Pubdate: Thu, 13 Dec 2001
Source: Oldham Evening Chronicle (UK)
Copyright: Oldham Evening Chronicle 2001
Contact:  Letters must be accompanied by writer's full real name and address if 
author wishes to use a fictitious "pen name".
Website: http://www.oldham-chronicle.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1151
Author: Alun Ireland
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

MEP SAYS 'ARREST ME OVER CANNABIS' IN LEGALISATION STAND

AN OLDHAM MEP will hand himself in to the police on Saturday to be arrested 
for possession of a small amount of cannabis resin.

Chris Davies, who lives in Greenfield, will go to Stockport police station 
with a tiny amount of the substance. He is taking the action in support of 
cannabis campaigner Colin Davies.

The Liberal Democrat MEP will ask to be arrested, before a march in 
Stockport in support of the campaigner who is currently in Strangeways 
Prison on remand awaiting trial on drugs offences.

The MEP wants to draw attention to the experience of Colin Davies, one of 
his constituents, who is the founder of the Dutch Experience coffee shop in 
Stockport.

Colin Davies has been repeatedly denied bail despite never having been 
convicted of a drugs-related offence, but admits helping people with 
medical problems to get the drug as a pain reliever.

Similar coffee shops in the Netherlands have been permitted for nearly 20 
years, and the MEP claims they may have contributed to a fall in the use of 
hard drugs in that country.

Chris Davies said that he has never smoked or used illegal drugs, and does 
not intend to do so on this occasion. But he believes that the law is in 
urgent need of reform.

He will take the tiny amount of cannabis resin, on a postage stamp, to the 
police to illustrate his fight.

The MEP said: "Hundreds of British politicians admit in private that the 
law on cannabis is a nonsense. It is time more of them spoke out publicly."

The legal priorities are wrong. Last year, some 50,000 people were arrested 
for possession of cannabis, a drug which the medical journal The Lancet 
claims is less harmful than alcohol.

In the same period, nearly 800 young people in Britain died of 
alcohol-related cirrhosis of the liver.

It is not surprising that many police officers admit they have better 
things to do with their time than arrest people for a supposed offence 
which causes no harm to anyone else.a

The Dutch Experience website advertises the MEPs impending arrest as an 
historic action and asks for support in the march through Stockport from 
1.30pm on Saturday.

The MEP says his campaign, which he has been part of for many years, is 
similar to the one by the Shopping Hours Reform Council which fought for 
Sunday trading.

He was part of that group, which opened shops on Sundays to challenge the law.

He said: "By opening his coffee shop, Colin Davies is doing no more and no 
less than the superstores did when they challenged the law and opened on 
Sundays to meet public demand."

A Lib Dem working group has called for a national policy of non-prosecution 
of cannabis, which will be debated and is expected to be endorsed as party 
policy at a conference in March.
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