News and other Busyness

Marlow Given Leave To Appeal

High Court says ‘incitement’ case needs re-examining

Squall 15, Summer 1997, pg. 11.

MICK MARLOW, the writer who was imprisoned in 1996 for incitement following the publication a book on cannabis cultivation Tricameral Sinsemilla by Maria Warner (Growing Pains, Squall 13) has been given leave to appeal by the High Court on May 13th.

Lord Justice Stuart-Smith, presiding, ruled that there were adequate grounds for appeal because the legal comparisons drawn in the original incitement case were inappropriate. He also recommended the 12 month sentence Mick received should be re-examined at appeal, and granted previously refused legal aid.

The appeal includes requests for the charge of incitement to be dropped and for remaining copies of the book to be returned, along with the only copy of a manuscript and colour slides of an unpublished book Simple Sinsemilla which was also seized during a police raid.

This is a positive development but it is not all good news for the Marlows. Following a raid, on the morning Mick was due to be sentenced for incitement, he and six others, including his wife Angie, were arrested for cannabis-related offences. At a subsequent hearing on

March 4th this year Mick and Angie each received two years probation and were ordered to pay court costs. Angie's sentence was for production and Mick's was for "suffering" his premises to be used for production. The couple have just lost their appeal to have the court costs dropped and must pay "something" or Angie will be imprisoned. Their inability to pay this fine (they have been forced to sell personal possessions to pay for other court costs) has been compounded by the DSS's failure to pay Invalidity Benefit Mick claimed due to a heart condition prior to his imprisonment.

An "exile" edition of Tricameral Sinsemilla has been printed in Germany. The book is available by mail order from InSuFo, PO Box 101561, D-33515, Bielefeld, Germany, price £16.

Pending the outcome of the appeal court hearing it is still an offence to import copies of the book to the UK. In addition, limited copies of a policy document Mick wrote in prison Cannabis: Burying the Myths - Resurrecting the Reality, are available, price £3.50 from PO Box 24, Newnham, Glos. GL14 1YA (cheques to Mick Marlow).

SB