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UK: I'll starve to death to make drug legal

News and Star (Cumbria Online)

Saturday 21 Apr 2001

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FORMER Carlisle mayor Colin Paisley has gone on hunger strike, saying he is
prepared to die for his beliefs that cannabis should be legalised.
Mr Paisley, who stood for the Liberal Party in this week's by-election in
Carlisle, is trying to force the Government to debate the pros and cons of
cannabis use.

Mr Paisley says he will continue his hunger strike until Home Secretary
Jack Straw agrees to debate the issue with him.

He last ate on Thursday evening and says he is prepared to die for his
belief that the drug should be legalised for medical and recreational use.

Choking back tears, he said: "I sat here thinking what can I do and that's
what I've decided.

"If it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. I'm prepared to go all the way -
to die."

Mr Paisley, who is contesting the Carlisle seat at the General Election for
the Legalise Cannabis Alliance, added: "I don't smoke cannabis, I've never
smoked cannabis.

"It's a human rights issue. It's also a therapeutic issue. It's okay for
people to come home at night and have a gin and tonic or a whisky, so it
should be all right for them to smoke cannabis.

"There's no crime and there's no harm."

Mayor in 1994-95, Mr Paisley kicked an 18-year heroin addiction in 1981. He
first became interested in the legalisation of cannabis after meeting
multiple sclerosis sufferer Lezley Gibson.

Mrs Gibson, of Alston, hit the headlines last year when she was cleared of
a charge of possessing cannabis after a jury found she was entitled to use
it to help ease the symptoms of her condition.

"I used hundreds of drugs over the years but cannabis wasn't one of them,"
said Mr Paisley. "Suddenly I came across Lezley and it became a different
thing.

"There are people dying because they can't use cannabis therapeutically."

Mrs Gibson's husband Mark said that while he fully understood why the
former mayor was making a stand, he could not encourage him.

He added that he had made two attempts to dissuade Mr Paisley from carrying
on the hunger strike and that both he and other colleagues would continue
to do so. "It is just a shame he has to go to these lengths," he said.

 

 

 

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