Green drug chief caught cultivating cannabis
Green Party spokesman for drugs issues, Shane Collins, has been sent to prison for six week for cultivating cannabis.
Mr Collins stood for election for the seat of Vauxhall at the General election in 2001 where he polled a little below 5%. He is a proponent of liberalisation of drugs laws, but his arrest kept him away from a recent Cannabis Rally
Deputy Mayor Jenny Jones, who did attend the rally, and is one of the most senior elected figures in the UK’s Green Party, was not aware of the conviction until Mr Collins failed to arrive.
She defended her colleague and criticised the situation saying ‘this is ludicrous when we’re on the point of changing the law. It’s even worse when the UK has its highest prison population ever. The criminal justice system is under huge pressure, yet we’re being heavy-handed on victimless crime.’
Other Prominent figures have also commented on the conviction. Darren Johnson, Leader of the Greens on the London Assembly, argued: “This just reinforces our view that the law is in urgent need of reform. Putting someone in jail for doing something that has manifestly caused no-one any harm is ridiculous.
And Green Party home affairs spokesman, Hugo Charlton, contrasted: ‘We’ve recently had a senior police officer urging Britain’s police forces to turn a blind eye to speeding offences. Speeding kills, cannabis doesn’t. What sort of priority is that?’
Although unelected, Shane Collins is one of the most prominent members of the Green Party and is regularly asked to comment on drugs policy in the media. The Party has said that he is being held in Brixton Prison.
