DRUGS MAN TO FIGHT ELECTION

PRO-CANNABIS campaigner, Ming the Merciless, has vowed to get into the
European Parliament in a bid to hit back at a system which he said
imprisoned him with paedophiles and rapists for a littering offence.

Galway-based Ming, whose real name is Luke Flanagan, was released this week
from jail after having served nine days of his 15 day sentence for failing
to remove some of his posters from poles around Galway City.

An angry Ming said yesterday he should not have been locked up with serious
criminals for such a petty offence.

Ming, who has been campaigning for the legalisation of cannabis said he
feared he would be attacked in jail, but admitted he had emerged unscathed
from the experience, and that it had been a valuable lesson.

"I discovered that in one of the jails where I was kept, 42 out of the 68
prisoners were jailed for circumstances related to alcohol. That is a drug
which has been rammed down our throats and here we are filling the jails
with victims of it."

Ming announced that he will be standing for the Choice Party in this
summer's European Parliament elections.