Necessary Preamble: The
2019 Nimbin Marijuana March details can be found at the bottom of
this necessarily long webpage. Yes it could be reformatted /
fragmented into NOW FIRST and HISTORY if its clicked upon. BUT. all
input thus far is that the brief history is worth reading and tends
to give one a better understanding of the event they will
participate in (by default) should they visit the NimbinMardiGRASS in
2020.
A
brief History of Earths longest running 420
Demonstration...
The
first time the Million Man Marijuana March was celebrated at the Nimbin Mardi Grass was
1999 and even though it wasn't an official 'programmed' event,
[last century computers
were either misunderstood or considered demonic tools of the enemy
in Nimbin] the 1999
Nimbin MMMMarch did set the underground tone that has endured to
this day - we don't actually march in Nimbin, the nonofficial
smokesperson of the ACLRM usually high jacks the "Main Mardi Grass
Speakers" at 4:15.40 and sounds the 4 minute 20 second "roll up"
alert for the 4 20 Demonstration. In 1999 we handed out FREE
Marijuana, over 200 all natural - all organic cannabis "space
balls" each wrapped with a poem called FREE
Marijuana.
The
second time around was a bit different because it was a new
millenium and the computer age had arrived plus and perhaps
more importantly, I had spent a year talking
about FourTwenty whilst doing 420
webshows and thus, not only was the 2000 M.M.March on
the official Mardi Grass program, but it was the first mmmmarch on
earth to be broadcast live to the Internet. We launched the Freedom Ride in a
blaze of electric digeridoos and had the 3rd largest crowd of
cannabis law reform activists assembled on Earth the one day it
really matters!
In
2001, London cancelled
and New York was busted out of contention by the police who
prevented the NY MMMMarch from forming and thus the tiny village of
Nimbin Australia ended up
hosting the biggest event on earth that year.........
A sizable
cyber audience and a couple of smiling policemen watched as the
MMMMarch 'rolled up' outside the Nimbin H.E.M.P.
Embassy, the peacebus was in the
center of thousands of people rolling joints and it's "Blues
Brothers horns" exhorting the crowd to show their defiance of the
illogical laws by lighting up at exactly 4.20
PM.
snick-snick-flicker-flash-flame...
inhale, exhale, inhale. Say it. No -
More - Drug - War - Jails. inhale, exhale, inhale. Sing it.. No -
More - Drug - War - Jails. inhale, exhale, inhale. Shout it... No
- More - Drug - War - Jails. inhale, exhale, inhale. DEMAND IT...
No - More - Drug - War - Jails.
When the smoke had finally cleared, even the old
local tokers agreed that it was the most joints they'd ever seen
simultaneously rolled and ignited in the main street of Nimbin - and
that's saying something!
In
2002 the Nimbin MMMMarch was centred on web cam imagery
uploaded using the Big Bong
Mobile Webcasting Unit
which was parked right out side the H.E.M.P Bar /
HEMP
Embassy complex- right in the centre of the vortex that is
the Mardi
Grass at precisely 4.20 P.M........
It is as impossible to
guesstimate the size of the roll up for the 2002 Nimbin MMMMarch as
it is to guesstimate the total inhalance of cannabis during
the Protestival, but every number I have heard so far is in excess
of 4 and 20 thousand cannabists! As usual in Nimbin, we din't march
in a straight line, in fact, truth be told, we din't actually march
at all, not much point even trying really, I mean even attempting to
marshal the entire MardiGrass crowd to march from point A - via
point B -to point C would be harder than herding 420 black cats
at midnight and so, we decided to ask the entire crowd (via the loud
speakers) to take one step forward, then three steps back, two steps
forward and then one step back (a little semi-dance step thing we
call the 'real pace' of cannabis law reform) which of course
resulted in as much confusion as marshalling a march or changing an
illogical law, point is that thousands upon thousands of people
come together every year in Nimbin for exactly the same reason....
To call for an End to Cannabis Prohibition.
the 2003
Event....
We knew going
in that that Nimbin was the only venue in Australia hosting a
MMMMarch in 2003, we also figured that the 2003 crowd numbers were
going reflect the downtrend in international tourism and so, to off
set this, we decided that we needed to toke our demonstration up a
level or 4.20 and do something different.
