By DARREN COYNE
It could have been a beautiful moment.
Imagine. Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull yarning over a bowl of nutritious macadamia nuts with Nimbin’s Hemp Embassy President Michael Balderstone.
They might seem an odd couple but they do have a bit in common after all.
Balderstone was educated at Melbourne’s exclusive Scotch College while Turnbull received his straps at the equally reputable Sydney’s Grammar School.
Both good ol’ boys have dabbled in the money market and know the value of a good investment; Turnbull as a merchant banker, Balderstone as a stockbroker.
Malcolm has freely admitted to smoking cannabis during his university years while Michael has … well… he enjoys a puff as well.
Sadly Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce arrived at the party first.
Just moments before the PM showed up to make an important campaign announcement, Balderstone a registered Senate candidate in West Australia for the HEMP/SEX Party coalition, was drawn into a conversation with the deputy.
Now Barnaby, unlike Malcolm, is definitely not a pot-smoker.
He’s more of a conservative country fellow.
But then Barnaby does appear to support its medicinal use, having opened Australia’s “first medicinal cannabis farm” at Tamworth in May.
And given that the deputy and his boss were in the Page electorate to spruik a $25 million ‘Jobs and Industry’ package, it was inevitable that Balderstone would mention his idea to create 100,000 jobs by legitimizing the already thriving, but still black-market, cannabis industry on the north coast.
He pointed out that the Federal government was yet to deliver meaningful legislation to allow ‘medicinal cannabis’ to the many thousands of people across Australia already accessing it on the black market.
Given that Nimbin’s Hemp Embassy has been in the frontline of the medical cannabis debate, Barnaby probably should have given the former stockbroker a good old fashioned north coast hug.
Instead, appearing a little flustered, he asked, ‘Do you want it for medicinal or recreational use?’
Balderstone assured the deputy he used cannabis to treat his post traumatic stress from attending boarding school (something the PM would no doubt have understood), but Joyce had obviously had enough.
He wanted to talk about nuts and cows and robots.
‘We’ve given you a good run mate’, he said, before turning his back on the potential Senator.
Noticing the disruption in the force, two NSW Police Protection Unit clones quickly moved in to frog-march the bearded interloper to the gate.
Heard to mutter, “what a shame, I love macadamias”, the president of the HEMP party watched wanly from the sidelines as the prime ministerial cavalcade finally arrived.
Surrounded by the nation’s media, the Prime Minister toured the macadamia processing facility, talked about his commitment to jobs and growth, made a $25 million promise, slagged off his opponent Bill Shorten, promised that Medicare would never ever ever be sold, sampled a proffered nut, defended having dinner with a disreputable muslim, and proclaimed ‘love’ could heal all wounds, or something to that effect.
Which is a pity really, because Michael, who had written a letter to Malcolm around Christmas time and was wondering why he’d never received a reply, was not feeling very loved.
So here it is, the letter the President wanted the Prime Minister to respond to….
(PS: This reporter has the inflatable joint in safekeeping should the Prime Minister like to claim it)
Dear Malcolm, why do the police get the last say in Australia on drug policy?
Are they the drug experts? Don’t they have a conflict of interest seeing as half their work and a lot of their funding is fighting the drug war?
It’s never been harder for a Cannabis user to mind their own business with new policing methods exposing us daily to persecution, and Cannabis is still in the same basket with all the other illegal drugs. Yet pot is so different. It’s simply a dried herb, unadulterated, while all the rest are processed and most of them chemicals.
Cannabis is uniquely fat soluble so it stays in our blood for a month or two, our urine for weeks and importantly, shows in our saliva for days. All other illegal drugs are in powder or pill form, tiny amounts and odourless, except to a dog! Cannabis on the other hand, stinks, and if you smoke it everyone nearby knows. Who notices people slipping a pill down?
Sniffer dogs have heralded a radical change in drug trends.
Pot has become too risky, pills are tiny and look like they came from the chemist. Smoking tobacco is forbidden all over the place now as well but the arrival of sniffer dogs meant either stay at home for cones or joints, or in many cases, change drugs.
And now we have saliva testing of drivers which has given a huge new impetus to the changing trend in drug use. There were 73 cases of “driving with illegal drugs in your system” in our local Lismore Court one recent Monday. Virtually all the charges were for Cannabis.
This new saliva testing of drivers has had a huge impact on Cannabis users. Every time we drive now we risk losing our licence. It’s nothing to do with impaired driving. A joint one evening means you are susceptible to a positive reading days later. Of course people change their drug habits. Virtually all the other illegal drugs are out of your system the next day and the roadside tests are only for pot, amphetamines and mdma. Nothing produced by Big Pharma is tested.
The tests should be about impairment but in fact are not aimed at that at all.
The NSW Deputy Premier, ex cop and police minister Troy Grant has a closed the door on the subject. “Cannabis is illegal anyway,” he says. He’s an old school cop and like many who have had no experience (unlike you) and still believe the lies, he’s closed-minded. It’s going to be very hard for the cops to admit they’ve been barking up the wrong tree for decades. In truth, while doing Big Pharma’s dirty work, they have been the instrument of terrible harm. Countless broken families and now record jail figures all in the name of the “War On Drugs”.
For the police, saliva testing drivers on the Nimbin road is like playing darts from a metre away. And no way is it random like they say. The saliva tests are expensive, unlike the alcohol breathalyser and young drivers, old cars, long hair, blackfellas….clearly they are targets.
