Daily Mail - 30.07.2019

Page 22 Daily Mail, Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Overseas trip: Sir Norman Lamb, Jonathan Djanogly and David Lammy at the cannabis farm

Sleep remedy: Sir Norman

takes liquid form of drug

By Arthur Martin

Daily Mail, Tuesday, July 30 , 2019

Sleep remedy: Sir Norman

THREE MPs sparked fury

last night for visiting a can-

nabis farm in Canada with

lobbyists who want the

drug legalised in the UK.

Wearing lab coats, hair nets

and face masks, Tory MP

Jonathan Djanogly, Labour’s

David Lammy and Lib Dem Sir

Norman Lamb posed at a facil-

ity in Toronto that generates

£1million in revenue from the

drug each year.

Sir Norman became the first

serving MP to openly take a can-

nabis product on camera after try-

ing a liquid form of the drug.

And at the end of the three-day

fact-finding trip, the MPs pre-

enough to get involved in the can-

nabis legalisation debate.

‘I’m cynical of anyone who is

invited to a so-called fact-finding

mission by a group that wants to

legalise the drug. Sadly, they are

just useful idiots.’

Mr Djanogly accepted flights,

transfers, food and accommoda-

tion worth £5,890 from Volteface

for last month’s trip.

The lobbying group is a staunch

supporter of cannabis legalisation

in the UK and is partly funded by

MPX International – a Canadian

company which produces the

drug. Both Sir Norman and Mr

Lammy support legalisation, while

Mr Djanogly said he remains open

to the idea in the future.

He said: ‘We have got a lot to

learn before the legalisation of

recreational cannabis, which I

think will happen at some point. I

think we’re on a ten to 15-year

cycle which would mirror what

has happened in Canada.’

Sir Norman was filmed by BBC’s

Newsbeat taking a cannabis oil

sleep remedy containing the psy-

choactive ingredient THC. He car-

ried some of the oil on the flight

home. ‘I had my science and tech-

nology select committee to chair

the next day so I needed a good

sleep,’ he said. ‘I took the drops

and slept very well on the plane.’

Sir Norman put the rest of the

bottle in a bin in the aircraft toilet

to avoid breaking the law once

he landed in the UK.

In England and Wales, around 10

million adults aged 16 to 64 have

tried the drug at least once,

according to crime figures.

Mr Lammy said: ‘I want the mar-

ket legalised and regulated, taken

away from criminal gangs. But I

want to see the strength of the

stuff reduced, labelled and prop-

erly organised in our country.’

The Home Office said it ‘has no

intention of changing the law’

on cannabis.

y

MPs’ high time

at cannabis farm

‘Sadly, they are

just useful idiots’

dicted that cannabis use in the

UK would be fully legalised in five

to ten years. Mr Djanogly had his

£6,000 trip paid for by pro-canna-

bis campaign group Volteface.

Mr Lammy and Sir Norman paid

for themselves. However, the can-

nabis conference they attended,

which praised the Canadian gov-

ernment for legalising the drug for

recreational use last year, was paid

for by the lobbying group.

Medicinal cannabis was legalised

in Britain last November but the

Government says it will not do the

same for street cannabis.

Last night the MPs were labelled

‘useful idiots’ for agreeing to go on

the overseas trip.

David Raynes, of the National

Drug Prevention Alliance, said:

‘Big companies involved in the

production of marijuana want to

get into the UK market and get

the drug legalised. They will pay,

invite and use anybody foolish

They go with lobbyists... then say drug

will be legalised (and one even tries it!)

V1