Pubdate: Sun, 16 Nov 2003
Source: Sunday Mercury (UK)
861&method=full&siteid=50002
Copyright: 2003 Sunday Mercury
Contact:  http://www.mapinc.org/media/3167
Website: http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/2050ourpapers/0300sundaymercury/
Author: Caroline Wheeler
Cited: Legalise Cannabis Alliance http://www.lca-uk.org

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."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman