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Byron Shire
August 29, 2026

MardiGrass mayday, mayday, mayday for May Day

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Cannabis activist Michael Balderstone marching with the Medical Marijuana mob during the 2017 Mardi Grass official protest rally in Nimbin. Photo Tree Faerie.

Mayday mayday mayday is an international signal of distress and Nimbin’s MardiGrass organisers and supporters will march tomorrow to highlight their distress about what they say is a war on drugs.

Michael Balderstone president of the HEMP Party and NSW Senate candidate, says the annual Mayday March is to invite local Members of Parliament to MardiGrass. ‘We want to remind them we are just like them, only we prefer weed and vote HEMP,’ he said.

The march will begin at 1pm at the Lismore Court House and visit the offices of Janelle Saffin and Kevin Hogan with hand delivered invites to Nimbin’s big weekend.

‘Greens local Dan Reid might join us and march along now the Greens say that pot is okay and they’ve come out of the Cannabis closet,’ says Balderstone.

‘Janelle Saffin is sympathetic to at least medical use we know but is the National Party’s Kevin Hogan ready to shrug off the Nat’s drizabone and support us? We’ll find out tomorrow.’

Balderstone says the big issue now for cannabis users is, do any of the major political parties realise that roadside drug testing is preventing medical cannabis even getting off the ground? ‘Until we decide to focus on impairment as the driving issue, the rest of it is hollow words.

‘Next month in May, in NSW, there are new laws to be enacted which mean an instant on the spot loss of ones drivers licence for three months if your saliva registers positive that you have cannabis in your system. And by now I think everyone must know cannabis is uniquely fat soluble and stays in your system for a month or two.

‘So who is going to speak out against such ridiculous unfairness?’

The full MardiGrass program can be found at: www.nimbinmardigrass.com.



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