|
Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
|
|
UK: Clare hopes to win votes for cannabis
Fiona Scott icCoventry
Tuesday 18 Nov 2003 The Legalise Cannabis Alliance is planning to field at least one candidate in either Coventry or Warwickshire at the next general election. Shop assistant Clare O'Donnell is looking to stand either against Labour's Nuneaton MP, Bill Olner, or one of his three Coventry colleagues - Geoffrey Robinson, Jim Cunningham and Home Office minister Bob Ainsworth. The married 27-year-old of Chapel End, Nuneaton, joined the alliance after seeing what cannabis could do to help people with medical problems. The alliance wants cannabis to be fully legalised and for people convicted of cannabis offences to be released from prison and others to have their criminal records erased. She said: I was asked by a friend who suffers chronic pain - he had a car accident - to take him to Brighton to see someone he wanted to meet up with. When we got there, it was a cannabis cafe. People there were from all walks of life, the atmosphere was nice and relaxed. It was more relaxed than any pub. Strangers were talking to strangers. People were not caring if the person next to them was in a wheelchair, or a different age, or a different colour. When I saw that and saw how people were working down there helping disabled people and people who needed cannabis, it changed my outlook. Mrs O'Donnell has taken cannabis during visits to Amsterdam's cannabis cafes and also believes if hemp, the plant it is derived from, was grown commercially in the UK it could also be used as a biofuel. She has met about 200 people who take cannabis for health problems and travelled to Orkney to meet Biz Ivol, a 55-year-old woman suffering from multiple sclerosis who was prosecuted for supplying cannabis-laced chocolates to other MS sufferers. She attempted suicide after the case was dropped. Mrs O'Donnell said: Hand on heart, I really don't think what I'm doing is wrong. I don't think standing up and saying there are people out there who have medical problems and who use cannabis to help them, is wrong.
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!