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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Mystery benefactor pays cannabis fine
Lindsey Quinn Fife Herald
Thursday 22 Apr 2004 A Letham man facing prison after admitting growing cannabis has been given a get out of jail card by a mystery benefactor. Colin Cameron (58) was convicted for growing 10 pots of the plant and ordered to pay a UKP100 fine last October. In January, Cameron came before the courts again when he failed to pay the UKP4 a week penalty. Sheriff George Evans agreed he could pay it at UKP2 a week but Cameron who is unable to work because of crippling sciatica and survives on benefits said finding the money would be difficult and was prepared to spend seven days in jail if necessary. But recently when Cameron, the Scottish Socialist Party's drugs spokesman and a member of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance, made it clear he could not pay the fine, a warrant was issued for his arrest and he went into hiding. GRATITUDE However, he emerged from hiding on Monday to say he had received a telephone call informing him his fine had been paid. Expressing his gratitude to the mystery benefactor, he said: It was a great relief and I am extremely grateful to the person or persons who have set me free. My case and cases like it clearly demonstrate the injustice of the current cannabis laws, when a person can be jailed for trying to relieve their own pain. Of course, someone on the salary of, say, an MP or a sheriff could have paid this fine without batting an eyelid. But you are doubly punished if you are poor. He went on : Although I use cannabis mainly for medicinal purposes the Scottish Socialist Party campaigns for the legalisation of the herb. RELUCTANCE We clearly have won the argument over the issue, going by all the opinion polls. I believe the only thing now standing between the Government and a change in the law is their reluctance to admit they are wrong and that people have been wrongly jailed as a result. It shouldn't have taken an anonymous donation to ensure my freedom. I should never have been prosecuted in the first place. During the court case on January, Cameron's solicitor, human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar, said the situation breached his human rights and said no-one should have to suffer pain in order to obey the law. Although Cameron admitted to growing the drug, he explained he used it to control pain caused by an old rugby injury to his vertebrae. A plea of not guilty to a charge which alleged he was in possession of the drug was accepted by the procurator fiscal.
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