Single Policy Marijuana Party for Queensland?

[Dragonfan]

I'm inclined to disagree Frazzle, sure there are those with their own Agenda's but I look at it more like taking baby steps . . . IF marijuana [cannabis] could be legalised for medical purposes and then the govenment shown that people growing their own, compassion clubs etc worked WITHOUT the criminal element/s, was easily government managed and monitered and further researched for all the non existent really 'bad' side effects by Aussie scientists [as we've some of the best in the world] it could only bode WELL for the push for full legalisation [if not in the first instance at least full decriminilisation].

 

[They're starting with the hemp industry already . . . so I don't think there's a worry on that side of things]

[Wayne Smith]

Hi Chong. How's Cheech? I don't sell domains mate. Never even looked into how its done. Although I did once pretend I'd sold BadAstronomer.Com to Fill Plate's nemesis Richard Hoagland. Just for a laugh. Why would anyone waste time writing a book proving that we went to the moon? What's next on his writing list? Destroying the credibility of the flat earth society?

 

I used to work with the crocodile team at Australia Zoo and the fact that Bindi Irwin was going to be famous was a no brainer. John Stainton was a fool for not securing that domain years earlier. I didn't have a clue what I was going to do with that prime piece of internet real estate but I did know it would be gobbled up in no time. If not by me then somebody else with access to a credit card. The .org and .net domains all vanished within hours of my purchase. In the end I decided to give the domain to Terri and I contacted Australia Zoo telling them they could have it as soon as they provided me with transfer details. That was a couple of weeks before the Sydney Morning Herald called me an abhorrent racist trying to profit from steve irwin's death. Ouch.

 

You have to love Crikey don't you. The editor contacted me after that piece. Nice bloke.

 

Thanks for the support Mistyville. Counting me, I guess we only need another 498 members now. Too easy.

 

Hi Naycha. I hope I can too. I've just been chasing up information on the various hoops I'll have to navigate in pursuing this enterprise. Started at the local council which seemed a logical place to enquire. All I got was a double blink from the staff and the suggestion that I try the electoral office. Nobody had ever asked them before. So off I went to the electoral office. Got the same result except that they suggested I try local member Ray Hopper. Judging by the LNP pamphlets on the front counter I would guess he's one of Springborg's mates. Unfortunately the nice lady behind the glass screen didn't know anything either but she said she'd enquire on my behalf. She made a call and said I should try the courthouse. She also offered to contact me with some information as soon as she had it to hand. I don't have a phone number so I gave her my email addy.

wayne@liberalnationalparty.com

To her credit she didn't even bat an eyelid.

 

The girls at the courthouse stood around in discussion for awhile. Guess what? Nobody had ever asked them that before. They suggested I try Ray Hoppers office. The place I'd just left.

 

Eventually I found the number for ECQ and they promised to snailmail me an idiots guide to making a state political party. Should get it in a few days if it doesn't disapear in the xmas mail chaos.

 

Yeah, domains are great fun. I sometimes link up over a hundred of them. You can walk out and make a coffee before it finishes bouncing around. All the metatags get mixed up and it confuses the hell out of webcrawlers.

 

Thanks for the tip Frazzle. I suspected as much. Personally I'd like to see all drugs legalised. That would completely destroy the blackmarket trade in street drugs and bring about a massive reduction in crime.

 

I hear what you are saying Dragonfan and I'm half inclined to agree. That seems to be the approach adopted by other parties and it is a good strategy. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be working. No cannabis party in Australia has ever come close to winning an election. Many people might agree with their arguments, but not strongly enough to actually give them their vote. I think we should try to appeal to the entire community and use every argument available.

 

Its time to end this senseless prohibition. Jack Herer said it most eloquently.

 

"Legalising the most useful biomass known to man would allow the government to regulate it, tax it, create new jobs and promote a billion dollar industry. There is only one annually renewable natural resource that is capable of providing the overall majority of the world's paper, textile, transportation and energy needs while simultaneously reducing pollution, rebuilding the soil and cleaning the atmosphere all at the same time."

 

Jasper Carrott OBE made me realise that legalising it would kill off a black market business which is known to finance both the slave and arms smuggling industries. Knowing this, how can anyone in good conscience oppose such reform?

 

I'll keep you all updated on how the party registration process is going. Feel free to email me any time. I'm going to explore some possible names right now. Suggestions very welcome.

 

Hmmm. I wonder what would happen if I really did register a party with the same initials as the LNP.

Edited December 19, 2008 by Wayne Smith

[Wayne Smith]

That didn't take long.

 

Americans spell legalise with a 'z' and naturally all of the domains spelled that way are long gone. England and Australia ofcourse spell it correctly. Curiously enough there were a few domains with the Australian spelling still available.

 

Grabbed these without even thinking twice about it. Gold!

 

LegaliseCannabis.Com

 

These two organisation domains too.

 

LegaliseMarijuana.Org

LegaliseCannabis.Org

 

Those are going to be very useful. The search engines will love them.

 

Ok. Explored 'Party' extensions on that theme. It was a flip up between 'Legalise Marijuana Party' or 'Legalise Cannabis Party'. So I threw both 'Marijuana' and 'Cannabis' into the Yahoo search engine. Got over 8 million websites for 'Marijuana' and only half a million for 'Cannabis'. Not a big surprise. 'Cannabis' has a harsher ring to it than 'Marijuana' anyway. On top of that the initials LMP give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside. LCP sounds like a variant of crack cocaine.

