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I am a proud dad and a campaigner to Legalise Cannabis! For many years I used cannabis to ease the spasms in my legs that an injury caused,to get a better nights sleep and ease the pain. Although I felt the law against cannabis and the punishment of users was totally unjust, I, like most of us, did little about changing it. Then I came across a Legalise Cannabis Alliance flier at a Howard Marks gig in my area and realised that I was not alone, there was a serious political party that I could work with. In 2001, I represented the LCA in the General Election, contesting Worthing East and Shoreham and gaining a very impressive 920 votes (2.1%) . Wanting to more to help the cause, in particular to bring attention to both the general injustice of the law that punishes victimless cannabis users AND interferes with the supply of a highly effective medicinal plant, I decided to open a cannabis cafe in my home town, Worthing. At the front of the premises in Rowland's Road which we leased, We opened a shop selling cannabis paraphernalia and magazines, behind which and through a monitored door we opened one of the UK's first cannabis cafes. The shop was called 'Bongchuffa' and the cafe was 'The Quantum Leaf'. Already there had been two attempts at opening public cannabis cafes in England. The first, 'The Dutch Experience', was opened in Stockport and led to the eventual imprisonment of Colin Davies for three years. The second was "Dutch Experience II' opened in Bournemouth by Jimmy Ward. Jimmy eventually received a suspended sentence. Yet I pushed on with the plans and made no secret of it, voluntarily going to the police to discuss our venture. The cafe was so successful that we opened a second place, Buddies, on the other side of Worthing. I also set up The Herb Connection, a source of cannabis for those in urgent medical need. The story continues through a series of police raids on both cafes. Bongchuffa was closed after the landlord withdrew the lease. Buddies was "voluntarily" shut down after police continued their presence outside, harassing customers and searching them. (Chris Baldwin)

The Thin Green Line

(Chris Baldwin)

Tuesday 20^th November 2001 - The Dutch Experience Stockport is raided, Colin Davies and 11 others are arrested. Colin is held on remand because he has broken his bail conditions.

Saturday 24^th November 2001 - Cannabis campaigners arrive in Stockport from all over the country for a show of solidarity. Here's how the day went.

11am - We all met in The Dutch Experience , shortly after a few of us were taken to another location to meet up with Nol Van Schaik and others. Nol told us the plan of action and asked me to go back to The Dutch Experience, announce the plan and mobilise people as he wasn't coming back with us, he would merge with us along the way.

2:30pm - I didn't count the heads but at a guess Id say there were about 30 or 40 of us, not enough but were gonna do it anyway. We gathered in the car park and I went through the rules again, these were:

No violence, no resisting arrest, no shouting or abuse, when arrested just cooperate with a smile. In short lets show Britain the real cannabis community. We werent there to fight the police, we were there to show the government that they cant win this one. The plan was, we march to Stockport police station armed with one big joint each, light it up and pass it on. In doing this we were openly possessing and supplying cannabis to others.

Off we go - We had one banner that said COLIN IS A HEALER NOT A DEALER - Along the way I noticed that Nol was now with us - We crossed a road and saw two mounted policemen who started to follow us, are they expecting us? - It seems they were, we arrived at the police station to find a thin blue line across the front of it - So we formed a thin green line opposite - The call came out, Light up - We puffed and passed and waited, the thin blue line didn't move, are they just gonna let us do this and ignore it? - Patman and I were in our wheelchairs at the front, with us was Jimmy (Ganjaland). We puffed and passed 2 joints between the 3 of us, if they don't come and arrest us soon the joints will be gone - Finally a nice WPC approached me and said she was arresting me, I carried on smoking the joint as she informed me of my rights, I suggested that she take the joint and put it out or she will have nothing to arrest me for - After me Patman was arrested and then more arrests took place - We were lined up in a courtyard where we had to queue to be processed. Imagine the scene 12 tokers and 12 cops but it was the cops who were holding the joints.

