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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: When I Called The Radio Show.....
James Moncur Daily Record, Glasgow
Thursday 26 Feb 2004 When I Called The Radio Show They Asked Me What I Was Growing. I Didn't Have The Heart To Tell Lies Joe relives confession DOPE-GROWER Joe Mcloughlin yesterday relived the moment he confessed his crime on live radio. Joe, 33, who could face charges after his home was raided by the police, blurted out his secret in a three-minute chat on BBC Scotland's Beechgrove Potting Shed. He rang up to ask the experts for advice and when they asked him what plants he was growing, he admitted it was Northern Lights,a super-strength cannabis. Yesterday, Joe, of Perth, said he 'didn't have the heart' to lie to the Beechgrove presenters. The unemployed website designer, who uses cannabis because of a severe back injury, added: 'I've been completely open and chilled-out the whole way through this. 'When I phoned the programme, they asked what I was growing. 'I just didn't have the heart to lie to them. 'They are like family. They come round for Sunday lunch, and they're sooooo nice. 'How could you lie to them?' In his account of events, given on his personal website, Joe goes on: 'Before you know it, I had told the nation what kind of weed I was growing. I had no intention of causing controversy. ' Joe, who says he campaigns against drug dealers and chemical abuse, said the final insult was when the police team who raided his home seized his cat Cito's catnip. The all-black cat has been featured smoking a joint in a mocked--up photo on the website, Joe pleaded with the detectives to wave the substance under Cito's nose, saying the moggy's reaction would prove it was catnip rather than cannabis. But they refused and took away the catnip along with Joe's plants. Joe said: 'Cito had about an ounce of Kookamunga catnip for his own discreet personal use, although he had been known to share it with other cats from time to time. 'He's most upset by the whole thing and his dignity was assaulted. 'He can't afford more until next week, so he's not very serene now. 'Depriving an innocent, law- abiding, sweet little kitty of his catnip.' Regular listeners to the Beechgrove Potting Shed were bewildered when Joe made his call among the usual questions about potato crops and geraniums. He asked the panel for advice on propogators which are small indoor greenhouses. But presenter Frieda Morrison and regular guests Carole Baxter and Jim McColl seemed unaware his plea for help involved an illegal drug. Even when he mentioned Northern Lights,they believed he was talking about CABBAGES of the same name. At the end of the call, Frieda even wished Joe luck, telling him: 'OK, much success then, keep going.' Joe says on his website that Frieda rang him back later to ask him what he had said, concerned he did not know growing cannabis was illegal. The raid came on February 11,10 days after Joe told the nation his secret. Five drug squad officers seized 18 plants, the tallest of which was about 18 inches high. Joe said: 'When the police stormed into my house, I didn't obstruct them and I answered all their questions and was very honest. 'I have absolutely nothing to hide. I grow and smoke cannabis to use as a medicine for my bad back. 'Without the drug, life would be intolerable because of the pain I am in.' Joe, who lives with his girlfriend Jayne, suffered a serious back injury in 1995 while working as a night porter. He was lifting heavy packages when two of his vertebrae separated. He has not done any manual work since the accident and has suffered from slipped discs and sciatica for the last eight years. He said he had not smoked cannabis for about three years before the accident, despite having used it regularly before. He added: 'The spinal injury I suffered in1995 has left me in constant pain. 'I have worked myself back to full mobility thanks to cannabis. 'The pain from sciatica and slipped discs is adequately managed and I've been self-medicating ever since. 'The equivalent opiate-based painkillers made me lethargic and ill. I had heartburn, no appetite and pasty skin.' Joe added: 'I won't let anyone in my house drunk. I have campaigned against local drug dealers and I don't associate with anyone who has a chemical abuse problem. I'm not about to become one myself.' He said of the fateful phone call: 'It may be a political issue, but it's still a gardening issue to me. 'I did not have the Beechgrove team give me a dope--growing master class. I merely asked about how to use a propagator and they told me.' A police spokesman confirmed Joe's home had been raided and said: 'Following inquiries into a recent radio broadcast, officers recovered quantities of cannabis plants during a search of an address. 'A 33-year-old man was charged and a report was sent to the procurator fiscal in Perth.' ME AND MY LIFE Name D.O.B Joseph Scott Mcloughlin. 08/08/70. Interests Others. My surroundings. Life. Website www.joeswebpresence.comHobbies Gardening, fishkeeping, computing, cycling, reading.Domestic life I live in a wee council house in Perth, Scotland, with my girlfriend Jayne where we potter about absent-mindedly , eating biscuits and trying not to trip over the cat. Dreams My ambition is to sidestep modern living and be in a position to keep the rule makers at arm's length from a self-sufficient small-holding in the heart of Scotland.
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