CANNABIS CHRIS HAS HIGH HOPES IN POLL
Source: Worthing Herald, UK
Pub date: Thursday, March 3, 2005
Author: Chris Taylor
Web: http://www.worthingtoday.co.uk/
Contact:: http://www.worthingtoday.co.uk/contactus.aspx chris.taylor@worthingtoday.co.uk
Cited: Chris Baldwin http://www.ccguide.org/chrisbaldwin.php
CANNABIS CHRIS HAS HIGH HOPES IN POLL
CANNABIS campaigner Chris Baldwin will return to the political arena
this year.
He has announced he will stand as a parliamentary candidate for the
Legalise Cannabis Alliance (LCA) in both the East Worthing and Shoreham and
Worthing West constituencies.
The veteran activist has been a leading light in the cannabis debate in
Worthing for several years now, polling 920 votes for the LCA in the 2001
general election.
A paraplegic since the age of seven, Mr Baldwin walks with the aid of
crutches and uses cannabis to ease the pain of spasms in his legs.
He hit the headlines in January, 2004, when he was jailed for six months
for offences relating to the running of the Quantum Leaf cannabis cafe in
Rowlands Road, Worthing.
He was released after six-and-a-half weeks, but still had time to go on
hunger strike to protest at the lack of provision for his vegan diet.
The prison experience may have tempered Mr Baldwin's more
confrontational methods, but his commitment to cannabis legalisation remains
undiminished.
"Things have changed over the 35 years that I've been campaigning,
attitudes have changed greatly", said Mr Baldwin, from Carnegie Close.
"At the last hustings I attended, a lady wearing a blue rosette
said: "I now see things in a different light". We'd managed to change her attitude.
"In a democracy, if you can change people's attitudes you have won
the day."