CANNABIS PARTY IN
MIDLANDS BID
Source: Sunday
Mercury, UK
Pub Date:
Sunday, 16 November 2003
Subj: Cannabis
party in Midlands bid
Author: Caroline
Wheeler
Cited: Legalise
Cannabis Alliance http://www.lca-uk.org/
Contact: SundayMercury@mrn.co.uk
CANNABIS PARTY
IN MIDLANDS BID
A party which
supports the legalisation of cannabis will field candidates in the Midlands for
the first time at the next general election.
The Legalise
Cannabis Alliance (LCA) is hoping to put up at least 120 candidates nationwide
- including a handful in the Midlands.
Among those who
have volunteered to stand is Colin Preece, from Yardley, Birmingham, who got
involved with the campaign several years ago.
The
father-of-five, who has never been politically active in the past, claims he
supports the legalisation of cannabis for environmental reasons.
"I come at
it from a slightly different angle," said the 53-year-old. "Some of the
other candidates who are hoping to stand at the next general election are
standing because they enjoy smoking the weed and wish to do it legally.
"But I am
more interested in the effect that legalisation would have on the rainforest
and the environment generally.
"If it were
legal, more people would be aware of some of its more useful properties.
"Paper and
clothing and all manner of other things can be made from hemp which would
conserve some of the other natural resources which we farm and use."
Other Midland
candidates include Clare O' Donnell, who will stand in Nuneaton and Coventry,
32-year-old Katy Bland, who will run in Kettering, and Michael Mullaney, who
will stand in Northampton North.
Mr Mullaney, 23,
who previously stood as a Labour candidate for Wellingborough Council, said on
the LCA website: "I am particularly concerned with personal freedom issues
and am opposed to ID cards."
The LCA will
make its biggestever political push at the next general election despite the
Government's moves to reclassify cannabis to a class C drug next year.
The party first
formed in 1997 when their first candidate stood for election in Essex. Since
then the party has grown and in the 2001 elections the party fielded 13 candidates
but none in the Midlands.
Now party
organisers are hoping to field at least 120 candidates at the next general
election, which will most likely be in 2005.
Don Barnard, the
LCA's spokesman, said the Government's plans to reclassify cannabis would not
thwart the party's momentum.
"We are
going to have our biggest-ever push at the next general election," he
said.
"The party
has gone from strength to strength and we want to field at least 120 candidates
so we can have the same privileges, such as party political broadcasts, as the
mainstream parties.
"Reclassification
does not go far enough and will not end our campaign."