PARENTS MESSAGE TO ALL: DRUGS KILL

"LEGALISE drugs at your peril" - that was the message today from Norwich's
Earlham estate.

While legalise cannabis campaigners met at Norwich's war memorial
yesterday, so representatives of the Earlham youth group held an
alternative ceremony on the nearby City hall steps to highlight the danger
of drugs.

Julie Powell, who helped found the Earlham Youth Group, said "We have been
badly hit by drugs on the Earlham estate. A lot of kids and their parents
have suffered".

"We were set up to try and give kids an alternative to drugs".

"After hearing that the pro-cannabis lobby were set to lay a wreath at the
war memorial, we thought we would lay our own wreath on the steps of City
Hall to comemorate those people who have been killed by drugs.

"I lost a brother to drugs. he had a lifetime in front of him. how dare
these people say that drugs should be legalised?"

"It is like a plague which is sweeping through our kids. We are fighting
the battle and trying to give kids an alternative. they have had enough and
we want rid of it".

The campaigners from the Campaign to Legalise Cannabis International
Association held a controversial vigil at the war memorial at the same time
to highlight their fight.

Plans to lay a wreath at the war memorial were ditched following an outcry
from war veterans.

Veteran Stan Marley, 63, chairman of the Norwich and Waveny Parachute
regiment and Airborne Forces Association, was one of three who monitored
the service.

I saw in the paper that these people were going to put a wreath on the
memorial" he said.

"My view and the the view of other servicemen I know is that the memorial
is sacred"

"I was here to make sure they did not do that"

Checked-by: Richard Lake