UK: Cannabis shown on GMTV is seized

Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:

After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back.

Matt Born

The Telegraph

Thursday 11 Jul 2002

---
GMTV, the breakfast television show best known for its comfy sofas and
saccharine celebrity interviews, was the unlikely target of a police drugs
"raid" yesterday after featuring a bag of cannabis live on air.

John Stapleton, the presenter, was questioned by police at GMTV's studios
in London after presenting an item on the Government proposals to downgrade
the drug from Class B to Class C.

Police were sent to the studio after a viewer complained when Stapleton,
who also hosts a religious affairs programme for ITV, produced a bag of
cannabis and held it up to the cameras. The drug had been bought for £20 by
an undercover reporter in Brixton, south London, where police have adopted
a "softly, softly" approach to cannabis possession.

Scotland Yard said no charges would be brought against Mr Stapleton or
GMTV, but said that officers had taken away the cannabis to be destroyed.

A police spokesman added that officers would be examining the footage of
the reporter buying the drugs, filmed using a hidden camera, to see if it
would help their investigations into drug dealing in Brixton.

Afterwards, an "extremely relieved" Stapleton, 56, who also presents My
Favourite Hymns for Granada, said: "In 31 years in the business I have
never been spoken to by the police for my own actions and it would have
been very embarrassing to get some sort of criminal record at my age. I
have no intention of repeating a stunt like that."

GMTV draws a daily audience of more than five million. The company said it
received only a "handful" of comments about yesterday's item, of which
about half were critical.

After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back.



This page was created by the Cannabis Campaigners' Guide.

Feel free to link to this page!