OZ Stoners Posted July 25, 2013 Report Share Posted July 25, 2013 http://australianhempparty.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/hempwestaus.jpgHEMP Party Happenings - July 25, 2013An irregular Newsletter from James Moylan – National Campaign Director of the HEMP Party, Australia.NOW WITH A STATE BRANCH IN EVERY AUSTRALIAN STATE!Hello HEMPsters,As of the 20th of July at 6.33 pm - with the establishment of a Western Australian Branch of HEMP - we are now a fully Federal Party with a State Branch in every State of Australia.I would like to say a big thank you to all of the many HEMPsters all around our wide brown land who have been working so hard, for so long, to bring about this momentous declaration!I would like to publicly thank the team who have been quietly assisting the Federal Executive in getting HEMP organised and ready for the coming election.It is down to the efforts of the following friends of the Cannabis law reform movement that the HEMP Party is now a National Movement:Ø Michael Balderstone – press wrangler & touchstoneØ HJ Lovechild – graphics & online supportØ Graham Askey –AEC and political liaisonØ Tayla Moylan – personal assistant and secretarial supportØ Peter Barrett – graphics support and printingØ Sharon Moylan – (every sort of support imaginable)Heroes of the movement one and all!THE HEMP PARTY IN WESTERN AUSTRALIAHEMP now has a Western Australian Branch following an establishment meeting at the Garage on Gordon Café last Saturday evening.The founding officers of the branch are:Darren Guthrie (Prez),Lachlan Pascoe (Vice-Prez),Scott Gray (Secretary & Event Officer),Marcelo Lederman (Treasurer)Genevieve Rubinich (Compliance Officer). All HEMPsters are invited to contact the officers of the WA Branch and welcome them into the passive civil insurgency that is the HEMP Party of Australia. (Tasmania and Western Australia Branches please note that I have an appointment with our bankers today to work out your Transaction Accounts etc…)WESTERN AUSTRALIA NEEDS HEMP LIKE ALL OF AUSTRALIA NEEDS HEMPI held a HEMP Activism and Police Wrangling Workshop in Perth on the 20th and in Fremantle on the 21st. Both workshops were well attended by enthusiastic Aussies who were anxious to assist us in our mission to free the weed. During these workshops I had plenty of time to discuss the current state of the law and its enforcement in the West of our country – and I am horrified at what I was told. http://australianhempparty.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/auscannamap1-400x400.jpgWestern Australia is very much like most parts of the country in that the enforcement of the Cannabis laws is selective and discriminatory in the extreme. If you are a middle-class white person living in the suburbs then you are unlikely to have any trouble arise from your purchase of your hideously expensive weed, and your smoking of that weed within your own urban fortress will likely be accomplished without hindrance or hassle.However if you are a working class urban dweller, or an aboriginal, or an immigrant, or a student – or any other of the ‘usual suspects’ – then the pot laws represent an entirely different kettle of Cannabis. For these people the WA Cannabis laws provide the police with a facility to stop, search, and harass that is employed often and in a grossly discriminatory manner.This situation exists in all other Australian States. For as long as Cannabis is illegal the Australian Police Forces will be provided with a huge range of oppressive powers that they will use in a discriminatory and abusive manner.However in Western Australia this imposition seems to be employed more often, in a more rigorous manner, than it is elsewhere in our country. I heard stories of Police stopping the same car four times in the one day. I heard stories of houses and lives being invaded on a regular basis in what appeared to be an attempt to drive certain citizens out a town entirely. I heard stories of individual police officers who felt that violence and abuse were warranted in handling Cannabis users who were in their custody – in other words I heard much the same stories in Western Australia as I hear in towns and cities all across Australia – just in a concentrated and magnified form.All across Australia, for as long as Cannabis is illegal, our Police will:be tasked with enforcing an unenforceable and unjust law,be disliked and distrusted by the majority of our youth,be feared by the majority of Aussies,be considered to be dangerous rather than of assistance,be avoided rather than approached,& have their advice discounted. In truth the Police in our country should be our greatest supporters as they are the ones who have the most to gain from the re-legalisation of Cannabis.http://australianhempparty.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/senate-ballot4.jpg HEMP IS READY!Recently I have had a lot of members, supporters, and sometimes complete strangers, ask when I think the election will be called and what date will be chosen. My response is the same in all instances: when the election is called we will be ready – regardless of when it is called and what date is chosen.On this coming weekend I will be in Cairns (27th) and in Townsville (28th) to hold HEMP Activism and Police Wrangling Workshops (I will be in FNQ from Friday morning until Monday evening if any HEMPsters in the region want to catch up and discuss HEMP Happenings). The FNQ workshops are the penultimate in this series of workshopsIMPORTANT MEETING!On the next weekend, the 3rd and the 4th of August, a Workshop for the Northern Rivers on Saturday, and a Candidates and Strategy Meeting. Both of these will be held at the Nimbin HEMP Embassy.Every HEMPster who can possibly attend these meetings is urged to do so. Especially our gathering on the 4th of August. For those officers of HEMP who are unable to attend this meeting we urge you to stay in close contact with those who are attending as this meeting will have direct implications for YOU.On the 4th of August we will:Get to know