Wlasnie otrzymalem najnowsze grudniowe wydanie magazynu "High Times". Od lat 70. ubieglego wieku magazyn ten byl kontynuatorem hippisowskiego ruch underground. W tym roku magazyn z pasywnego sub-kulturowego przemienil sie w aktywny magazyn polityczny, ktorego misja jest zmiana opresyjnych praw narkotykowych i legalizacja marihuany.
Ostatnie wydanie duzo miejsca poswieca Marcowi Emery z Kanady ("DEA Invades Canada", "Meet the Prince of Pot"). Liderowi Partii Marihuany w Kanadzie i wydawcy politycznego pro-legalizacyjnego marihuane magazynu "Cannabis Culture". Marc Emery za swoja polityczna dzialalnosc jest przesladowany przez DEA.
UNSTOPPABLE
The Seattle Hempfest is more than the largest, best-organized gathering of ganja aficionados in the land; it's become a reliable indicator of the state of marijuana-law reform in this country. At the 14th annual edition of the world's "phattest protestival" (on Aug. 20 and 21 in Myrtle Edwards Park), attendees baked and basked for two days in the perfect sunshine, heard a succession of inspired and inspiring speakers, listened to an astounding mix of live music, and engaged in a gentle form of civic disobedience that garnered a wink and a nod from the Seattle Police: 150,000 strong and not one citation issued or one arrest made.
The theme this year was education, and along the mirace mile of vendor booths that hawked everything from hot dogs to hacky sacks, I learned something that we all need to remember: We are unstoppable.
Two and a half years ago, the DEA tried to cut off the head of the glass-bong industry, believing that the body would die soon after. On one day, 33 companies were raided and 55 individuals arrested in a pair of showboat operations that knocked the wind out of the manufacturers and retailers but left the blowers and buyers free to find each other again. For a year or so, the glass industry grew discreet but certainly didn't go away; and now, at the 2005 Seattle Hempfest, great glass was back in full force, not just in quantity but in quality as well. Gold-flecked, finely marbled inside-out bubblers and honeycombed head pieces were lovingly displayed, admired, bought and sold.
The US government can take all the pot shots it wants, but the fact is 14 million Americans smoked marijuana last month. With a base that large, we can move the mountains of law that stand between us and our civil liberties. With numbers like that, we're more than a blip on the American map; we're an economically powered culture that is by now woven into the very fabric of this nation. We're an undeniable force that generates billions of dollars in legitimate revenues through the sale of everything form pot-leaf T-shirts and drug-test solution products to music CDs, DVDs, cultivation equipment and highly imaginative glass smoke-ware. And all of it was gloriously on hand at the Seattle Hempfest in 2005.
We are unstoppable.
Richard Cusick
Editor (HIGHT TIMES, December 2005).
No comments:
Post a Comment