Pulled in for one joint: Harrison Campbell has been smoking a little, dealing a little, since the mid-Sixties. And he's seen the law in action
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Your support makes all the difference.'ALL different types of people buy ganja, but in Ladbroke Grove, speaking in generalisations, it is the black man who gets nicked. I have sold to a member of the Royal family and to the son of a cabinet minister, yet I have never heard of them being nicked.
Almost all of my friends have been nicked, several times. I have been nicked four times, the first time in 1968, the last time only recently. Each time I pleaded guilty and each time I was fined. The first time it was pounds 25, the last time pounds 120.
I came to Ladbroke Grove with my family in 1965. I was 15. Six months later, I became aware of ganja. I had never seen it in Jamaica - I was too young. In London, it was part of the Rasta scene, part of the meditations of most of the people I know. It was part of their Friday evening scene. They would get five shillings' worth.
But I started out by drinking. When I used to drink, we would go around and smash up pubs and bars and cars, cos we were drunk. When we started smoking, we wanted to chat to girls and be sociable, because it gives you that cool, positive kind of thinking. I can't drive a car drunk. Smoke, though, improves my concentration.
Most of the guys in my group in Ladbroke Grove smoked a lot. The police attitude was very bad. That was one way of nicking a black man, wasn't it? If they knew you didn't have it, they used to plant it. A black man could go to jail for one joint.
I was arrested for pot in 1968, for five shillings' worth. I spent the night in the station and went to court the next morning. It didn't stop me smoking. I couldn't see anything wrong with smoking. It was just humiliating.
Today the police can get heavy about it, or ignore it. It all depends on the circumstances. Nine times out of 10 they'll just walk away, unless they see you doing something naughty and they'd probably pull you for that. They generally are after something bigger, and do a bad job when they pull kids and pound them for a spliff or something.
I have dealt ganja on and off over the years. You have to if you smoke. Sometimes just bits and pieces. Sometimes in quantity. Pot was pounds 8 an ounce in 1965. Today it's anything from pounds 100 to pounds 200. The most I ever handled was 10lb (4.5 kilos). It took three days to shift. After expenses I made about pounds 4,500. I could have made more, but I was dealing in quantity.
They say ganja leads to heroin. That's bullshit. I know 70-year-olds who have been smoking since they were 15, and they don't do crack and heroin.
Making ganja criminal is what causes the problem. You have guys going out and selling plastic and rubber and leather as, say, black hash, and ripping off guys and probably kicking guys in the face. If it was run like it is in the Netherlands, you wouldn't have that.
When it is legalised, I would like to set up a bar like you have in Amsterdam.'
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