each other a bit better,1. collectively craft our National Campaign Strategy for the upcoming election,2. collectively craft individual State Election Campaigns,3. get all the paperwork for our candidates sorted,4. arrange to have PR photo’s and descriptions of all of our candidates prepared,5. consider an advertising and promotions strategy for the election period,6. consider a membership drive for the election period,7. consider a fund-raising strategy for the election period. Will all HEMPsters attending this meeting please spend a little bit of time thinking about and making notes regarding these topics. We will have limited time available and the better organized we are the more effective will be our congress.Will all State and Sub-Branches of the Party please try and get at least one representative to this meeting. Even if the only way that we can assist your involvement is to set up a Skype link then please get in contact with us (more particularly get in contact with Heathen Jimmy Lovechild) during the next week.COMING EVENTS: www.facebook.com/australianHEMparty/events· On Saturday the 27th a HEMP Activism & Police Wrangling Cairns Workshop will be held at 2pm on The Esplanade in Cairns.· On Saturday the 27th at 2pm there will be a HEMP Shepparton Branch Meeting.· On Sunday the 28th there will be a HEMP Activism & Police Wrangling Townsville Workshop in Anderson Park Botanical Gardens from 2pm.· On Sunday the 28th 2pm in Botanic Park in Adelaide, South Australia, there will be another ‘Afternoon on the Green’.. HEMP Sydney, Afternoon on the Green, Belmore Park at 2pm.MEMBERSHIP – We must keep growing HEMP!We are well on the way to 4000 members by the end of this month!Thank you one and all for your help in making us the buzz of the political world.I urge every HEMPster to go out and get two new friends to sign up to HEMP, today and tell them to do the same….Our membership mantra: ONLINE – INSTANT – FREE.Who should be a member of HEMP?Every Cannabis user.Every son or daughter of a Cannabis user.Every wife or husband or partner of a Cannabis user.Every niece, nephew, cousin, or in-law who is a Cannabis user.In fact: every Australian should be a member of HEMP! Membership Form!DONATIONSWe will have to have $24,000 in the bank when the before the nominations are close!This will likely BE LESS THAN TWO MONTHS AWAY!100 Voices ContributionsHEMP needs money to help it grow!Donations fertilise the growth of the Party!The only reason that we have been growing at such a phenomenal rate, both spreading further and growing bigger, is because we have been promoting the Party all over Australia and building new state and local branches. This costs lots of money!Please dig into your pocket and give as much as you can to the GENERAL DONATIONS FUND.General Donations. MARIHUANA WEIRDO REMEMBRANCE DAY – COMMEMORATING 50 YEARS OF ‘DRUGS POLICY FAILURE’One of our greatest supporters, Dr John Jiggens of Brisbane, draws our attention to a significant anniversary that all HEMPsters should mark with a personal or public display of grief for those fellow Aussies who have had their lives destroyed for no apparent social benefitFrom Dr Jiggens:“The 10th August 2013 will mark the fiftieth anniversary of Brisbane’s first marijuana arrest, the marihuana weirdo raid, which was announced in a lurid story, “Marihuana seized by police in swoop on weirdos”, which was the front page story on 10th August 1963 for Brisbane’s Sunday Truth.As a Cannabis historian, I am calling for a rally to commemorate this event, and to acknowledge 50 years of drugs policy failure.The marihuana weirdo raid marked the beginning of fifty years of marihuana persecutions, police corruption and the misuse of the drug laws. It is something to condemn but also to acknowledge and commemorate.” (http://drjiggens.com/125/)(HEMPsters are also invited to consider Dr Jiggens essays which are of particular assistance when it comes to arguing our case in the press and with other Australian voters. (http://drjiggens.com/essays-and-articles/ )) TEN REASONS WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO.1. Cannabis is harmless whilst Cannabis law is dangerous and causes lasting harm.2. For as long as Cannabis is illegal our children will rightfully label us ‘hypocrites’.3. Cannabis prohibition breeds disrespect for authority, disdain for the law, and breeds disaffection and distrust in our young.4. Cannabis as a primary medicine is required by patients who suffer needless harm when it is withheld.5. Cannabis prohibition costs billions of dollars every year and even its proponents admit that it can never succeed.6. Cannabis prohibition stops Australian industry from competing on a level playing field with our many competitors who do not restrict or overly regulate the production and processing of HEMP fibre.7. Cannabis prohibition restricts and inhibits the development of a Cannabis seed industry in Australia -encouraging the importation of Cannabis seed products from our competitors whilst simultaneously suppressing the growth of the industry at home.8. 60% of Americans have access to legal industrial, medicinal, or food grade HEMP products and the whole country is well on the way to legalizing recreational use. (While Australian politicians think that we are not responsible enough to be able to enjoy the same rights.)9. Cannabis kills nobody yet is illegal. Alcohol kills 60 Aussies every week yet many of our politicians sit on boards of breweries and own shares in these companies.10. No individual and no state has a right to restrict access to any element of the common birthright that is bequeathed to us by our forebears. Cannabis has been employed by humankind from the dawn of history and as such is a gift of nature – not of man. Stay tunedStay engagedStay coolJames Moylan – National Campaign Director of the Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP) Party.04 3937 7217 jamesmmoylan@hotmail.comView the full article Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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