GRANDMOTHER TO STAND ON LEGALISE-CANNABIS TICKET

Leslie Von Goetz - Thinks Cannabis Is 'Just Fantastic'

A 75-year-old grandmother is to stand as a prospective candidate for the
Legalise Cannabis Alliance Party, campaigning to make marijuana and other
drugs legal.

Speaking yesterday from her home in Fife, Leslie Von Goetz, a retired
teacher, said the drug should be made available, and treated in the same
way as alcohol, so that people with medical conditions could treat themselves.

Scotland's unlikeliest pro-drugs campaigner, who lives in her family's
Chesterhill estate outside Newport, said cannabis had been widely used for
its medicinal qualities for more than 5000 years. Next month's general
election will be her first political candidature but the reformed smoker,
who is now bed-ridden because of a back injury, feels strongly that
"cannabis is a bloody good thing - it's just fantastic."

A young member of her family has taken cannabis for medicinal purposes for
several years, and Mrs Von Goetz objects to the young woman being
criminalised by current legislation.

She said that her niece has been using marijuana to alleviate side-effects
from prescription drugs: "She was getting the shakes from her medication,
and found that when she smoked cannabis she could take less medication and
feel a lot better. It should be legalised. At the moment, doctors and
scientists can't even do proper medical experiments without breaking the
law - it's crazy."

Surrounded by campaign documents which clutter her bed, the classics
graduate said: "Responsible people who wish to avoid mixing with dodgy drug
dealers, are forced to grow it themselves."

"Then the police find out about it, raid their houses, steal their crops,
and it's all very distressful - not to say, expensive.

"As far as I'm concerned, people who want to smoke socially can do what
they want as long as they don't get sloshed out of their mind - like they
tend to do with alcohol."

The Legalise Cannabis Alliance was registered as an official UK political
party and adopted the cannabis leaf as its symbol in March 1999. Mrs Von
Goetz, who will stand in the Liberal Democrat stronghold of North-east
Fife, is one of two Scottish candidates selected so far in what will be the
party's first general election. The other candidate is Linda Hendry, who is
standing in Edinburgh South.