Street-artist smokes cannabis in House of Commons as part of protest

LONDON - A street-artist apparently smuggled a cannabis joint into the House of Commons and even smoked it while Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was addressing MPs.

The 18-year-old street-artist, who goes by the pseudonym ‘Cartrain’, had managed to get his drugs through the supposedly tight security, and he smoked it while Clegg, 43, was taking questions from MPs during Prime Minister’s Questions.

“The security was tighter than at an airport - there were about 20 cops searching people, metal detectors, the works - but I couldn’t believe how easy it was,” the Daily Mail quoted Cartrain as saying.

“I lit up right in front of Nick Clegg. I must have taken a good four or five pulls on the spliff before the guards realised what I was doing, and then I went quietly,” he revealed.

Cartrain was only stopped when he stood up and shouted, “decriminalise cannabis”, revealing his illegal actions to police, who rushed over to drag him and a friend away.

“They said they would put me in a cell under Big Ben, which I said sounds amazing, like the most expensive hotel in London, but then they decided to let me go when they realised I was quite keen to be arrested,” he added.

The Leytonstone-based artist was released with a warning, and his police stop and account form, signed by an officer of the Met’s SO17 Palace of Westminster division, reads: “Stopped in strangers gallery after seen smoking cannabis.” (ANI)