Report from Christchurch
The Global Marijuana Day went down a treat here in Christchurch New Zealand. (its our tenth 'J-Day' .. so there is a bit of a history to it...)The event went ahead right next to the city central POLICE kiosk where for more than five hours - police came and went going about there daily business not 20mtres from hundreds of people participating in 'illegal activities'.
The central city has a 100% alcohol ban that were any or all imbibing in fermented liquors there would have been with the ''full force of law'' arrests and confiscations.....
On this occassion the Police didnt even bother to ''look in'' - its making it difficult to get mainstream attention (grin)
The audience was mighty impressed with some of the international work being done, as well as heard from Member of Parliament and others such as Larry Ross, internationaly recognised peace activist, Deputy Leader of the worlds first single issue cannabis reform political party - Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party's Micheal Britnell and more.
The MC was able to intersperse a lot of information that otherwise never gets said (or reported). The feedback in this regard was the "how come we never hear about this in mainstream media..." - of course the lesson here is 'bloody well ask them.... ring the editor, better still write!"
Sometimes basic activism is just a question of mobilising people to express interest.
Huge support was shown for Schapelle Corby, facing the 'bullet' in Indonesia for 4.1 kg of pot. (unlikely to have been hers) Notably, at an estimated 200 tonnes per annum consumption in New Zealand, that would take about 1 minute to consume. We would have to take someone out and shoot them at a rate of one per minute. The last country known to attempt this was Thailand... at more than 2400 in 90 days. We. well Helen Clark of course, signed a free-trade agreement with that lot just last week. What are we thinking?
All in all a wonderfuly succesful day and a fitting contribution to all the MMM events globally.