| Media
Release 6 May 1999
Mardi
Grass to Sydney — the Hemp Olympix 2000!
The Thursday after.
My first day at home since Mardi Grass. Croaky voice, blistered feet, exhausted but
exhilarated. For me, it was the best Mardi Grass yet. If it hadn’t been raining all
Sunday morning there would have been too many people — parking chaos for a start. The Saturday crowd was big enough. I remember the vision of thousands of people surrounding the Growers Ironperson event a dozen deep, just metres away from Nimbin Bowling Club’s perfect green — the immaculate white-clad players never lost their concentration for a moment. This was Nimbin at its best! Or the bunch of ferals who came into the Timbarra Café saying there was something weird going on in the Museum Cave. The Timbarra mob went in, finding a crew of plainclothes "tourists" loudly singing, "Not all cops are bad cops!" over and over, out of their tree on cookies! Mardi Grass has become an amazing and unique pot party. Although we try and keep the focus on cannabis law reform and education, the inevitable happens. With the burden of criminality almost removed for a weekend, a sense of freedom takes over. There was a lot of flak for months before Mardi Grass. Lismore Council, the Showground Committee and locals, straights and hippies — all concerned that Mardi Grass has got too big for Nimbin. I see their point. The Daily News from Murwillumbah phoned. The Tweed Councils are discussing having their own Mardi Grass next year. What did I think? Fantastic! Let everyone protest together — take the heat off Nimbin. It’s very hard to get official approval or support for an anti-government rally on drugs. Most officialdom is scared to cooperate — their jobs are at risk. So let’s take it to Sydney, we thought. Mardi Grass is too big for Nimbin — let’s kick it off in Sydney next May. The thought of the Hemp Olympix in Sydney 2000 just may help Bob Carr to at least give a passing thought to the millions of Cannabis users spending a fortune on a herb they could grow in their backyard. Then we went to the pre-summit summit held in Lismore on Wednesday 5 May. It was all about heroin — not enough detox/rehab etc. But what about the cause of the problems? We’re only dealing with consequences. I see a mob of health professionals and so-called experts who’ve never pulled a bong in their life talking about us as statistics. Cannabis will be lucky to get a mention. So then we thought why wait for next year? The Sydney Parliament Drug Summit on 17 May is a once-in-a-decade opportunity. Let’s take the Big Joint down to the Summit. The ripple went out — the People’s Drug Summit in the Domain! "Let’s do it!" cried the heaps of people hanging around after Mardi Grass. People whose lives have been devastated by criminalisation. So it’s on. Next year in Sydney will be more than a pot protest. It will be a protest about attitudes — attitudes toward the Earth and Her bounty: medicinal herbs, forests, mining, clean water, etc. All these issues reflect the problems caused by the ignorant attitudes of government or even the people in general. "Yeah," everyone said. "Let’s go!" the Timbarra team are champing at the bit. "Why May 2000?" someone said, "Why not September 2000?" A giant smoke-in at the Olympics. The alternative Olympix — joint rolling, bong throwing, tripod climbing — the mind boggles … Michael
Balderstone
UNDERSTANDING FREES YOU! |