The idea to
do something
different alarmed many
of the hard core members of the ACLRM, many mutinous murmurs of
dissent were heard until it was realized that the active word was
different, not do something. This is not to say that hard core members of ACLRM are
apathetic, more to point out that the hard core members of the ACLRM
are all too well aware that actually doing something in the short term can be highly
counterproductive in the long term. Example = Lobbying a government
to change the law to allow ONLY doctors to proscribe ONLY "grown
under a government license" indoor hydroponic cannabis. Short
term result terminally ill people get some pain relief, AIDS
sufferers can keep their other meds down and the government and
medical industries have a new cash cow. Long term we talking the
industrialization of cannabis, not unlike releasing Mary Jane from
jail only to lock her in the laboratory and the sweat shop.
Truth is that no sunlight or wind on the leaves, no worms in the
soil and an over load of chemicals in the water combines to create
an artificial pain relieving medicine that cannot be used as a
preventative nor as a cure- it's relegalize or nothing - say
the hard core of the ACLRM. >> back to the MMMMarch>>
At 4.20 PM on
the 3rd of May 2003 a huge cloud of highly green smoke wafted out
the front door of the H.E.M.P Bar to signal the official toke-off of
the 5th Nimbin MMMMarch and the start of something different. Rather
than a march, a parade, a joint rolling and/or smoking demonstration
or some other variation of a 'short term action/event', we embarked
upon a "festival wide - 4 and 20 hour long" demonstration of
responsible cannabis use that included the entire crowd and
concluded at 4.20 PM Sunday at the Mobile Big
Bong Burger Bar in Peace Park.
So what did
the 4 and 20 hour long Nimbin MMMMarch accomplish besides the
combustion of prodigious amounts of cannabis? Short term? Proof
positive that cannabis does not induce insanity, criminality or
death. Long term? You gotta figure that a whole lot more working,
smoking voting citizens embraced the concept of just cannabis law
reform and that even more pressure will be applied to the N.S.W
Government over the coming weeks and months to follow in the
footsteps of the ever so sensible and conservative Swiss as they
head down the path towards just cannabis relegalization.
In
2004, at precisely
4.20 PM Australian Eastern Standard time on
Saturday May the First
2004 all MMMMarchers
that were't already in position assembled inside and outside the H.E.M.P
Bar / HEMP
Embassy complex- right in the centre
of the vortex that was the Mardi Grass
Where upon a flame was lit in front of the hempbar's webcam>>
which will then lit a special ceremonial Joint and Candle which
stepped into the street.... right as the Kombi Konvoy clattered
by>>>> lost in the swirl of the main street madness, the
hard core marijuana marchers merged with the crowd, strolled thru
the food stalls and trinket stalls to Peace Park
>>>> to where the peace chairs weren't - not enough
chairs were available due to an organizing discombobulation - and at
least 420 of us, from all over earth stood in a physical
representation of "Peace for Pot and Pot for Peace" for at least 420
seconds, which I am sure would have shown up as a peace sign shaped
cloud on a satellite camera had we of had one........
Bottom line? Forming a
peace circle is a bit like sky diving ....... No photo can
do it justice, it's an experience !
Unlike all previous years,
the 2005 Marijuana March DID NOT coincide with the Nimbin Mardigrass on May
1st 2005.
Thus for the first time,
in a long time, the good citizens of Nimbin and the rainbow region
showed their 'grass root' support for Just Cannabis Law Reform in
a no glitz, no glamour demonstration with out the thousands of
MardiGrass revellers, it was exactly "the same" as every other
town on Earth.
So march is what we did,
after assembling in the H.E.M.P Bar at 4.20 PM....
ETA Nimbin Police Station at 42 minutes or so past 420.... and then
we tried something new, we DID NOT smoke cannabis during our march
(medical users were, of course, exempt) along Cullen Street to the
Police Station, as we walked down the main street we felt exactly as
we would in most every town in Australia because our numbers were
less than 4 and 20 as we walked down 'commerce street" to an empty
looking police station, just the really committed people, the people
who REALLY want to change the laws, indeed, there were more people
waiting at the bus stop to board the bus to leave Nimbin than there
were in the march. They all looked on as we all sat down and
'pointedly' didn't smoke cannabis and very quietly did we
chant...
Please help
us change the Law.
Please help us lobby the
Government.
Please help
us ReLegalize Cannabis for fibre, for medicine, for fuel and
for food.
