MEP SAYS 'ARREST ME OVER CANNABIS' IN LEGALISATION STAND

AN OLDHAM MEP will hand himself in to the police on Saturday to be arrested
for possession of a small amount of cannabis resin.

Chris Davies, who lives in Greenfield, will go to Stockport police station
with a tiny amount of the substance. He is taking the action in support of
cannabis campaigner Colin Davies.

The Liberal Democrat MEP will ask to be arrested, before a march in
Stockport in support of the campaigner who is currently in Strangeways
Prison on remand awaiting trial on drugs offences.

The MEP wants to draw attention to the experience of Colin Davies, one of
his constituents, who is the founder of the Dutch Experience coffee shop in
Stockport.

Colin Davies has been repeatedly denied bail despite never having been
convicted of a drugs-related offence, but admits helping people with
medical problems to get the drug as a pain reliever.

Similar coffee shops in the Netherlands have been permitted for nearly 20
years, and the MEP claims they may have contributed to a fall in the use of
hard drugs in that country.

Chris Davies said that he has never smoked or used illegal drugs, and does
not intend to do so on this occasion. But he believes that the law is in
urgent need of reform.

He will take the tiny amount of cannabis resin, on a postage stamp, to the
police to illustrate his fight.

The MEP said: "Hundreds of British politicians admit in private that the
law on cannabis is a nonsense. It is time more of them spoke out publicly."

The legal priorities are wrong. Last year, some 50,000 people were arrested
for possession of cannabis, a drug which the medical journal The Lancet
claims is less harmful than alcohol.

In the same period, nearly 800 young people in Britain died of
alcohol-related cirrhosis of the liver.

It is not surprising that many police officers admit they have better
things to do with their time than arrest people for a supposed offence
which causes no harm to anyone else.a

The Dutch Experience website advertises the MEPs impending arrest as an
historic action and asks for support in the march through Stockport from
1.30pm on Saturday.

The MEP says his campaign, which he has been part of for many years, is
similar to the one by the Shopping Hours Reform Council which fought for
Sunday trading.

He was part of that group, which opened shops on Sundays to challenge the law.

He said: "By opening his coffee shop, Colin Davies is doing no more and no
less than the superstores did when they challenged the law and opened on
Sundays to meet public demand."

A Lib Dem working group has called for a national policy of non-prosecution
of cannabis, which will be debated and is expected to be endorsed as party
policy at a conference in March.