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Source: Kentish Gazette, UK
Pub date: Thursday, January 20, 2005
Subj: Rocky battles to legalise cannabis
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THE Legalise Cannabis Alliance is fielding a candidate for the Canterbury and
Whitstable parliamentary seat in the forthcoming general election.
He is 46-year-old former merchant seaman Rocky van de Benderskum, of Tennyson
Avenue, Canterbury.
With an estimated five million cannabis users in the UK, he says he is giving
a voice to people in the constituency who support the legalisation of hemp.
"I won't win the seat, but at least the Government will have to listen
to hemp-related issues," he said.
"It's ridiculous that the hemp plant has been illegal since the 1920s
and 1930s and I know there are lots of people who suffer from multiple
sclerosis and use it to relieve the pain."
Mr van de Benderskum, above, who sold his laptop to make up the money for an
election deposit, has already been campaigning for the alliance around
Canterbury.
He served with the Army in Germany as a tank mechanic before joining the
Merchant Navy and then working as a landscape gardener.
He was also homeless for a time and lived in a caravan in woods for 10 years.
For more than four years he sold the Big Issue around Canterbury.
Tony Blair is expected to go to the polls early in May.
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