Source: Times, The (UK)
Contact:  http://www.the-times.co.uk/
Pubdate: Tue, 4 Aug 1998
Author: Joanna Bale

MR CANNABIS AND THE CASE OF PLANTED EVIDENCE

A MAN who changed his name to Free R. Cannabis tried to present a marijuana
plant to the Home Secretary, a court was told yesterday. Cannabis, 30,
formerly Robert Christopher, was given a conditional discharge at Southwark
Crown Court for possessing the drug. The owner of a shop selling hemp was
arrested as he brandished the plant during a demonstration outside the Home
Office in Central London by supporters of the legalisation of cannabis.

Dressed in a hemp collar and tie, Cannabis, who conducted his own defence,
said that he planned the protest after being jailed for refusing to pay a
#100 fine for possession of 1 1/2 g of cannabis. Cannabis said: "The day I
was released from prison, Jack Straw's son was cautioned for selling two
grams of cannabis to a Daily Mirror reporter, so you can make your own
judgment from that."

To murmurs of approval from a group of hippies in the public gallery, he
described cannabis as a "gift from God". Minutes earlier, during evidence
from a police officer, some had been politely told by an usher that they
were not allowed to sleep in court.

Cannabis, of Glastonbury, Somerset, explained that he had challenged Mr
Straw to a live television debate on the benefits and uses of cannabis in
medicine, fuel and clothing.

Mr Straw had not replied, so he had gone to the Home Office in February
with the intention of presenting the Home Secretary with a cannabis plant.

Although Cannabis admitted that the plant was his, he pleaded not guilty to
possession of a Class B drug. He told the court that he wanted to challenge
the law because he believed that cannabis was not a drug. He said: "This is
deliberate misinformation put out by the Government to support the
deliberate oppression of civil rights." He claimed that there was
considerable scientific evidence to show that cannabis was a "safe,
harmless, benign, health-promoting herb".

As Mr Cannabis continued to lecture the jury on the plant's beneficial
properties, Judge Bathurst Norman intervened to remind him that, whatever
his views, cannabis remained a banned substance. "Mr Cannabis, we're not
here, I'm afraid, to deal with your beliefs - please stick to the facts of
the case," he said.

After a unanimous guilty verdict, the judge conditionally discharged him
for 12 months, telling him that he had clearly been making a "political
gesture". He said: "You were not going to use this plant yourself.

You were going to present it to the Home Secretary." Cannabis, who will
appeal against conviction, was ordered to pay #100 towards prosecution
costs.

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Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)