JESUS CANNABIS CLAIM 'UNLIKELY'

Holy smoke? Billy McCann, with his new book The Homegrowers Manual, claims
that Jesus used cannabis to perform many of his miracles.

CLAIMS by a Braintree author that Jesus used cannabis to perform many of
his miracles have been labelled as highly unlikely by a Bocking vicar.

In a controversial new book Billy McCann claims archaeological evidence
proves cannabis oils were widely used for anointing during the times of Jesus.

The 53-year-old author of The Homegrowers Manual said this revelation
converted him to Christianity.

Mr McCann, a former comedian, cannabis grower and church minister, said:
"Jesus used cannabis.

"Tests have proved cannabis was used to anoint and it is referred to in 15
verses of the Bible.

It helped me accept Jesus and not the myth. His miracle of helping a
cripple walk might not have been a chap with his leg hanging off but
someone who had pain and Jesus would rub on the oil and he would walk again
because the pain had gone.

"It made Jesus more real to me and not so much of a miracle worker.

"His morals we can with but I don't accept the virgin birth or the
resurrection.

Jesus Cannabis Storm

"If you take all these myths away, then Jesus becomes more acceptable."

But the Very Rev Philip Need, vicar at Bocking St Mary's Church, and rural
dean of Braintree, said of the claims: "I would think that would be highly
unlikely. I would want to say the stories printed in the Bible are much
more dependent on faith and people's trusting in God and that is the way I
have always interpreted them and would want to do so.
It is an interesting theory but I think I would want to be very cautious."

Mr McCann moved to the US in the early 1970s and worked as a comedian and
hypnotist in clubs before joining the Church of American Carmel, California
where he says he became a minister for seven years.

He returned to "Europe in 1978 and grew cannabis commercially in Holland
distributing it through ports in Rotterdam.

He settled in Braintree in 2000 where he turned to writing.

His book covers the myths and facts of 4,000 years of cannabis use
including how to use it and how to grow it, its danger's and benefits and
how to beat drug testing.

Now no longer using cannabis himself, the father of three works around the
country as a drugs councillor.

He said: "Only one of my children tried cannabis once and did not like it
so I must have done something right!"