponce is 6-foot-9, an ex-volleyball player and, believe it or not, he is far from what most people would call a "pothead."
He is articulate and expressed his views quite openly in an hour-long conversation with the Daily Courier Thursday afternoon.
Toponce is certainly a longshot against the likes of incumbent Tom Christensen (B.C. Liberals), Colin Black (B.C. Conservatives), Juliette Cunningham (B.C. NDP) and "fringe players" such as Erin Nelson (Green Party), Tibor Tusnady ( B.C. Patriot Party), and independent Gordon Campbell.
Although the name of his party, obviously, wants to legitimize marijuana, Toponce sees the value of the hemp industry in solving some of deficits within the present government, including the present failures with both the health and education.
Toponce pointed out that while hemp is considered a part of the marijuana family, it is a sterile plant and "if it takes off, it would be like gold because we have the climate for it."
Then he continued, "hemp is such an excellent material to work with for making clothes, ropes and you can make it as fine as silk. So many uses for it."
However, the "fringe" party candidate realizes that the hemp industry seems to wrapped up in rules and regulations throughout British Columbia.
"There are so many rules and regulations now that it's almost not worth it."
The father of two, Toponce considers Vernon his home base although he has lived on Vancouver Island.
"I took an interest in the Western Independence Party, which has changed its name to the Western Reformation Party.
At the time, he met with its president, Dennis Shaw, but "my life was so chaotic at the time with work and everything like that."
He continued, "I was working at Nature's Fair as the produce manager and injured myself on the job." Toponce slipped a disc while working with heavy produce.
He was just getting ready to start looking for work again when he was involved in a head-on collision on Silverstar on February 5. "So that put me back to square one. Now I am doing rehab after aggravating my lower back -- again."
It's been rough for him as he said, "I am scrapping by." Right now he is on compenation.
As for running in the provincial election, he said he met the president of the B.C. Marijuana Party and after "tossing it around a bit I decided to run."
Toponce said: "I do believe in the fact that we have to legalize marijuana. It's not something that is ever going away. We are just wasting our resources and our money in trying to wage a war against it. That's just a losing battle."
He also believes that marijuana can be used for both health and recreational reasons.
"If you look at Holland and Amsterdam when they brought it in, their crime rates started going down."
With such a "mellowing" philosophy, he stated "it could be B.C.'s best resource."
As for his candidacy, Toponce believes he could get up to three per cent of the vote, and then could come as a result of he and his friends handing out bumper stickers and small placards.
He had a final word: "It's a cash cow, that the B.C. is not doing anything with.