COMMENT

13 police for 0.5g of cannabis

Why the law is an ass:

LAST Thursday, at Cardigan Magistrates' Court in Wales, Sarah Wright
pleaded guilty to possessing cannabis, and was fined £150, with £40 costs.
A runofthemill case in every detail except for the extremely small
amount of cannabis involved (0.5g), and the unusual number of police
employed in securing the prosecution 13.

The offence took place last July at Ms Wright's home in St Dogmaels in
Dyfed. It was her son's 13th birthday and a group of her friends and their
children had gathered to celebrate the event. But the festivities were
interrupted by the arrival of 13 police officers (12 men and one woman) and
a police dog. They had a warrant to search the house and grounds for
cannabis.

Four of the women present, including Ms Wright's 16yearold daughter, were
stripsearched. At the end of the investigation, which took several hours,
only Ms Wright, who has previous convictions for growing cannabis plants,
was charged. "I estimate that several thousand pounds of taxpayers' money
was spent in bringing me to court for possession of a tiny amount of
cannabis, worth about as much as a pint of beer," said Ms Wright, who works
as a potter.

"Youth alienation is a serious problem in society, and I wonder what lesson
the children present learnt about authority and our system of justice.
Could it be that the overzealous application of this law is a major cause
of disruption in society, and not the cannabis it is trying to stamp out?"

Ms Wright, who has three children, defended herself when she appeared in
court, and read out a prepared statement urging support of the Independent
on Sunday campaign to decriminalise cannabis. Her speech prompted a round
of applause from the public gallery and the magistrates threatened to clear
the court.

"They wanted me to grovel and say sorry. If I had done that I would have
got off with a smaller fine. But I believe it is time they stopped
persecuting people who are doing no harm to others."

Ms Wright and her supporters later handed out leaflets, and tried to get
solicitors and passersby to sign our petition. She has launched a
complaint against the police over the stripsearch of her daughter.