Images above taken by a Japanese Tourist who
later downloaded them at the H.E.M.P Bar
At the empty looking
Police Station, whilst all assembled abstained from smoking cannabis
out of politeness to the Police who may or may not have been there-
medical users exempt- Max Stone made a 4 minute 20 second
presentation of the ACLRM's latest activism strategy, the ReLegalize Just OutDoor Cannabis First Strategy, which is not designed to split the
movement by keeping indoor hydroponic cannabis "illegal", it is seen
as the natural solution to the
Cannabis Conundrum by the members
of the A.C.L.R.M, expending our limited resources to lobby the
Government with our Relegalize Out Door Cannabis
First Strategy, lobbying towards establishing a difference
"in the eyes of the law" between "out door-organic" and
"indoor-hydroponic" cannabis would enable Industrial Hemp crops to
flourish for fiber, for fuel and for food, and perhaps most
importantly, Relegalizing just outdoor cannabis would enable the
average pot smoker to break free from the black market.
"Its a hippy thing" said
Max Stone. "After all, there is a huge difference between a dozen or
so plants growing organically in the back yard for personal use and
an "Indoor hydro lab" designed to make mega bucks. I am sure the
police can tell the difference between cannabis plants grown for
green and those grown for greed, I mean, the indoor stuff looks like
Arnold Swarzeneggers biceps."
"I'm not saying indoor
cannabis is more evil than Chernobyl, just saying that it's
artificial and definitely not the "homeopathic" wonder plant that
"outdoor cannabis is and whilst ever Cannabis Prohibition is in
place, criminals will exploit the market and "small time" cannabis
users get caught in the cross fire. Too many resources are being
wasted on enforcing cannabis prohibition, with the end result being
that an ounce of indoor cannabis costs as much as a dole check. Just
think of how wonderful Nimbin and Australia will be once cannabis
re-establishes itself as one of humanities most useful
plants.
Once Max Stone finished
the" less than 4 and 20 seconds presentation of strategic direction"
of the following years activism in a very strained voice caused by
MardiGrass,
all the four and twenty activists stood up for Free Marijuana and
then respectfully departed the empty looking police station and
returned to the H.E.M.P Bar to begin the ramp up of the Big Joint to
Canberra in 2006.
2006: see BigJoint.org ..... The Big Joint
made it all the way to Canberra as promised!
4:15:40 AEST... webgreetings MardiGrass and the
mainstreet of Nimbin, the time is almost four twenty, so I would ask
everyone hold out your joint straight in front of you, now, the
GoogleCopter is almost here and you will see it before you hear it
and it will appear as a very small speck to the north, everyone
point their joints towards the North. Now the GoogleCopter is going
to take lots of pictures so I want everyone who is not listening to
these loudspeakers to keep walking and acting as background, I'd
like to thank each and everyone of you for participating in the
Biggest Cannabis Law Reform Demonstration on planet earth. Okay,
arms out stretched and joints pointed to the north, can't be much
longer now, the clock is ticking and it won't be long before we get
to see the GoogleCopter, and while we are waiting I would like to
seize this opportunity to thank the huge number of cybercitizens who
have been asking GoogleEarth to update it's map for the last year or
so, it's very close now, very close to happening now, I can
almost see the GoogleCopter, except its coming from the south, can
every one turn 180% anticlockwise to the south, that's right
smoothly slowly turn to the south and look for the small dot
appearing in the south. South? Did I say south, I meant to say east,
its east, sorry everybody, my mistake, keep spinning smoothly slowly
peacefully towards the east, arms out stretched- joints ready to
light, okay, I can see you are all spinning around in circles, so
everyone say GOOGLE and take a picture! I can see the GoogleCopter?
Can't you? LOLOLOL and now, in time with thousands of others, lets
take part in the peace wave that sweeps around earth each day and
every day and Light our JoinTs and think peace for pot and pot for
peace!
2008... For the tenth time, the main thing that will be
staying the same is the 4.20 P.M 'start time' of the Nimbin Global
Marijuana March another thing that is staying the same will be
Cannabis Dave Lighting the 420
Joint in front of the H*E*M*P*Bars
webcam, now I come to think on it, after over 10 years of spreading
the word about 420, what will be different to previous years will be
the sheer volume of cannabists who already know about
simultaneously light a joint at 4.20 PM and thinking 'pot for peace
- peace for pot' thoughts. Another thing that will be the same, is
that at 4.20 the Kombi Konvoy is due to arrive in the green smoke
circle in the center of town (as
seen on the image below) in front of the
H*E*M*P*Bar at exactly 4.20 PM same as it did in 2004.
