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Cannabis protesters "not in town to cause trouble"

Nicola Fahey

Redditch Standard

Friday 17 Oct 2008

CANNABIS campaigners are assuring residents they are not coming to cause trouble when they take over the town centre tomorrow (October 18) for a mass demonstration on "out of date laws".
The eight-hour static protest is set to take place from 11am until 7pm in a bid to hit Home Secretary and town MP Jacqui Smith “where it hurts most”.

It follows a protest staged in London earlier this year over the prosecution of people who smoke cannabis for medical purposes.

This time, however, the protest calls for legalisation for recreational users as well.

Campaign leader Jim Star, otherwise known as Pinky, said: “We are coming to Redditch because it is the constituency of the Home Secretary who has been heartlessly ignoring the pleas of medical cannabis users like myself.

“But we are not coming to cause trouble - after all, we are not yobs who drink alcohol and smash windows.

“Quite simply, I am a medical user who is standing up to get our conditions recognised and for people to be able to legally use cannabis without fear of prosecution.”

His pleas follow the Home Secretary's decision to reclassify cannabis as a class B drug, despite the advice of officials, back in May.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs argued cannabis should remain at class C, to which it was downgraded under Tony Blair.

But the Parliamentary order has been submitted and the change is expected to come into law on January 26, 2009.
Under the new law, the maximum penalty for possession will return from two years' imprisonment to five years'.

Pinky, who has been using cannabis since he was struck down with lower back problems in 1999 and further damaged his spine in a car accident in 2003, added: “I want to highlight the fact that the town's MP does not listen to people, including 37 experts on the ACMD.

“She completely ignored the costly report which said more money was needed for research into possible mental illness - the head of the board even resigned in disgust.”

He claimed there was plenty of proof cannabis helped people in pain while not one person had proved its harmful effects since it became illegal some 80 years ago.

 

 

 

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