The HEMP (Help End Marijuana Prohibition) Party is busy inflating their trademark massive joint in the AAA (Authorised Assembly Area) to welcome President Obama in Canberra today.
The group’s signature 10-metre inflatable scoobie was initially knocked back by the Australian Federal Police but received a last-minute reprieve courtesy of the National Capital Authority.
The veritable dirigible, flanked by a banner proclaiming ‘Yes We Cannabis’ will be joining ‘other anti-war protesters’ in Canberra today and tomorrow for the President’s visit, according to HEMP Party President Michael Balderstone.
‘The real issue is trying to get the drug war on the agenda while Obama is here,’ he said.
‘In his own words, “medical cannabis is entirely appropriate”. So let’s start there in our dismantling of this massive social disaster, called the “war on drugs”. But let’s start talking about it. Afghanistan is in the news every day but more people have lost their lives in the drug war than over there.’
‘President Obama has helped law reform and medical cannabis dispensaries spread across America rapidly with no discernable negative social consequences. Yet our government continues to turn its back on the two million regular Aussie tokers. The issue needs to be urgently taken out of the too-hard basket, which Labor has promised us for years it would do.’
‘The President smoked a lot of weed and he knows cannabis is good medicine. We want him to talk to Julia about how to change our attitude of criminalising people for self medicating with a herb that has proven medical benefits.
‘Perhaps we need a Bob Carr-style Drug Summit in Canberra. A few days listening to the experts on how the drug war is going, and how much it is costing. Not the money so much as the drastic social damage.’
The HEMP Party, now a registered political party, is seeking candidates for the next Federal election.