All the poor people who spend a fortune buying their choice of pain relief from the black market at ten dollars a gram in Nimbin or thirty dollars plus a gram in Kununurra, for a plant we could all grow easily in our back yard. A plant that was ubiquitous on the planet two hundred years ago because it had so many uses.
Cannabis was an ingredient in the majority of medicines a century ago, before the pharmaceutical industry took over the super profitable pain relief market. The Cannabis plant, the Opium Poppy and the Coca plant are the best and most popular pain relievers in Creation. Prohibit them and you control the market, globally.
Today’s pain killers available at the chemist virtually all contain Opium extracts.
Big Pharma is desperate for Cannabis to stay illegal. Imagine the profits it will lose if anybody could grow a herb in their garden that not only can fix a headache but could also stop you getting them. This plant has a million health benefits and we have been lied to for nearly a century. Long enough for the lies to be believed or certainly to have put huge doubts in peoples’ minds.
Reefer Madness lies have worked their way into every corner of our society and prohibition of nature’s best pain relieving herbs is entrenched.
Have no doubt Big Pharma is currently spending a fortune lobbying politicians and decision makers that cannabis will drive you crazy, or it’s the gateway to other drugs, or it’s highly addictive, or thirty times stronger. All lies told mostly by people who believe it themselves and have never been stoned, so know no better.
But not you, Prime Minister, because you have been stoned and we know you enjoyed it. Maybe you got stoned often, like President Obama, and if so please know there are millions of us still doing it regularly, because it works for us. It’s our medicine and we like it for a variety of reasons, which could all come under the heading of pain relief.
Chilling out after work with a joint and relaxing.
Is that medical or not? Using it to get a good night’s sleep is medicinal, surely? Or smoking a joint for appetite, or obesity, or anxiety, or a headache. All medicinal obviously. Why do you think so many young people love a cone after school? To chill out, to relax, to give their brain a break. It’s a medicinal herb, simple. And it’s not toxic like alcohol and you don’t get a hangover.
However, Prime Minister, under prohibition young people’s introduction to pot today is probably with weed grown in chemicals by organised crime, mixed with tobacco and smoked in a state of fear. So no wonder their first experience of “imagination fuel” can be problematic for some.
Ancient cultures who revered the spiritual qualities of Cannabis introduced their young people with initiations but today’s kids face an initiation into criminality. There are big psychological consequences from prohibition. I’ve lived in Nimbin for thirty years and the unjust law drives people crazy and keeps many people stoney broke.
And we’re talking about a herb anyone could grow in their backyard, for free.
We have the changes in America to look at now. California has had legal medical Cannabis for twenty years now. There are 23 states with legal medical cannabis industries, and five other states, like Colorado, where it’s gone beyond medical, and a recreational market is regulated and taxed like any other product. Guess what happened? The first statistics show car accidents down, depression down, suicides down, crime way down of course, less violence, less other drug abuse, like ice use, Prime Minister.
In Nimbin we have less ice problems because unlike most country towns in Australia the people who want to change their mind with drugs can choose to use outdoor grown organic Cannabis which is always available. It’s hard to find any pot in most of our country towns but ice is readily available and inexpensive, a totally different mind changer.
Which drugs, you need to be asking the Australian people, are we at war with?
In fact it’s nature’s best, the amazing gifts to mankind our ancestors revered and enjoyed for centuries, until the global Monopoly game profit madness took over. This war against ourselves over which drugs we are allowed to use and which not, needs to be exposed for what it is and you’re the man to do it, we hope Malcolm.
It makes sense that you want to take charge and make Federal regulations for medical Cannabis but we implore you to take a big and bold first step. Take a leaf out of Obama’s courage. Look at what other countries are doing and how it works in Holland, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Uruguay, Chile, Canada and America.
Why not an amnesty for personal cannabis use while you sort out supply? Supply is always the stumbling block but in fact it’s an incredible opportunity for Hemployment. Roll that one word around on your tongue for a moment. It’s our nomination for the inaugural Innovation Award. Hemployment…a respectable and meaningful future for Aussie dole bludging pot smokers!
More seriously, Colorado has created 20,000 jobs in their medical and recreational industries, in a population equivalent to Sydney. Why not use the expertise of growers who have been doing this for decades in this country and won’t stop anyway?
There are massive employment opportunities if you are smart with this imminent change. Let Aboriginal communities grow their own organic yarndi instead of spending their entire cheque on chemically grown hydro, and alcohol. Allow people to grow a few plants in their backyard and educate them to throw a handful of green leaves in the juicer and watch our immune systems improve and doctor visits decline.
You may well be Australia’s first PM who has heard of the Endocannabinoid system. If you haven’t please check it out because we all have one and it seems that humans and pot have been evolving together for a long time. The new science on Cannabis is discovering untold wonders which promise to have a huge impact on not only medicine but agriculture and bio-fuels as well. Please let us be a part of this.
Essentially it means treating drug use as a health issue, which is why we are all using them in the first place; simply to feel better, to have less pain, to feel good if we can and enjoy the day.
Education is the key and maybe a National Drug Summit is needed where we bring together experts from around the globe to discuss options for the future.
Meanwhile, please ask the police to back off with their saliva testing and sniffer dogs which are encouraging a whole new generation to use chemical pills rather than the herb no one has ever died from.
Yours sincerely, Michael Balderstone, Nimbin HEMP Embassy
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
