CANNABIS
GIVEAWAY
Source: Daily Post, Wales
Pub Date: Thursday 15 January 2004
Subj: Cannabis Giveway
Author: Carl
Butler
Ref: Cannabis Cafes http://www.ccguide.org/cannabiscafes.php
CANNABIS
GIVEAWAY
A CANNABIS
campaigner set himself up as "a pharmacy" for people he decided
needed the drug, a court was told yesterday.
Jeff Ditchfield,
who wanted to open a Dutch-style coffee shop in Rhyl, told police he would give
the drug freely as a medicine to relieve suffering.
Since the start
of his campaign to legalise cannabis 18 months ago, Ditchfield said people had
started giving him the drug because they knew he was trying to help sick
people.
The 48-year-old,
of Water Street, Rhyl, has pleaded not guilty at Chester Crown Court to two
charges of possession of cannabis and The drugs were found in Ditchfield's car
as police searched a shop he was opening, Beggar's Belief, in Water Street,
Rhyl.
Ditchfield told
police he would not lie and say the drugs were for his own use - which was a
far lesser charge.
"It was
high quality medicinal cannabis, suitable for patients and it belonged to
me," he told police, when interviewed.
"I know if
I lie and say it was for me it would be a lot lesser offence. But I won't lie,
I don't see why I should lie for something I believe in.
"My
intention was if anyone asked for it to relieve their suffering, if someone had
turned up with a medicinal need ... and they asked me for help, I would have
gone to the car and given it to them."
As the trial
opened yesterday, Karl Scholz, prosecuting, told the jury: "There is no
dispute that the items found in his car were his.
"He was to
explain to police he had been campaigning for 18 months for the laws in relation
to cannabis to be changed, in effect to allow its use or smoking to be quite
lawful."
Mr Scholz said
Ditchfield believed the drug should be available for medicinal use,
particularly for sufferers with multiple sclerosis (MS).
Although
everyone knew it was legally wrong to possess, cultivate or supply cannabis, Mr
Ditchfield would say it was morally right.
In his interview
with police, Ditchfield said he wanted to open Beggar's Belief as a
"Dutch-style coffee shop" but because of planning delays he decided
to stick with the existing planning use and open as a retail shop.
Asked by police
if he planned to sell or give cannabis away at his coffee shop he said he would
not because it was illegal.
But he repeated
that if a person came to him seeking help with a medical condition, he would,
where appropriate, not hesitate to give them cannabis.
Asked if he
would sell it he replied: "I have never charged a sick person for it and I
wouldn't. It should be free on the NHS. It would be morally wrong to make money
off sick people."
The trial
continues and is expected to end today.