Reynolds magics up Dr Potter books from the past

Author: Kevin John Braid

There’s never much of interest on the CLEAR ghost site, apart from the occasional rant from Peter Reynolds or a poorly written article by Derek Williams.

We still keep an eye on CLEAR’s web site, as well as Peter Reynolds’ own personal blog, as from time to time el Presidente will publish something stupid that will give us a chuckle.

Today was no exception, when we noticed the rather strange announcement on the CLEAR site that Dr Gary Potter of London South Bank University (LSBU) had very generously donated signed copies of his two books: ‘Weed, Need and Greed’ and ‘World Wide Weed‘.

For those not familiar with the comical tale of Peter Reynolds and Cannabis Law Reform (CLEAR), this is rather odd, given that lawyers acting on behalf of Dr Gary Potter and his employer London South Bank University are in the process of taking legal action against Peter Reynolds for defamation.

Yes that’s right, the man who Peter Reynolds says very generously donated signed copies of his book to raise cash for CLEAR is currently pursuing a legal action against Peter Reynolds for defamation.

This all goes back to last year when a large number of cannabis activists raised concerns about an article on CLEAR asking for people to participate in a global survey about cannabis cultivation, given that Peter Reynolds has a proven track record of reporting cannabis users to the police, even boasting that he had done so on Facebook.

When Dr Potter found out about the toxic reputation of Peter Reynolds he immediately distanced himself from him and CLEAR. This lead to Dr Potter being one of several people who received Letters of Claim from Reynolds threatening to sue. These were ignored by most of the people who received them, however, Dr Potter, perhaps rather foolishly, issued a short personal statement, which basically apologised for publishing third party comments on his web site, without checking them out (the apology has since been removed). Peter Reynolds then chose to grossly misrepresent Dr Potter’s apology on both his own personal blog and the CLEAR web site as a great victory, implying that Dr Potter and LSBU had been involved in criminal and civil offences against Peter Reynolds.

The blogs published by Reynolds included highly defamatory comments such as:

“Of course, this abuse has not just affected me.  What finally moved me to launch legal action was when the hate campaign started to target my children and my 78 year old mother.  Those concerned have already been involved in abusing and blackmailing various CLEAR members.  One past member of our executive committee had posted pictures of his grow on a forum and these were sent to his local police using information stolen from the CLEAR website when it was hacked in March of last year. Threats were even made against CLEAR supporters in the USA using the same stolen information. Derek Williams has suffered repeated attempts to blacken his name with his employers.  I salute his courage and steadfast support.”

This understandably angered and upset Dr Potter and London Southbank University, since it implied they were guilty of blackmail and harassing elderly people and children. Now of course others have been on the receiving end of Reynolds’ vile lies and abuse in the past, however, nobody as of yet had started defamation proceedings against him, but given LSBU is one of the oldest and largest universities in London and Dr Potter is a highly respected lecturer and the Course Director for their Criminology Department and an international author, it’s not really surprising they didn’t take too kindly to being falsely implicated by Reynolds in criminal activity involving blackmail and abuse of both the elderly and of children.

We reported about this back in May, when Peter Reynolds removed the defamatory articles after apparently receiving a Letter of Claim from lawyers acting on behalf of Dr Potter and LSBU. Reynolds later put back up the defamatory articles after we published that article, as it seems he couldn’t stand the humiliation.

Now, regular fans of Peter Reynolds Watch will know that Reynolds is suing four cannabis activists himself for defamation, for implying he is a racist, a grass, an antiSemite and a homophobe, even though he has written disgustingly bigoted blogs and has by his own admission reported cannabis users to the police (including medicinal users).

There’s a big differences between the two cases, in the first case, the blogs written by Reynolds were defamatory and the people / institutions involved have reputations to protect. The same cannot be said of Reynolds’ defamation cases, since everything written about him was true and he has no reputation worth protecting.

So there you have it, CLEAR once again begging for funds, offering the highest bidder signed copies of books written by a man who is in the process of suing Peter Reynolds for defamation.

One might ask why today of all days Peter Reynolds should chose to sell the books donated by Dr Potter, since our sources tell us Dr Potter donated these last October, before the Corby by-election and his disagreement with Reynolds. The reason is because the following article was published the previous day by Dr Potter on the NORML UK website calling for volunteers to anonymously take part in a TV documentary about cannabis cultivation.

Can you believe that? Dr Potter donated books to Peter Reynolds for CLEAR last October, which he obviously decided to keep for himself, but has now chosen to auction them off, because Dr Potter wrote a blog on web site of the UK branch of NORML, the oldest, largest and most respected cannabis campaigning organisation in the world.

We all know Peter Reynolds likes a tipple, but surely even his alcohol sozzled mind would have remembered the man he announced has generously donated signed copies of his books is the same man that he threatened to sue for defamation at the beginning of the year and who is now in turn actually in the process of commencing legal action against Reynolds for defamation himself.

Peter claims he dedicates his life to ending the prohibition of cannabis. He must be a very busy man, since he’s put back up the articles implicating Dr Potter and a major London university in blackmail, and child/ elderly abuse, we can only assume it is his intention to fight Dr Potter and LSBU’s lawyers in the Courts.

In the meantime, our sources tell us Reynolds hasn’t served replies to any of the defences given in response to the defamation writs he himself has issued, even though he’s obliged to do so under English Civil Procedure Rules. Now my guess is, and it’s only speculation folks, is Peter borrowed £8,550 from mummy and daddy to issue these writs from the Royal Courts of Justice (yes that’s how much they cost) against four activists in the hope they would simply capitulate, apologise and hand over some cash. He wasn’t banking on them actually serving defences and my guess is he hasn’t replied to them, because he has got himself into some deep hot water and hasn’t got a fucking clue how to get himself out of the mess he’s in.

I’m flying over to London for these court cases to get a front row seat in the public gallery of the Court, as ah widnae miss it fer the world to see this idiot make a complete arse of himself in front of a judge in what should be one of the greatest comedy spectacles of the year; even better than the Edinburgh Fringe.