It was the 10th Global
Marijuana March and the venue was the same as every year since
2000, the www.NimbinHEMPbar.com (Help End Marijuana
Prohibition) however this year, the H*EM*P bar had been closed by
court order at noon on the Friday before MardiGrass!
Cops
up the Ante on NimbinMardiGrass
Police today informed
the organisers of the Nimbin Mardi Grass that they will be making an
application to close the Nimbin Museum and the Hemp Bar for 72 hours over
Mardi Grass.
"The police are using
a piece of archaic legislation (Section 15C of the Restricted Premises Act 1943)
to, in effect. close two of Nimbin's most significant tourist
attractions during the busiest weekend of the year," said
spokesperson for the Nimbin Mardi Grass Organising Group and Nimbin
Museum, Michael Balderstone.
The application will
go before a magistrate in the Lismore court on Friday
morning.
Balderstone described
the action as "antagonistic and provocative."
"The police keep
assuring us they want a safe Mardi Grass," he said. "What's the
closing of the Museum and the Hemp Bar during Mardi Grass got to do
with safety?"
"If one wanted a safe
weekend in Nimbin, one would close the pub," he
said.
"But it's another day
in Nimbin and another day of Drug War harassment by the Lismore Area
Command," said Balderstone.
"The public money
being wasted by the local police trying to suppress Australia's
second most popular tourism destination is as stupid as it is
appalling," he said.
"Recent media debate
about trial-ing some kind of legalised cannabis supply has clearly
shown the north coast community of NSW, if not all of Australia, is
ready for it," he said.
As you can imagine, having the H*E*M*P Bar and its
live web cam shut down and a sign on it's door saying "Gone to Mardi
Grass" meant I was in a bit of a sticky situation from an
'organizational' point of view. Fortunate for me, the previous
decades worth of 4 20's had left such an impression in the minds of
all the hardcore repeat MardiGrassers, that I almost didn't need to
mention it, but, mention it I did. At 20 minutes past the hour,
every hour, on the main festival sound system I talked up the event.
MardiGrass Saturday was a very POLICE intensive atmosphere, road
blocks around the town, riot squad in bullet proof sunglasses every
where you looked. I urged everyone if they was going to smoke one
joint all day, let it be at 420 today when they could light that
joint in global unity with the millions of other people all around
earth who will also be lighting up at 420. And I always make a point
of asking that when you do light up at 420, let it not be an act of
defiance, let it be an act of peace, a sharing, a celebration and a
thing you do every day at 420 until the law is
changed....................
Peace for Pot ------------ Pot for Peace
Best part is that outside the H*E*M*P Bar wasn't
the only venue for the 420 Demonstration, H*E*M*P President Michael
Balderstone did a HUGE 420 Demo in Peace Park, Captain Reefer did
another in Allsop Park, the Stage down in the Markets did a 420 and
pretty much everyone everywhere was part of the Demonstration and if
I had to add one last thought it would be that 4.20 PM on Saturday
was about the only time that the main street of Nimbin had that
traditional smoky mardigrass look to it.
2009; Excerpt
from the Mardigrass Program: The Global Marijuana March at 4.20 PM
on the Saturday could require some marching/walking for the first
time ever," leaked Max Stone. "This year, again, well over 1 million
cannabis law reform activists in over 250 cities will be marching,
we usually keep the actual 'thing' we do for the GMM secret until
the day which increases the spontaneity of the event," confided Max,
"Don't Panic, the most distance anyone will have to march will be
420 meters and all you will need is a thing in your hand that looks
like a joint and a heart full of peace, remembering all the while
that the MardiGrass and the GMM are gatherings of people who want to
CHANGE the cannabis laws, not gatherings of people who want to BREAK
the law.
4.15.40: Standing on the roof of the ever so slightly faded red
Volvo 244 sedan belonging to H*E*M*P President Balderstone, with the
wireless microphone in one hand, a joint in the other. I gazed
down the street towards the marshalling point out side the HEMP
Embassy and I looked for the marchers who were 'supposed' to be on
the way up from Peace Park. Everywhere I looked there were people
sitting or standing, all expecting something unexpected to happen.
