Marc Leadbeater, the lead signatory of a requete which could have paved the way for legalisation and regulation of the drug, told deputies that he could not be sure when the motion would be re-presented, as the Assembly backed his bid to withdraw it from yesterday’s agenda.
‘I am devastated that this may not come back this term,’ he said.
‘For 10 years I have wanted this debate and for 10 years lots of other people have wanted this debate, and now they can’t have it.’
Deputy Leadbeater is facing a code of conduct investigation over accusations made by Deputy Rob Curgenven connected to his and his family’s dealings with so-called cannabis businesses.
He was concerned that reporting and commentary about the accusations would overshadow debate on the requete if it was not postponed until the investigation was completed.
There was a short and at times ill-tempered debate on the motion to withdraw the requete towards the end of a States meeting which lasted less than four hours in total.
Deputy Leadbeater apologised if he had contributed to the rising temperature of debate, but assured his colleagues that he was trying to show restraint despite ‘burning inside’ over leaks of the accusations against him, which he has denied.
‘I don’t have to speak about my involvement in the cannabis industry because I have no involvement and nor do my parents or my sister,’ he said.
‘But I still find myself in this position, fielding these accusations, which means I cannot bring this debate to the States and have a proper, informed debate.’
Neil Inder suggested that Deputy Leadbeater should read an Aesop fable about a broken relationship.
‘That’s Facebook for you,’ said Deputy Inder.
‘If you are born on Facebook, you die on Facebook. Even though I have sympathy for him, I remember him doing very well out of Facebook.’
He accused Deputy Leadbeater of ‘trying to play the victim’ and urged the States to allow debate on the requete to go ahead.
‘Man up, get on with the job, do what you’ve got to do, have the debate, and the decision will be the decision,’ said Deputy Inder.
Deputy Leadbeater accepted points made by Deputies Yvonne Burford and John Gollop that withdrawing the requete would also allow its seven signatories to reflect on letters of comment issued by various States committees before re-presenting the proposal to set up a working party to consider legal reforms.
Deputy Sally Rochester could not see anything in the public domain which should prevent debate on the requete from going ahead, but Deputies Haley Camp and Simon Vermeulen did not want to proceed given that the lead requerant wished to withdraw.
Deputy Leadbeater told the Assembly that he had received vile abuse from some of his critics.
‘I looked at my phone the other morning and it said “you are an embarrassment, Leadbeater, die” from someone I’ve never met who is a member of a certain Facebook group,’ he said.
‘My credibility as the lead requerant has been called into question. I cannot stand up here and lead this requete facing these allegations which have been leaked to the media.’
The motion to withdraw the requete was carried by 35 votes to one, with one member abstaining and two members absent.
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