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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Grandmother Fights For Cannabis Legalization
ccguide Monday 14 May 2001 Pubdate: Mon, 14 May 2001 Source: Scotsman (UK) Copyright: The Scotsman Publications Ltd 2001 Contact: Website: http://www.scotsman.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/406 Author: John Innes Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization) GRANDMOTHER FIGHTS FOR CANNABIS LEGALIZATION A 75-YEAR-OLD grandmother from Fife is to stand as a prospective candidate for the Legalise Cannabis Alliance party, campaigning to make marijuana and other drugs legal. Retired teacher Leslie von Goetz said the drug should be made readily available, and treated in the same vein as alcohol, so that people with medical conditions could treat themselves. Mrs Von Goetz, who lives in her family's Chesterhill estate outside Newport, Fife, said cannabis had been widely used for its medicinal qualities for more than 5,000 years. Next month's General Election will be her first political candidature but the reformed smoker, who is now bed-ridden due to a back injury, feels strongly: "Cannabis is a bloody good thing - it's just fantastic." A young member of her family has taken cannabis for medicinal purposes for several years, and Mrs Von Goetz objects to the young woman being criminalised . She explained that her niece has been using marijuana for several years to alleviate side-effects from prescription drugs: "She was getting the shakes really badly from her medication, and found when she smoked cannabis she could take less medication and feel a lot better. "It should be legalised - at the moment doctors and scientists can't even do proper medical experiments without breaking the law - it's crazy." The classics graduate added: "Responsible people who wish to avoid mixing with dodgy drug-dealers, are forced to grow it themselves. Then the police find out about it, raid their houses, steal their crops, and it's all very distressful - not to say, expensive." "As far as I'm concerned, people who want to smoke socially can do what they want as long as they don't get sloshed out of their mind - like they tend to do with alcohol." Mrs Von Goetz taught at schools in Fife, including Madras College and Bell Baxter High School, and retired in 1984. Since then, she has been active as a human rights campaigner. She said: "I have been trying to help people - innocent people - who are victims of miscarriages of justice, and I have been learning as much as I can about the legal system." - --- MAP posted-by: GD
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