GEORGIAN presidential candidate Zurab Japaridze was arrested in Tbilisi yesterday for giving out free joints at an unauthorised festival promoting the legalisation of cannabis.

Hundreds of supporters took part in the country’s first Cannabis Legalisation Festival organised by Mr Japaridze’s Girchi Party, although authorities banned the event and refused to allow the erection of a stage and stalls.

Mr Japaridze, a former member of ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili’s United Movement Party, favours closer ties with the European Union and membership of Nato.

As well as the legalisation of cannabis, he advocates administrative decentralisation and the privatisation of state-run assets.

Having vowed to perform an “act of defiance” at Saturday’s event, Mr Japaridze was arrested swiftly after handing out what appeared to be three pre-rolled joints.

“What I’m doing now is a deed which is punishable in this country. In this country, we must have a legal way to procure marijuana, since the Constitutional Court said that’s my right. But I’m deprived of this right.

“I have a joint in my pocket, and I’ll give it out right now. It’s distribution of drugs. We’ll see what the police do, “ Mr Japaridze said prior to his detention.