17/04/2007 01:00:00
Press Release: Cannabis Campaigner's Support Magistrates Revolt
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PRESS RELEASE: 17 April 2007: No Embargo
Legalise Cannabis Alliance
PO Box 2884,
Stoke-on-Trent,
ST4 9EE
http://www.lca-uk.org
CANNABIS CAMPAIGNERS SUPPORT MAGISTRATES REVOLT
The Legalise Cannabis Campaign has come out in support of Cambridge
magistrate Alan Williams and two colleagues who resigned last week after
refusing to levy a "victims' surcharge" on a teenager fined for
possessing a small amount of cannabis. [1]
Dilys Wood of Stoke-on-Trent, a spokesperson for the Legalise Cannabis
Alliance, said: I am pleased to see that magistrates are at last
accepting cannabis possession is a crime without victims.
"We can only hope that all magistrate and Judges faced with imposing
this unfair and unjust surcharge will accept that cannabis possession
is a crime without victims and follow the example of Mr Williams and his
colleagues and resign in protest."
Contact: Dilys Wood DilysWood@lca-uk.org
Public Relation Office
Legalise Cannabis Alliance
http://www.lca-uk.org
Editors notes
1: Magistrates involved in the case who resigned:
Mr Williams, 60, (from Ely) Having fined a teenager for possessing a
small amount of cannabis declared in court at Ely that surcharging the
teenager for the crimes of others was "morally wrong" .... Mr Williams
later resigned.
Mrs Johnson, 61, (from Cartmel, Cumbria), said: "let the punishment fit
the crime."
Mr Foster, 63, a magistrate in Boston Lincolnshire for 15 years, said:
"The only way you can fight these sorts of things is by making the
protest, as others will no doubt do".
The government £15 "victims' surcharge" to fund services for victims
suffering domestic violence was imposed on JP's despite opposition from
the Magistrates' Association which condemned the scheme as fundamentally
flawed"
Source: The Guardian: "Magistrates quit over government demand to impose
charges" Author: Clare Dyer, legal editor; April 16 2007)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2058081,00.html
Source:
http://www.ukcia.org/news/shownewsarticle.php?articleid=12450
Author:
Legalise Cannabis Alliance via UKCIA
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