PRO-CANNABIS PROTESTS OUTSIDE COURT

A noisy street demonstration organised through Facebook has been held
to protest the court appearance of a Te Puke man caught with cannabis
at this year's Raggamuffin festival.

Kiwifruit worker Douglas John McLeod, 42, was yesterday convicted and
fined $150 in the Rotorua District Court for possessing cannabis,
cannabis hash blocks and drug utensils including a pipe and a
magnifying glass he used to light it. The charges relate to McLeod
being caught with the drugs and paraphernalia at the Raggamuffin
festival at Rotorua International Stadium on February 5.

He defended the charges at a court hearing before Judge Edward Blaikie
yesterday and was found guilty.

McLeod was supported by about 20 people, most of whom were members of
the group National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

Supporters travelled from Wellington, Auckland, Hamilton and Waihi to
protest outside the courthouse after a webpage on social networking
website Facebook, called Court Support for Doug McLeod, was set up.

Cars drove past the group tooting their horns and a bus repeatedly
circled the courthouse while a woman used a loud-haler to promote the
decriminalisation of cannabis.

At the hearing, Judge Blaikie said evidence for the defence given by
NORML member Dakta Green that the Speaker of the House had permitted
people to smoke cannabis during a protest on parliament grounds was
extraordinary and irrelevant to the court case.