From my vantage point, excellent as it was, I couldn't see all of
the 15,000 or so political activists who attended the MardiGrass,
but I could see lots of POLICE uniforms, lots and lots of POLICE
uniforms, lots and lots and lots and lots of POLICE uniforms. I
could also see a lot of POLITE
uniforms and POLITE hats,
but we were definitely out numbered. It's an interesting place to
find yourself in, standing on the roof of a car in the middle of a
couple of thousand expectant people, a microphone, a ceremonial
joint and no lighter. What do you do? What would you do? What would
you say? Would you stand there and read a prepared speech? I didn't
because I hadn't prepared one, I hadn't pre-prepared anything, and
so it came to pass that for the first time ever, I decided to do
nothing at 4.20, and promptly announced that since I had no lighter
with me I wasn't lighting up at 420, told the crowd they should
light up if they felt like it at exactly 4.20, said I be lighting up
a bit later on**. Said, That's right I am going to do
NOTHING, in recognition of what the government had done about
Cannabis Law Reform since the Last MMMarch. Nothing at all. I just
stood there, silent, on the roof of the red volvo and did nothing,
not one little thing at all. This totally took the expectant crowd
by surprise. It took the POLICE force and the POLITE force by an
even greater amount of surprise and as that ripple of disbelief
quavered around the crowd, I pointed out that even though I was
doing nothing, in every town up the entire east coast of Australia,
stoners were blazing up in solidarity, I forget what else I said and
all of the points I was trying to make, I remember saying Peace for
Pot and Pot for Peace and I can only hope that I ended up talking
about the next escapade of the BiG
Joint, if I din't mention the Big Joint at the end of my
nonprpeprepared PeaceForPot-PotForPeace rave, I have now! P.S.** For
those wondering, next time I lit up was at a very POLITE time:
4.24.20, 4 mins 20 secs after 4.20 PM....
PeaceMan
;O).
TWENTY TEN aka 2010
"SuperB with a capital B like the B in
Big Joint and at least 4 exclamation marks", said a visibly elated
Max Stone when asked about the Global Marijuana March
Demonstration on Mardigrass Saturday. "I don't want to knock any of
the previous eleven FourTwenty demonstrations we have staged, each
one of them occupies a special place in my heart (and webspaces,)
but this one, the TwentyTen - FourTwenty was TRANSCENDENT. On the
youtube footage, Cullen Street is awash with people from the Post
Office to Peace Park, a wondrous ocean of people of all
colors, ages and sizes, beyond overflowing - way past overflowing -
somewhere in the outer regions of un-insurable and super
saturation.”
“LET IT GROW” says the BIG
JOINT.
10
– 9 – 8 – 7 – 6 – 5 - 4 point 20 – 3 – 2 - 1 – dramatic pause -
IGNITION.... Thousands and thousands of lighters ignited thousands
and thousands of ‘politically correct’ joints and I reckon we would
have hotspotted a thermal satellite image like an Icelandic volcano.
Speaking about eyes in the sky, Lismore Council must have had one of
the best views from their multiple street cameras. Rumor is that
Council had some extra special monitors hot wired into their
chambers so they could make sure we followed the D.A every
nanosecond of the weekend. I would have loved to have seen their
faces for those four magical minutes and the 20 incredible seconds,
when we, the activists, took control of “their” street and turned it
into a moment of history, a record breaking moment in cannabis law
reform history that was, itself, part of a record setting global
demonstration that took place in 317 cities and towns around the
planet, with every location reporting record numbers of supporters.
“GOOD MEDICINE” says the BIG JOINT.
It
felt really real, you could see the desire to change the law
on the faces in the throng and you could feel it in the cheering and
as the smoke rose higher and higher, the sight, the sound, the
taste, the smell and the feel of it all somehow coagulated into a 4
minute 20 second symphony of cannabis law reform that was uplifting
in ways not possible to explain in 420 words or less to those who
was unable to be there, however, please know that it was exactly the
energy and exactly the spirit required to take the Big Joint all the way to
Canberra to meet up with Obama in June ….
2011.....
.........
it's going to be a long long long time before I forget 420 on May
1st MardiGrass Saturday 2011.
Did you notice my dismount from
the roof of the 420 Kombi around the 2 minute 20 seconds point? It
was pretty wild up there on that roof, the Big Joint was bouncing
around like a PinkFloydPig while the 420 Kombi was rocking and
rolling around and what actually happened was that I bent over
to speak with H*E*M*P President Balderstone, and
then stepped back just a little bit too far onto the curved
edge of the roof, lost my balance and was about to fall
backwards off the roof.
