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Election bid nearly goes to pot

Shoreham Herald, Sussex

Thursday 24 May 2001

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Front page


A pro-cannabis campaigner who is standing for Parliament in East
Worthing and Shoreham broke down in tears when a judge spared him
a prison sentence for peddling the drug.

Christopher Baldwin, who is a candidate in the general election
for the Legalise Cannabis Alliance, sobbed in court after
receiving an 18-month jail sentence, suspended for two years -
but said he planned to celebrate by having a joint.

The disabled 51-year-old from Worthing, who uses a wheelchair and
crutches to get about, was caught by police with seven kilos of
cannabis, worth about £10,000 in a sports bag.

Undercover officers had been staking out a lock-up garage in
Brighton for two weeks when Baldwin arrived with his bag full of
herbal cannabis. He went in and was arrested as he started to
unload blocks of the Class B drug into a freezer.

Inside the gargae officers found scales, bags for wrapping up
drugs and discarded foil, which forensic experts said was used to
wrap almost 50kg of cannabis.

Baldwin told police he was just a courier who had agreed to drop
of some drugs in exchange for some cannabis.

The parliamentary candidate, who has a string of drugs
convictions, admitted possession of drugs with intent when he
appeared at court on Monday. After the case he said: "I feel
completely and utterly drained and relieved. I expected that I
was going to be sent to prison. I will be having a joint tonight.

"I don't see using cannabis as a crime. It is cannabis
prohibition that is a crime. I have a twisted spine and the only
thing I have found which allows me to function normally is
cannabis. I smoke it and eat it. Cannabis is about getting high,
not about getting rich."

Sentencing Baldwin, Judge Richard Hayward said: "You are a long-
term cannabis user and seem to be proud of the fact. If you were
a fit man you would go to prison for quite a long time."

Representing Baldwin, Tony Loader said his client was acting as a
courier. "He uses cannabis for pain relief and because he is a
known user he is a vulnerable target for drug dealers."

 

 

 

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