At this point you may ask why only 12 arrests? At this point we ask the same question. Later I spoke to Nol and despite blatant attempts to get arrested (including blowing marijuana smoke at the police), they ignored him completely. Is this discrimination against the Dutch? No, Alan Mason (Ganjacat), John Peacock (LCA) and Jimmy Louis were all ignored and so were many others - Back at the police station it was becoming obvious that they didn't have enough cells to accommodate us. Despite this the police were in good spirits and it was smiles all round, I would like to thank the Stockport police for treating us with respect and courtesy. Trev (my carer) got led away to the cells and the talk behind the desk was of doubling-up (not normal in a holding cell). As Trev was my carer they put us together, we sat on the bunk and chatted, eating a piece of Honey-Moroccan hash.

The cell door opened and Richard was shown in, 3 to a cell, maybe that's why they only arrested 12 of us.

Despite our fluffy behaviour it was obvious that we were causing a few administration problems, this meant that our protest had been successful, the sacrificial lambs had achieved something.

I was taken to an interview room, as we went in the PC said Were all on your side here Chris. I was interviewed by him and the WPC who arrested me. The interview lasted a few minutes and was conducted in the same good-natured way as the rest of the afternoon. I, of course admitted to my heinous crime against the state but showed no sign of repentance. After that I was fingerprinted, photographed, DNA swabbed and led back to my cell. Shortly after that Trev returned to the cell and soon we were charged and bailed. The whole thing took just 2 hours. We apologised for any inconvenience we had caused

(remember our fight was not with the police). We got the impression that they enjoyed the afternoon, we were told that it was a pleasure to deal with us compared to most of their customers.

It was 5:30pm, we made our way back to The Dutch Experience, stopping to pick up our stash from its hiding place.

A heroes welcome, we were greeted with a huge cheer as we walked through the door, the place was buzzing and it was great to be back with our friends again. We settled down to a good smoke and waited for the others to return. One by one they were greeted with the same heroes welcome. It was a great evening and as I looked around the place I saw friendly, smiling faces and I felt warm and safe in this political hotbed, ironic innit?

Of the 12 arrests here's the breakdown of the charges.

The following 10 people were charged with possession of cannabis: (In alphabetical order)

Chris Baldwin (Worthing), Jack Bell (Accrington), Nick Bowden (Bury), Patman Denning (Milton Keynes), Karen Hughes (Manchester), Richard Lea (Stockport), Phil Lockwood (Brighouse), Trevor Scott (Worthing), Andy Stephens (Grimsby), Robin Wright (Manchester).

Jimmy Ward (Bournemouth) was charged with supplying Patman, which was strange because they watched Jimmy, Patman and me supply each other, I got busted with Patmans joint and he got busted with mine so how did that happen if we didn't supply each other?

James Wells (Scotland) accepted a caution.

To sum up, the day (although not as well supported as we had hoped) was a success - This was only the first of these actions but we need more people to stand up and be counted, if thousands of us turned up at our local police stations on Saturday afternoon to peacefully puff & pass we could smash cannabis prohibition in weeks and soon we would enjoy the same (civilised) Coffeeshop culture as the Dutch.

We have the network in place so lets use it and mobilise ourselves - Who can get rid of prohibition? For the answer to that, go and look in the mirror.

The Thin Green Line

Continued

(Chris Baldwin)

Sunday 25^th November 2001 - James Wells (Scotland) who accepted a caution the day before went (on his own) to Stockport police station to report a crime, handed in 0.2 grams of cannabis resin and was arrested and charged with possession of cannabis.

Tuesday 27^th November 2001 - 11 go to court - Number 12, Andy Stephens (Grimsby) said he was handed the joint by someone and he didn't know what was in it. So the joint has to be analysed and he was bailed to reappear in 5 weeks.

Court number 4 - 11 heinous criminals are led into court, this caused problems of course, the courtroom wasn't designed to hold 11 defendants, especially when 2 are in wheelchairs.

One by one we are asked to identify ourselves and confirm our name and address. Then one by one the charges were read out and we were asked if we accepted the judgement of this court or do we elect to be tried by judge and jury. To this we all answered judge & jury, there's a surprise! - We were all bailed to reappear on January 11^th 2002.

Freedom once again and back to The Dutch Experience, a sad scene for law and order as we fragrantly broke the law yet again. Whilst on bail you must not re-offend,

Its no good you will have to shout that a bit louder because I dont think anyone is listening.

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