Time is an illusion,
an anthropomorphic construct designed to facilitate human
interaction, sometimes it appears to fly fast, sometimes it goes
very very very slow.
I was in the moment, focused
entirely about what I needed to say next after asking all the
activists to sit down, to take control of the street and to stay
there until the law is changed. I was still running on the high
of the 'goal' I completed with the POLITE vs POLICE Tug of Peace...
I often say that
MardiGrass isn't the Grand Final of the Police vs Pot Smokers,
but in some respects it is. I know that in 2011, the Police are
a lot more educated as individuals about the reality of cannabis use
thanks to the internet and that the majority of them are in favor of
just cannabis law reform, as individuals, I know that
without their support, real change in the law is impossible and so I
work towards that at every opportunity. That the local police were
prepared to participate showed me, and thousands of other people at
the MardiGrass, just how supportive they can be.
Where was I?
Oh yeah, frozen in time
two meters in the air whilst toppling backwards off the
rounded edge roof of the 420 kombi, surrounded by an
uncountable number of activists who are all jammed up
close and sat down ready to stay sat till there was a change in the
law. The cameras are rolling and the demonstration is still going
full throttle....
At the point of no
return, I windmilled my arms and tried to get my balance
back and so very nearly got it back, but when it's
gone it's gone. I scrunched up into a ball, managed to get my
right hand down on to the edge of the Kombi to shorten my fall and
then leapt with bended knees towards the only spot of road I
could see. Like I have told my son countless times; when
jumping/falling from something higher than your head.... Bend the
knees son, I say. Touch down with the toes, keep your heels in the
air if you can.
TouchDown!
The surprise and joy at
a totally safe landing is obvious in my voice. I hadn't told many
people that we were going to sit down at this years demo
and this years Global Marijuana March wasn't about
smoking as much as it was about illustrating and generating
commitment for a change in the law, it was about making a YouTube to
show the N.S.W Premier Barry O'Farrel that thousands and thousands
of people DO want Cannabis Law Reform. Besides which, from
where I was stood there was plenty of smoking going on,
the dudes on the ground was all toking on the joints that
a team of MardiGrass volunteers had rolled and handed out. (over
1000)
Once my feet was firmly
back on the ground, I walked over to President Balderstone who was
in his element, holding onto the center rope of the Big Joint,
surrounded by POLITE force and hordes of young activists in total
control of the street.
"Let's stay for a week!"
he declared and the crowd ROARED its agreement.
It felt right, it felt
like we had as firm a grip on the street as we had
on the hemp rope in the POLITE vs POLICE Tug of Peace, we were
all in it together.
I was in no doubt that
we could, if we wanted to, make a major disruption, we
were web connected like never before, uploading the
demonstration as it was happening to Youtube and those you tubes was
linked to facebook and the world was watching.
WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN.
Was the code words that the POLITE Force and other operatives were
waiting to hear so they could spring into action and put the
barricades in place between the 'sit down' and the police
in the real world.
Online, the same code
words would inform our Fox operative and our man with
the BBC that we had formally taken control of the main street of
Nimbin until there was a change in the law.
Counter intuitively,
since there was no violence going to happen at our event,
that pulled our global news item worthyness down according to
our man in the BBC, but since Nimbin is the third most known
"place" in Australia behind Sydney and Cairns we are newsworthy
to an extent. He added that Cannabis Cancer Cures and
420 have both been popular news items and since any story
about cannabis appeals to a wide demographic in their
audience (18 to 85) meant that we scored high enough on the
"colorful interest component" to be a "stand by breaking story"
if, I said the words WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN out loud that
is.
To quote a physist friend of
mine, reality, is really really really real. Actions have
consequences and causes have effects. Unlike the good citizens of
Egypt, we are not oppressed by a dictator, the response of our
Police and Army would not be to start shooting at us to disperse us
and silence our voice, the good citizens of Egypt put their lives on
the line to be heard. In Australia, we already have social
democracy, we already have a welfare safety net and pretty good
medical facilities, we already live in the most peaceful part of the
planet.
I wanted to say WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN, but I didn't, because it
was NOT a demonstration of intent to occupy the street long term,
so, once I knew we had the footage required, I rather politely asked
the crowd to disperse because our point had been made and if I know
one thing, it's that everyone who was there and everyone who has
seen the youtube of the Big Joint flying above a mosh pit of
cannabis law reform activists will be making plans to be at the
"Twenty Twelve - Four
Twenty" at the MardiGrass at the
End of the Universe..
