'PUNCH' IN DRUG POLL BID
Source: Holyhead Mail, UK
Pub date: Wednesday, April 6, 2005
Subj:
'Punch' in drug poll bid
Author: Owen Hughes
A CHILDREN'S entertainer, once jailed for drug
offences, is to stand for election on Anglesey on a ticket to legalise
cannabis.
Tim Evans, an international puppeteer from
Bodorgan, has been put forward as the candidate for the Legalise Cannabis
Alliance and supports a move to make hard drugs legal.
The 48-year-old grandfather - known on stage as
Professor Punch Tim - has promised to liven up the election campaign on the
island and his presence is expected to stir up anti-drug campaigners on
Anglesey.
This week his campaign was backed by notorious
former drug smuggler Howard Marks.
Tim, who served time in Walton prison, Liverpool, for
possession of cannabis in 1993, one of 35 convictions, said: "I am
standing on this one issue because I believe the Government is wrong with its
drug laws, especially when it leads to people who use the drug for medicinal
purposes being convicted, which is happening everyday.
"I used the drug when I was in a wheelchair
and waiting for an operation. I used it to wean myself off more powerful legal
painkillers that were doing far more damage than cannabis. "I was
criminalised for this and spent a year in the hospital wing of Walton
prison."
While the party's primary aim is to change the law
over cannabis, Tim, a former diver, believes the Government should rethink its
policy on all drugs.
Tim, who previously worked as a puppeteer in the
Henblas Country Park, said: "When prohibition came into America in the
1920s it was the criminals and corrupt officials who gained the most, and drugs
being illegal just fuels crime in this country.
"People
will knock me and the party for our stance but at least we are making people
talk about the issue.