I'LL STARVE TO DEATH TO MAKE DRUG LEGAL

FORMER Carlisle mayor Colin Paisley has gone on hunger strike, saying
he is prepared to die for his beliefs that cannabis should be legalised.

Mr Paisley, who stood for the Liberal Party in this week's by-election
in Carlisle, is trying to force the Government to debate the pros and
cons of cannabis use.

Mr Paisley says he will continue his hunger strike until Home
Secretary Jack Straw agrees to debate the issue with him.

He last ate on Thursday evening and says he is prepared to die for his
belief that the drug should be legalised for medical and recreational
use.

Choking back tears, he said: "I sat here thinking what can I do and
that's what I've decided.

"If it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. I'm prepared to go all the
way - to die."

Mr Paisley, who is contesting the Carlisle seat at the General
Election for the Legalise Cannabis Alliance, added: "I don't smoke
cannabis, I've never smoked cannabis.

"It's a human rights issue. It's also a therapeutic issue. It's okay
for people to come home at night and have a gin and tonic or a whisky,
so it should be all right for them to smoke cannabis.

"There's no crime and there's no harm."

Mayor in 1994-95, Mr Paisley kicked an 18-year heroin addiction in
1981. He first became interested in the legalisation of cannabis after
meeting multiple sclerosis sufferer Lezley Gibson.

Mrs Gibson, of Alston, hit the headlines last year when she was
cleared of a charge of possessing cannabis after a jury found she was
entitled to use it to help ease the symptoms of her condition.

"I used hundreds of drugs over the years but cannabis wasn't one of
them," said Mr Paisley. "Suddenly I came across Lezley and it became a
different thing.

"There are people dying because they can't use cannabis
therapeutically."

Mrs Gibson's husband Mark said that while he fully understood why the
former mayor was making a stand, he could not encourage him.

He added that he had made two attempts to dissuade Mr Paisley from
carrying on the hunger strike and that both he and other colleagues
would continue to do so. "It is just a shame he has to go to these
lengths," he said.