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VANCOUVER (CP) --Marijuana smoke wafted around the downtown Vancouver Art Gallery on Wednesday as about 1,000 people kicked off the Marijuana party's provincial election campaign.

Marijuana activist David Malmo-Levine began the rally by giving advice on how to avoid arrest.

"If you're going to smoke pot, do it on the inside of the crowd."

The advice appeared to be ignored by the group of mostly young people as they lit up joints and passed them freely among friends.

Kirk Tousaw, the Marijuana party's campaign manager, said the party's main platform is to wrest control of marijuana from the federal government.

"The provinces need to take over control, take back control from organized crime," he said. "And begin to regulate and tax the marijuana industry."

The party said it planned to run candidates in 40 of the province's 79 ridings.

Tousaw said he doesn't regard the Marijuana party as a fringe party.

"The majority of the people in this province smoke marijuana, or have smoked marijuana," he said. "So either they're criminals, or we're mainstream."

Several young people in the crowd were unaware the rally was meant to begin the party's campaign.

"I come here every year on 4-20," said one young man who didn't want to give his name because he left his high school classes to join the event.

Pot smokers have attended the annual April 20 -- or 4-20 -- event in Vancouver for about a decade.

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