Rusty Harris verses the sniffer dog.

[generic_hippie]

I dunno, see to me the attitude of compliance with an unjust law is reprehensible. You are teaching your kids, (if you have any) that authority is right, even when it's wrong, and fuck that.

So what if some asshole small-penised fun-buster takes my photo and recognises me, fuck I'll sign it for the prick if he brings me a copy. I believe with all my heart that the laws governing cannabis should not be laws, and I believe they do not apply to me for that very reason.

Yes I've been busted many times, it has cost me a great deal, financially, socially, even my family life was disrupted. But I would do exactly the same thing tomorrow if the nazi's came that I have done in the past, not hide my gear and argue the fuck out of the charges in court.

Live a lie or question authority?

I'll pick the latter every time...

 

On a side note I have been asked previously for a bit of a whois on Rusty, I wrote this for The Terania Shire Times, of which I'm the new editor...

 

Rusty Harris, the man,

the passion, the garden.

I consider myself to be fairly open to all sorts of ideas, differing perspectives, and varying concepts of reality, in short, freedom of choice. When I first visited Rusty’s website, www.nimbinaustralia.com/~rusty/ , I had to pick up my jaw after it hit the keyboard in disbelief. Here was this apparently stark raving mad man, facing court (round 13 in fact), for allegedly possessing approximately 2 ounces of marijuana with criminal intent and he was openly rallying support to fight the charges.

The cannabis was located by a drug dog named Thor, an urban-terrorism left-over from our unhealthy dose of Olympic security paranoia. I have nothing against Thor, personally I’d like to see him retired into a field of cannabis to smell as much as he likes. Or at least put to use in an airport somewhere, protecting some body from something.

I say apparently stark raving mad man when I refer to Rusty, because even to an unstructured individual like myself, his site took a 2nd, 3rd, and even 4th read to begin to grasp the incomprehensible simplicity of his thought processes. The plain, simple truth of it is that Rusty has a different vision for planet Earth than the popular one of the competitive, consumer driven, prohibition based scenario that is our current reality. ‘The Earth is to be a Garden…’

When asked if it was his cannabis in the famous, (or infamous depending on your point of view), postcard Rusty declined ownership on the grounds that one part of a garden can not own another part.

The impending appearance of Rusty before the Courts means I can not comment on the trial I guess, (well that’s my cop-out, pardon the pun, and I’m sticking to it).

Is it sedition to be the international face of marijuana in Nimbin, promoting the “alternate lifestyle” of Australia’s cannabis-culture to the world in this time of politically correct enlightenment and tolerance? To a certain degree it was self serving, but is trying to make a living so self serving? Should Lismore City Council acknowledge his substantial contribution to the local tourist industry and stand behind Rusty in Court given the distribution of more than 10000 of these statements of freedom and lifestyle world wide?

The appearance of sedition is a shallow one when examined in any depth. Rusty was courageous enough to plaster his head on a postcard with some really good looking marijuana. Asking for trouble, or asking for change? Rusty’s passion for cannabis is obvious to anybody that speaks with him for any length of time, his vision a simple one. Maybe his is the answer and nobody has to get nailed to anything this time around?

Rusty has a presence yet there is very little self about him, at our last meeting I was drawn into conversation with him, at the expense of a guided tour of the Nimbin Markets, (sorry Graham).

He has a calm, reassuring confidence in his beliefs, a certain knowledge that his way is right. Quite sane really when compared to some other realities.

In this time of over zealous shepherding of sheople, Rusty has drawn the line in the sand for our freedom. What exactly is this prohibition, (ignored by at least 49% of Australians at some point) protecting us from? How far is the government willing to go to enforce this protection of educated individuals against their will. People making an informed choice on religion, renewable fuel, pharmaceuticals, or even recreational social lubricant should be allowed to do so with out fear of persecution. Isn’t this true multi-culturalism and freedom?

In a world of senseless starvation, disproportionate destruction, and criminal cannabis consumption, Rusty could be seen as a subversive I guess. But given that reality, a little subversion might be a good thing.