2012.....
As I climbed the bullbar
of the 420 Kombi to the roof, the microphone in one hand and an
occupy mask in the other, the only thing I knew for sure was that
this year I wasn't going to go anywhere near the edge of the roof of
the 420 Kombi. The energy generated at the
Twenty Twelve Four Twenty was the most awesome I have ever
heard, when I listen to the 2012youtube
I know it didn't capture the full effects of
thousands of people chanting Change the Law - Change the Law -
Change the Law - Change the Law - Change the Law - Change the
Law - Change the Law - Change the Law - because they was
all chanting in my general direction, not at the camera on the
museum roof. It was loud, powerfully loud and powerfully passionate,
leaving me in no doubt to how much everyone gathered wanted a change
in the law, which, in essence, is what the 420 pot for peace and
peace for pot demonstation has always been all about. Creating
a system of belief that change is possible.
2013.....
Orange font for a change,
sure it might be hard on your eyes, but imagine me sat here at 4.20
AM on MardiGrass Sunday sat at the polite table on the back veranda
of the Nimbin H*E*M*P* Embassy writing these words by candle light
and trying to find the right ones to describe the what what went
down 12 hours ago - the next ex-best-ever 420 yet! At
4.20 actual time we was all waiting for the Kombi Konvoy, so I
reminded everyone that for the porpoises of the illusion we was
running on mardigrass time, not actual real time and that they ought
all relax, sure, fire up if they want to. where was I, oh yeah, in
the street waiting on Kombis when suddenly a flash mob appears right
in front of a police car unintentionally blocking it. It was the
dawning of the age of aquarius, I could see the 420 Kombi on
the other side of the flash mob with Kombis behind it as far as I
could see, suddenly I hear shouting behind me and an ambulance is
there with sirens flashing on it's way to the hospital. I stepped to
one side and let the ambulance do it's thing, flash mob danced out
of the way, and then disappeared into the crowd, police car went
thru Kombis started flowing crowd started cheering and I realized
that everything was perfectly out of control and walked down the
street towards where the 420 kombi was stranded behind a wall of
people.
The final Kombi rolls past,
I climb onto the bullbar of the 420 Kombi and we smoothly moove
thru the crowd (who follow behind us) into position and the street
is ABSOLUTELY packed with thousands of happy smiling faces. Out
comes the Big Joint and for some still unknown reason, the dudes
kept trying to put the Big Joint on the top of the 420 Kombi- on top
of me and where I was stood, anyway, what you can see and hear
during the first minute is what happened and I think it sets up the
second minute rather well :O)
2014....... WooT+WooHoo+Whoot-Whoot-Whoot
= FourTwenty 2104... Typically, if typically can
be applied to a once a year event that - when is 'all said and
done' - lasts about 4 minutes and 20 seconds... so yeah... typically
... 2014 was the best one ever, but then, I always say that
because I always have to say that... I have to say
that because there ain't no other words wot ring as true...
because it is a default property that every 420 is slightly better
than the one before... because Fourtwenty is a happening
thing that happens in the "now" and if I have learnt one thing
observing the last sixteen "420 Demonstrations" it's that
no matter how precious a 420 memory is, "being there in the now /
existing amid the cascading moment" is
what participating in a MardiGrass FourTwenty is all about
and that's why I never prepare a speech because 420
is not about preaching to the choir, it's not a chance for me
to perform like a pop star on a stage, it's ONLY about
harmonizing with the existing dynamic, it's releasing everyones
inner unicorn and transforming the cascading now into something
magical...
So yeah, I was there,
same as in years before, stood on top of 420 Kombi surrounded by an
uncounted but very large number of exactly the kind of people I like
to be surrounded by every minute of every day, people who DO think about changing the pot law every
day.
Yah, hard to believe that
there actually are people on earth
who DON'T think about cannabis law reform every day,
they can go weeks and some times even months and years with out a
single thought about cannabis law reform. They are the ones we have
to reach out to, they are the ones we all need to motivate to think
about cannabis law reform on a daily basis.
But not the people who was all
sat around the 420 Kombi, ALL of them was thinking Pot for Peace and
Peace for Pot. ALL of them was chanting CHANGE THE LAW >>>
CHANGE THE LAW >>> CHANGE THE LAW >> Such a
wonderful, wonderful, wonderful place to be, occupying the street
with 'like minded people'. All of us illustrating in no uncertain
terms exactly what a 420 demonstration ought be all
about.