 

Not being very wealthy I can't afford both(especially with the present exchange rate). So I chose 'Legalise Marijuana Party'. Should be easy for people to remember. That'll just about wipe my bank account clean. Ofcourse we don't have to use LMP as the party title. Just using these domains for additional attention warrants buying them.

 

LegaliseMarijuanaParty.com

 

LegaliseMarijuanaParty.org

 

LegaliseMarijuanaParty.net

 

LegaliseMarijuanaParty.info

 

 

This is the point where some bastard usually points out I've made a spelling mistake. Fully optimising the metatags for those is going to be tortuous. There are hundreds of names for MJ. Still can't get over the fact that such obvious domains were available for sale. LMP was gone. Every one. London Mozart Players grabbed the .Org I think.

 

Just got an email from a reporter at ZDNET.Com wishing me luck. That was nice of them.

 

Have a nice weekend folks.

[Gruntus]

Gotta disagree with you on the choice of Marijuana over Cannabis. The former word, apart from being somewhat dated Mexican slang, has been used for decades by mainstream media to degrade Cannabis cultivation and consumption. It's somewhat like referring to alcohol as piss or grog. I just think you're getting off on the wrong foot by using a handle so full of negative associations as your party name. Sorry, others might disagree..

[Frazz]

yea gruntus i too agree that the term marijuana carries negative connotations and is really just a slang term imo ..

nevertheless i am fascinated by wayne and his sharpness in picking up on these addresses or domains or whatever they are ..

im not sure what they do, but it must be good to own them names eh ...

 

[Dragonfan]

Just messin' with my graphics editor . . .

 

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x62/AMberz007/CannaParty.gif

[Wayne Smith]

I was expecting some comments along those lines. It's a conundrum I've been pondering myself the last few days as I wait on some information to help kickstart this show. We can either embrace the term 'marijuana' and try to turn it's negative connotations around or go with a completely different term such as it's original botanical name. But I think the negativity surrounding the FBI's chosen term of 'Marijuana' now encompasses all of it's titles. So it probably doesn't matter. I think its about 70 years too late to repair the damage done by it. Really it would be like repeating the 'Marijuana Assasin of Youth' propaganda in reverse using the truth instead of lies. Only we don't have the newspaper publishers in our pocket like they did. Besides, I'm not so sure Marijuana has that bad a reputation anymore. The Governments of various nations have spent millions since the 1930's trying to find proof that the plant is harmful. Despite covering up all of the positive results which came out of it such as medical benefits (much of it already described in the Pharmacopia Brittanica) the research has turned up pitifully little that can be decribed as frightening. Most people can see its overhyped. Compared to the deadly and very much legal drugs available, its harmless. As the number two most popular recreational drug in Australia after beer the Government is kidding itself if it thinks its fooling everyone about this "dangerous" drug.

 

We have plenty of time to think up a name though. If we need 500 members then I'm going to have to put my thinking cap on and come up with some idea's in regard to publicity and advertising. We want a national debate on this. We really do. Because we can win it quite easily. Every aspect of the argument for prohibition has a stronger counter argument.

 

I'm not a celebrity guys. Just one of those semi-celebrities nobody has ever heard of. The biggest problem facing legalisation has always been for the movement to show a united front. To achieve that we need to keep the message simple. Everyone has their own agenda but the one thing all of us can hopefully agree on is that these draconian laws are immoral and the Emperor is wearing no clothes.

[lightning]

Wayne if you want a name that fits with LNP try LiberateNaturalPlants or legalisenaturalplants

If you need someone in Melb I am in.

Might become a bit redundant after I get my high court paperwork finished and lodged but!!

[seasalt]

Hemp Embassy here. Yes Wayne sent us an email, but no link to the discussion, and Google didn't find it for me, so I had to wait for another subscriber to contact us. The LNP link? Was that it? All I got was a blank page????

 

The Hemp Party is not just federal, but was also represented in NSW and Queensland state elections before Howard changed the registration rules. Nigel Freemarijuana, John Freemarijuana, and Tony Kniepf have all been candidates as far as I can remember. United front? You could just be splitting the support base, but maybe not. (I think if you are federal, then u r automatically state.) We've always been spread a bit thin webwise trying to do Hemp Embassy, NimbinMardiGrass, and Hemp Party... but a new guy has come along keen to do the Hemp Party site and reorganise things with a fresh domain name. He was wondering if there was a Queensland branch. Well there is/was, but I'm not sure about now, because we haven't hurdled the registration process since it was changed.

 

Thing is you need 500 members, not currently members of any other party, and the AEC do a random sample of twenty or thereabouts, and they all need to be gutsy enough to say they are. Most chicken out when put on the spot. We have no trouble getting 500 members, but getting them to confirm that to the government is the big hurdle. Potheads change addresses frequently and fail to notify, and a lot of the remainder are not brave enough to say to the Man on the phone that they are, or just plain fail to answer the letters sent.

 

http://www.hempembassy.net/hp2/images/Voters.jpg

 

Registration forms are here

 

Our numbers man/public officer can be contacted at this address. He knows more than I do.

 

We need good candidates as well as members !!!

Edited December 27, 2008 by seasalt

[grace]

United front? We need good candidates as well as members !!!

 

Thanks for that seasalt

Let's hope some good people step up to it .....