Lets have an Australia wide march in each capitol city

[littlbit]

wtg cloner

[Morgaine]

My personal opinion comes from my own experience and that of other countries on getting this done.

 

It seems to me that going the medical marijuana usage route first seems to have worked for other countries and communities. People have a much more open mind about it's use if it's related to pain relief or treatment. "Whatever works for you" even from fairly conservative people seems to be common. Places such as Canada and some sections of the US seem to have achieved much more acceptance of pot if it's brought to them on this platform first. Then the education comes, because they have an open mind about it working for people who need it and are willing to admit that maybe it's not the demon in the drug world they once thought. And we all know what education brings don't we It's how the 'against' group comes to realise they are wrong that matters...we can drum up 1000 people to turn up on parliament house in every state, but it doesn't really educate the non-believers...seeing is believing for them to change their minds.

 

I use it medicinally and many friends know this. They know the pain I'm in a lot of the time and how much it helps me, even those that aren't smokers or ever have been do not judge me for it. They are glad I have found something that helps, and there's such a backlash against unsafe pharmaceuticals that the general public is ripe for alternatives.

 

It just looks to me anyways that going this route first achieves a lot in the one hit...the education factor comes naturally with it, instead of the full on legal fight for just open use - such a long long road that way - my point is why reinvent the wheel when others have proven this route to work ?

 

Just my 20 cents worth, not a slight by any means on anyone looking at it a different way!

 

Morgaine

[Guest niall]

I'm in for anything, I'm really surprised that there are people out there willing to do something as that's been my biggest frustration over the last 8 years - just getting people willing to take a stand and put their necks on the line for what they believe in.

 

Pipeman - you've made quite a few jabs at me lately, so perhaps this is a good time to explain that I also have Asperger's. I come across as blunt, rude and lecturing at times - I'm very aware of this, but it's just how I am. I'm not a people person, I never have been, but it's not my intention to actually be rude or lecture people. The intention simply isn't there, but I can understand why you (and many others over the years) get this impression of me and why I rub so many people the wrong way, particularly online. I'm literal and pedantic, that's just how I am. Anyone who's met me in person will agree that I'm very laid back and a nice guy, I just have a few quirks as far as social skills go :-)

 

So back to activism - I think we should start with small steps. A rally or march is a large event, and while there's anonymity in a crowd and many of us are happy to address the cameras and be a public figure on this issue, I think we need to build up towards this. The first, most simple thing we can do is simply to get a group of activists together and start talking. People who are willing to act, whether that's in public and on camera or behind the scenes organising and helping.

 

Once we have a group of people together we can start with a few small projects and help each other to write LTEs, start building up contacts and lists of organisations that we should open a dialogue with (medical and patient orgs for example), start attending other events like concerts and festivals to hand out flyers, and just see if we're viable and able to perform the basics as a group. We need to build up trust with each other and form a network, something that is self sustaining so that new members are attracted and encouraged to join and get active.

 

Part of this should include documenting the laws in each State so that our members understand them, and what their basic rights are, how to conduct themselves if being searched or arrested for example. There are heaps of potential projects that we could do, everything from newsletters to contacting and surveying our MPs, voter's guides, getting involved in authoring Bills and acting as advisors for medical organisations and patient groups, court experts... there are many, many things that we can do and this is an area that I've done a lot of thinking on. I also think it's very important that we do this slowly and carefully - we don't want people to burn out or get frustrated and give up. Above all it must be self sustaining, we need new members to be joining faster than old members leaving or becoming inactive. We need to attract young and old, on a continuing basis if this is to last more than a few years or one decade.

 

Much of that is really what I intended MarijuanaAustraliana.net to initiate and assist with, but as I've said I'm not a people person and at the end of the day there are very few people who are actually willing to take a stand and take action. But of course we need other people's ideas, I'm no Tyrant and I'm not interested in "leading" people.. I'm just trying to document my own ideas and to try to motivate others to do something of their own in the only way that I know how, by building websites and discussing ideas on forums like this.

 

Much of this fight is education and opposing myths and lies from our opponents. For this reason I started a new project last year called CannabisFacts.info but it will be another year or two until the site has enough content to fulfil its goal - an accurate, useful reference for the public.

 

If we need a site to gather on then I'm happy to open MA up to those who are interested, or we can do it here at OzStoners or wherever.

 

But are there actually people willing to get involved and work together, with or without me? I'm excited at the thought, but I'm sadly pessimistic and sceptical. Perhaps the failure of MA was my own personality, so I'm happy to join another project and work towards someone else's plan, but I still think the biggest hurdle we face is in getting even a handful of people together and communicating regularly.

[Guest niall]

Another project that I'm interested in starting is a Medical Cannabis Information Service. There is a lot of research and good information out there from the medical programs in Canada, the US, the Netherlands and soon Israel. This information needs to be gathered and made available to Australian patients and patient groups such as MS, Cancer, HIV/AIDS, Parkinson's groups etc. There is potential income there as a non-profit NGO doing speaking and presentations as well as consultations and retail sales of vapourisers to patients etc.

