I WON'T STOP SMOKING POT

A MAN who was questioned by police after a drugs raid on his home
says there is no way he will stop smoking pot.

Keith Thompson, 53, was taken to Wootton Bassett police station on
Tuesday after officers found eight cannabis plants in a bedroom at his
home.

He was released without charge and Mr Thompson, who says the drugs
were for his own use, insists he will carry on as usual.

"I'm not going to stop smoking, no way man," he said.

"It's more common than people think and it's not just clowns like
me.

"Within an hour of being out I was smoking again.

"I personally think if we all sat around a table and rolled up there
would be no wars or punch-ups.

"We could all put on some Pink Floyd and there we go.

"Okay, I have broken the law but it's not the crime of the
century."

Mr Thompson's wife, Annie, 45, was also arrested in the raid at their
home in The Rosary, Wootton Bassett, but he says she had nothing to do
with the plants.

"If I'd have known the police arrest everyone in the house when they
come I would never have grown it," he said.

"It's all mine. It's nothing whatsoever to do with the
wife.

"She is giddy enough on a couple of pints of lager."

The police said the seizure of the drugs would stop cannabis getting
onto the streets of Wootton Bassett.

But the dad-of-two, who has smoked cannabis regularly since 1975,
said: "It was no factory. I'm not a dealer, I was just growing it for
myself.

"It's one thing smoking it and another thing dealing
it.

"It sounds stupid but I'm against drugs. I don't go near pills or
anything like that.

"You couldn't find anyone on the planet who I have sold drugs
to."

He says he smokes between 10 and 12 rolled-up joints a day and started
growing his own drugs because he was smoking between UKP80 and UKP100
worth of cannabis a week.

"I decided it'd be cheaper to grow my own," he said.

"I bought a cheap car, sold it on and bought myself some heating lamps
with the money."

Registered disabled for problems with his lower back and hip, Mr
Thompson says his drug use has nothing to do with his ill health.

"When people say they do it because of the pain I'm not sure that's
true," he said.

"I'm not going to hide behind that. I smoke it because I like it."