Pubdate: Tue, 22 May 2001 Source: Vancouver Courier (CN BC) Copyright: 2001 Vancouver Courier Contact: http://www.vancourier.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/474 Author: David Carrigg Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot (Marijuana) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjparty (Canadian Marijuana Party) HYPNOTIST HELPS POTHEADS TO BUTT OUT Anti-pot campaigner and hypnotist M. Vance Romane is rolling into town next month to try and put the clip on Vancouver's marijuana-smoking scene. Romane knows it will be a battle-almost 5,000 presumably pot-smoking Vancouverites voted for the B.C. Marijuana Party in last Wednesday's provincial election. But the 52-year-old hopes a raft of medical evidence highlighting the dangers of pot consumption, combined with his hypnotic therapy seminar, will help curtail the habits of at least some of the city's potheads. "Vancouver is the pot capital of North America," said Romane, a White Rock resident who held his first pot-specific hypnotic seminar in Winnipeg two months ago. "We give massive hypnotic suggestions to try and break the habit, to break the patterns that lead to the habit and to boost self-esteem." Romane, a trained psychologist, began using hypnotic therapy to help people stop cigarette smoking in the 1960s. "In the 1980s I was getting people at the seminars saying I want to stop smoking the other stuff too. I responded that if they wanted to use the techniques at the stop smoking seminar they could stop marijuana smoking as well." Romane chose Winnipeg as the site for his first stop pot-smoking seminar because that's where he grew up and studied. However, fear of police involvement kept many people away, and despite huge media coverage, only 40 people showed up for the Winnipeg gig. With Vancouver police more relaxed about pot smoking, Romane expects a large turnout at his seminar at the Holiday Inn Vancouver Centre June 14 and hopes he can convince some Marijuana Party voters of the error of their ways. "I looked at the Marijuana Party web site and was really disgusted. They want to OK prostitution, get rid of the DARE drugs program and have free use of guns," said Romane, who has never smoked marijuana. But what upsets the hypnotist most is that the man behind the party, Marc Emery, runs a pot-based empire including a store, magazine and cable-TV program. "The party is really a backhanded money-making venture. It's a smokescreen for the sale of illicit drugs." But Emery countered that all the money he earns goes back into attempts to legalize marijuana. "A hypnotist going around making money by controlling people's desires sounds like a suspicious activity to me. He's a control freak looking to set an agenda inside people's heads when they can't do it themselves," said Emery, whose store at 307 West Hastings St. will be used to generate money for upcoming election campaigns. "I don't meet many people who say 'Marc, I'm just dying to get off marijuana.' And if they do, I say, 'Well stop smoking pot-it's not addictive.'" The B.C. Marijuana Party scooped almost 53,000 votes province-wide, with Emery getting 724 votes in the Vancouver-Burrard riding. Port Moody-Westwood candidate Graeme Smecher reaped 1,359 votes, the party's highest tally in the province. Romane, who believes a pot smoker who can't go without a toke for at least 30 days is addicted, said tell-tale signs of addiction are loss of touch with reality, loss of motivation, troubled relationships and poor performance at work. "The people I met in Winnipeg felt marijuana was ruining their lifestyle. We get them to imagine themselves as free of addiction and enjoying a happier lifestyle. Hypnotism can work for people whose mind-set is on change." For the record, a ticket to Romane's June 14 seminar will cost about the same as half an ounce of pot. Call Ticketmaster for tickets. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe