CONFERENCE TALK BY DRUG ACTIVIST

CANNABIS campaigner Philip Lockwood addressed a conference of "weed"
activists at a Norwich university.

Mr Lockwood, 44, of Waring Green, Brighouse, attended the third annual
party conference of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance (LCA) at the University
of East Anglia on Saturday.

Mr Lockwood, 44, stood as the LCA candidate for the Calder Valley at the
last General Election and plans to open a cannabis cafe in Calderdale by
the end of the year.

"It was a successfu1 conference that produced a lot of very positive ideas,
there were a lot of positive people there," said Mr Lockwood.

He said although a Home Office select committee was expected to recommend
the drug be reclassified from Class B to Class C campaigners must keep
fighting for decriminalisation.

"We talked about classification and said it was not a battle won, it was
just the thin end of the wedge and we had to keep pushing."

About 350 people came from as far as Scotland and Cornwall to attend, they
included a number of students, pensioners, a church minister and
conservative councillor.