 

I think Brash started this in NSW but I've been unable to contact him for years now, does anyone know if he is still around or has his illness progressed? :-(

[pipeman]

I think the mistake people make with activism is that they are expecting a result, they are expecting people to agree with them and follow them just because what they are saying is true. But truth has little to do with anything in this world.

 

IMO a successful activist is someone who enjoys their activism. They know what they are doing is right and they get personal pride and satisfaction from that. The external results of what you are doing should be unimportant. If the cannabis community want to notice people like this and start adding some weight to the movement, that would be a bonus, but I think its unimportant.

 

You can't save the world, and to try to do so will do nothing but create conflict with others and with yourself.

[Guest niall]

Very true pipeman, I've come to the same conclusion.

[mullray]

Hey guys I know I'm new here but I have a few experiences that may offer some insight (for what they're worth).

 

You could look at starting a community sector organisation to give the group some say and credibility amongst government legislators.

 

(Or) There is an organisation in England called transform which uses an interesting model http://www.tdpf.org.uk/

Having once worked in the community sector -which is like working in government- I prefer the private sector model for drug law reform.

 

Transform takes donations (private sector) and uses these funds to educate activate etc. They're very good at what they do and are taken seriously by legislators in the UK. Part of their work includes releasing masses of press releases and working with the press around drug issues. The key in drug law reform is to change public perception; something that legislators/policy makers/cops have been very successful in doing of late around mj (cannabis should no longer be seen as a soft drug - it causes schitzophrenia and there is this new deadly skunk perverting the innocence of our children and reaping havoc in our communities.... we don't have indoor grow rooms anymore, we have clandestine drug labs blah blah). Attacking this propaganda would be extremely important. It is necessary to understand that the wider community now is not likely to tolerant of mj given the hysteria they have been fed for the past decade.

 

Also there are organisations which offer funds towards fighting drug laws - the George Soros Foundation being one of these.

 

It seems to me that any organisation would a)need a formal structure and b)need funds for the various activities and campaigns it would need to run. You need to be mindful of the fact that government has massive resources and as yet you don't. If you take on a vastly superior opponent there is every likelihood -even with the moral high ground - you will be left beaten and bruised....

 

For myself - I really don't know. Luke if you start something in WA pm me and I'd come along but I have to say it 1) there is no way given the times I would put my face to mj legalisation (years ago I went on a march in Perth and about 140 people showed up after weeks of advertising the march through Uni mags, mags and newspapers 2) after years and years and years of talk about mj legalisation I think we are now only going backwards in Australia and elsewhere. The point of the whole reefer madness scare of late has been to stygmatise mj and have the community see it as a hard drug with massive social implications and I think they have been extremely successful in doing this. This makes your task a hard ask. How do you take on their propaganda machine and educate with facts????

 

I'm in my 50's so have seen a lot of the history of the mj movement. We were very optimistic in the seventies about legalisation, we were very optimistic in the eighties and reasonably optimistic in the nineties. Come the new millenium things changed in Oz.

 

You would ideally have to take on legislators through the courts and at policy level -as the med movement has done in North America - which would mean lawyers and lobbyists. It all costs a lot of money. Just my thoughts for what they're worth.

[mullray]

http://transform-drugs.blogspot.com/

 

Here's a blog from transform which talks about WA's laws and a recent conference in the UK where WA's Dr Simon Lenton (the man behind WA's cannabis law reforms which are about to be overturned) attended. Personally I think this guy Lenton is a right wanker and has a lot to answer for but there you go - just my opinion. Since he got involved with the whole cannabis debate in WA we have had more busts, tougher sentencing and far less cannabis availability as a result of busts as a result of these laws. He though points out that use of mj has gone down since the new laws came into being without mentioning all the busts and the concurrent lack of availability (hence less usage presumably).... But I'm getting sidetracked

 

Transform -

[Chato]

Haven;t seen Brash around in about 9months or so i reckon. He was posting a bit for awhile there but has dropped off again.

 

peace

c

[Rocker]

Like mullray who posted above I was very optimistic in the 70’s that cannabis would have been at least decriminalised by now.

Sadly though in OZ the attitude has hardened considerably and I believe it will get worse.

Also bongs are getting banned everywhere.

 

The generation I belong to has had their turn at being in power and nothing happened with regard to cannabis laws.

Except now things are getting tougher and this is happening under Labour governments too.

This to me is disppointing in the extreme.

 

Another problem for us older guys is the medical problems that develop as we age.

We have doctors peering into our lives through blood tests and the like.

It is unnerving.

 

I warn you that getting old isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.

 

Buckets and buckets of cash are needed to fight all the bad propaganda put out on cannabis.

Sorry to be pessimistic guys but we are being pushed backwards at a rate of knots just now.