2015.. As I write
these words I have no idea how the rest of the world celebrated
their Global Marijuana March or their Million Man Marijuana March or
their Global Cannabis March or what ever it is called these
days- depends on which facebook group you want to beleive,
all's I know for sure is that it was
the Sixteenth time the MardiGrass lit up at FourTwenty and
when you watch the footage captued on the MaxStonePhone, we
think that you will get a real sense of what the 420 in nimbin
has evolved into.
Not
necessarily better, or bigger, or more important than any other
cannabis law reform demonstration anywhere else else on Earth and as
you would know dear reader, as a consequence of having read the
descriptions of the previous fifteen FourTwenties, it isn't
going to be easy for me to come up with fresh ways to express the
uniqueness-ness-ness of the
TwentyFifteen FourTwenty, so I am not even going to
try and instead, i will let the footage do all the work
;O)--~
Just kidding, I just employed the word
uniqueness-ness-ness for the first time in sixteen years on porpoise
so to squeak, a word that comes closest to capturing the essense
what happens here in Nimbin when we occupy the street,
roll in the 420 Kombi, roll out the Big Joint,
wave our little BigJoints high and then toss lots and
lots and lots of real little joints into a very enthusiastic
gathering of cannabis law reform activists.
One of the things
the MaxStonePhone footage reveals is the number of cameras
recording the event, random footage that will spread lateraly and
virtually untraceably thru the 'mesh' network created anonymously by
the participants, footage taken from all angles with commentary in
many languages, footage that captures the warm glow of shared belief
that it is past time to CHANGE THE LAW.
2016; The best way to
get grip on what happened at the Nimbin 420 in 2016 is to
push the play button on the first youtube and then when
you hear the words.... Cannabis Dave... Engage the Go Pro...
click play on the second one.
FourTwenty in TwentySixteen
Go-Pro footage ... Onboard the Big
Joint ... 2016
2017 & 2018 & 2019
All three happened spectacularly and both were joyously
youtubed and comprehensively facebooked, instagrammed and
snapchatted by the 420 mesh network and somehow and I truly
have no idea how, either the post demonstration words that I wrote
didnt get coded or loaded or the server mistakenly backed up a
2016 file sometime after the semi crash of 2018 and the great crash
of 2019 - living in the now.
<Reality insert March 20
2020: Corona Virus Alert.
The Nimbin FOUR20 MMMMarch has proven to
be one of the most, if not THE most peaceful and
professional protests amongst a world full of other acts
of civil disobedience. I point this out to point out that no
one has ever been arrested or harmed - in any way- at any of the
FOUR20 MMMMarches in Nimbin and that this trend is expected to
continue long into the future.
/END>
2020 .....Finally, you made it!
You are now fully briefed as to what to expect, an event that is
somewhat different every year and always somewhat the same and as I
always seems to say (because I use this same paragraph every year)
2020 will be no exception. Yup,
there is no doubt in my mind that the 2020 MardiGrass will become the next most
powerful and memorable MardiGrii ever held. I think this because the
last couple of years have been some of the best years in Global
Cannabis Law Reform for a many a long year thanks to the huge
successes all around the planet. Anyway, and as you will have
understood by reading the words above, each year we (the A.C.L.R.M)
try to come up with a slightly different 'thing' for the
"MardiGrassers' to do at 4.20, and, we like to keep that a surprise
until the last few minutes, even if we are doing nothing besides
gathering together for a POLITE toke, all be it at the biggest
celebration of 420 in Australia and part of the biggest global
celebration / demonstration of pot for peace and peace for
pot.
A
vision statement about the positive benefits of regulated and
taxable cannabis / hemp.
Let this vision
statement inform it's readers and let it point out that the number
one carbon scrubbing plant is cannabis.
Let it point out that
growing hemp for fiber and paper is more eco friendly and
sustainable than logging trees or fertilizing cotton.
Let it
point out the nutritional quality of the hemp seed is greater than
that of fish or soy beans.
Let it point out that
that the current NSW (and Australia) government is lagging behind
most every other state in the global economy simply because it has
not been able to conduct research into the benefits inherent in
cannabis/hemp re-legalization because of the enforcement of cannabis
prohibition.
Let it leave the reader in no doubt that
relegalizing cannabis for fibre, fuel, food and medicine is in the
best interests of everyone.
