Legalise Cannabis Alliance In The House Of Commons

[shug]

Subject: [endorseelist] Legalise Cannabis Alliance in the House of Commons (again)

Many thanks to Tim Loughton, Tory MP for Worthing East and Shoreham, who is

about to lose his seat to LCA candidate Chris Baldwin, for mentioning the

LCA during his speech on Tuesday in the Drugs Bill debate

Tim said:

"We also need to clamp down on drugs cafés, with which the Bill

does not appear to deal. Worthing has had a rather grisly experience of

cannabis cafés and how they can lead to hard drug trade and suck in serious

crime and serious criminals to a profitable activity. A couple of years

ago, in Worthing, no fewer than three cannabis cafés set up trade in the

town centre, one in my constituency, and the other two in the constituency

of my hon. Friend the Member for Worthing, West (Peter Bottomley). The one

in my constituency was originally set up under the benign, well-intentioned

guise of being the headquarters of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance.

[Note: not that it matters much, but that's not correct.]

It was

set up almost as a social service, in particular advertising its services

to elderly people suffering from multiple sclerosis and rheumatic problems

who could come along and have discounted drugs made available to them very

community spirited of them, I am sure.

The problem was that it was not just the equivalent of a bingo club to

which people could come and go and dabble in soft drugs as they please. It

became a nightmare for local residents, attracted all sorts of low life,

with dealers hanging around near schools, and caused havoc in local mental

health residential establishments' halfway houses, whose staff were run

ragged because patients were attracted to it. Violence occurred around it,

with problems of noise and so on.

Despite the fact that what was going on was quite plain, it took more than

a year to shut down that establishment, notwithstanding several raids by

the police and intensive, costly policing. It celebrated its first birthday

party with a great big cake goodness knows what was in it. I was kindly

invited to that party, but I declined the invitation. It gloated, however,

that it had been allowed to carry on this trade for more than a year.

Eventually, due to a lot of hard work by the local council and local police

in particular, that café was closed down to the great relief of local

residents.

Soon after it was closed down, a delegation of those who had run it came to

one of my surgeries to complain that it had taken the police so long to

close them down. What a waste of police resources it had been to take more

than a year to close down what was clearly an illicit activity. It sounds

rather comical, but however well-intentioned or not one might think that

the original people who set up the establishment were, it had been

overtaken by some more sordid sorts. More serious hard drugs were

circulating through it, and it was becoming a real cash cow and a lucrative

little business, with all sorts of criminals getting attached to it. That

is what can happen. Regardless of what is and is not in the Bill, the

Government must make it much easier for the police as I hope that certain

parts of the Bill may do to stamp on such activities the minute that those

involved put their heads above the parapets. I support any measures that

make it harder for such establishments to open up in the first place and

easier for the authorities to close them down as soon as possible. "

source

edited to sort quote duh

Edited January 20, 2005 by shug

[nightscentedstock]

errr so hows he "about to lose his seat" then

[Guest justagirl]

probably because the worthing cafe had more visitors than any other establisment combined, and if thats his stance and its made public, not one person freom worthing will vote for him, except the very small group (i thinks its just tim actually) of anti cannabis campaigners in the area!

[Guest stone win]

really good coffeeshops from Chris Baldwin, made so many faces smile, fancy dress demos outside magistriates courts, and a lot of good spirit, that came in to the cafes, Quantum leaf, was an art piece...

Buddies, despite a really slow start, made so much difference to the area, and the only real complaint, was not enough car parking facilities.....

No under 18's was ever found in there

No hard drugs was ever found in there

and a real change to many lifes were made, and having talked to people in Worthing many are more than happy to vote for Chris Baldwin......

and knowing him,and his commitment to a peaceful society, I am not suprised....

winstone