WELL DONE FOR COLIN'S STANCE ON CANNABIS.

I followed with interest the election campaign of Colin Paisley who stood in
the Kensington and Chelsea by-election as a Legalise Cannabis Alliance
candidate.

May I congratulate Colin on his clear-mindedness on the cannabis issue and
compassion he has for medical cannabis users who face prosecution.

Successive Governments have refused a debate, preferring to hide behind the
"Reefer Madness" propaganda which came from the USA in the sixties. They
favour more dangerous and apparently less effective drug treatments provided
by the profit-making pharmaceutical companies.

The problem was highlighted in your report (News and Star November 24) that
Colin's election secretary, a sufferer of MS, was arrested earlier this year
for having a few bits of a cannabis plant in her home to ease her suffering.

Rather than helping her, the system is adding to be burden in a most
inhumane way, by dragging her through the courts for a so-called offence
that has harmed nobody, in the privacy of her own home.

It is indeed time that the issue was debated in Parliament without the
Party's enforcing their Whips.

Well done Colin for making this an election issue!

Alun Buffry Norwich, Norfolk.