Manchester
Hundreds
march for cannabis legalisation
More than 600 people have taken part in a march in
Manchester to support the legalisation of cannabis.
The event on Saturday was designed to mark World Cannabis
Action Day and was mirrored around the world, billed as
the Million Marijuana March.
Police presence was strong partly because many more
people had been expected to join the event.
They said that if they saw protesters smoking the drug
they would not arrest them, but would instead quietly ask
them to stop.
The march held up traffic in the city centre but there
was no trouble or arrests.
The protesters converged on Whitworth Park, where there
was music and entertainment.
Many people were there to support Colin Davies, the
Stockport cannabis cafe owner who is currently on remand
in prison.
Jonjo Nally, of the Manchester Cannabis Coalition, said
they also wanted to draw attention to the other uses of
cannabis, including for medicine and hemp clothing.
"We want to show that there is an industry that can
be born from this," he said.
Marches are expected to take place in more than 30 other
countries including the US, New Zealand, Canada, the
Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and France.
Lambeth experiment
A similar march was held in the London borough of
Lambeth, where police have been pioneering a
"softly, softly" approach to cannabis.
Those found with small amounts of cannabis may be warned
and have their drug confiscated, but they will
not face arrest.
The government has recently said it was
"minded" to downgrade cannabis from a Class B
to a Class C drug.
If it did so, users could be free to smoke it in public
without fear of arrest.
But the Million Marijuana March organisers say this would
not be enough.
Its website says: "The recent progress towards de
facto decriminalisation in Britain is to be welcomed but
is clearly not the full solution. "Only a complete,
total lifting of prohibition will do. Anything less is
simply a half-way house which fails to protect the
public."
Manchester UK rally.
The BBC's Lucy Atherton
"The event passed off peacefully"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1965000/video/_1968119_cannabis18_atherton_vi.ram
Manchester Cannabis Coalition Jonjo Nally
"I have been really overwhelmed by the amount of
support"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1965000/video/_1968119_march12_nally_vi.ram
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