Cannabis Protest London 28 January 2009: Report

Hi, it’s Pinky with an update on the Cannabis Protest.

Wow! What a day the Cannabis Protest in London turned out to be. Just before the protest on Wednesday 28th January 2009, I had a call from the Metropolitan Police in which it was stated that government officials were not happy at all with the protest going ahead, particularly in light of their fluffed reclassification move. The Police informed us that they had failed to stop us and that the protest was on!

The day of the protest was grey and miserable, which probably dissuaded a lot of people from attending to be honest. Also with it being held on a Wednesday to coincide with Prime Ministers Questions, many people weren’t able to get time off work. Others are feeling the effects of the credit crunch and just couldn’t afford the expensive trip to London. Those who did manage to come have another great day burned into their memory.

We set up on the morning and spirits where high, and we were as usual! It was drizzling and we were soaking wet, but were determined to see Gordon Brown on his first day back to PMQ after the reclassification. Just to show him we didn’t care about his unjust and unfounded law which had been rushed into effect on Monday 26th January this year.

Gordon drove past us to hear the horns from the traffic of Parliament Square which were replying to our signs that read ‘Sound your horn and have a toot to support cannabis users, we should all be free from prosecution’. This didn’t go down too well with the Prime Minister, especially with all the lawfully mounted signs we had along his route!

The Police had arranged for barriers to be put up all day till 7pm, we had permission to erect one poster or banner per railing. After Gordon drove past us, the next thing we knew was that the council had taken down the barriers and clearly had no idea themselves as to why the barriers were being removed. They had just been given the order by someone to take them down.

The Police contacted the relevant authorities and their only response was that they had been informed to remove them. They continued to maintain this line in the face of protestations from the Police that removal contravened public health and safety guidelines.

Gordon wasn’t and still isn’t very happy that us medicinal and recreational users have the support of the majority of the general public. Even though we couldn’t stop the barriers being taken away, we still made sure all the banners were on show, including my Jacqui Spliff and Clown Brown banner. We used humans to prop the boards up as Gordon couldn’t quite get us removed along with the barriers that day.

I did fly my banner asking why I deserved 5 years in prison for using Cannabis, when a spliff a day keeps my doctor away. As per usual, I or others failed to get an answer to this burning question.

We did have people recording us and taking photos of us. The best moment in my eyes had to be when a film crew who were recording Ann Widdecombe came to film us instead. Ann was moaning about us causing so much noise. With me being me, I really gave them something to record and apparently it was a country mile better than what they’d just recorded with Ann.

I await the time and date for the release of this program, but all I will say for now is that Ann must’ve heard my words from the megaphone! Mobile phones and camera flashes appeared all over the place with people taking so many pictures of us. This included the seven floors of Ann Widdecombe’s building as people were taking pictures from her office windows!

We blew the film crew away and they even recorded us chanting for at the end of the program. We all smoked all day and we just kept rolling out of the public eye, but the one thing I can say and that is the smog of London had never smelled so nice!

A couple of the protesters noticed people listening to us intently from the roofs and balconies around us. This included people who came from within the Houses of Parliament to listen. We did have a few cars sound their horns to support us before they drove through the security gates of Parliament too! It’s nice to see we have all gained the support from some of the people who work behind those big black gates.

We also had a gentleman who was very well dressed that crossed the road to see us. This man was a significant player in a pharmaceutical company and is now retired. He has put us in touch with people who can help us with facts about cannabis and answer some of our questions. This alone was a great result, I’m sure all will agree. We also discovered that a new cannabis pill is under research and that the preliminary results are looking very promising.

As the day came to an end, we managed to get packed up for around 7pm and were still been recorded until the minute we left.

One thing we did notice was a handful of protesters who had their banners staked into the ground next to us, but where standing well away from their boards and all of us. We thought this was a little strange until we found out that they where protesting over the Tamil government’s genocide. The poor buggers where on hunger strike and the smell in the air made them move away for fear of the munchies! Poor guys, as careful as we were, I bet they felt even hungrier by the end of the day!

There will be more recordings and press releases from this event in due course and I will keep the cannabis forums up to date with this information as I can. Please keep your eyes open in the forums for this information.

If your organisation does not already have a member dedicated to helping unite the cannabis community for such protests, then please make yourself known to us via protestlondon@yahoo.com . We support and attend protests for medical and recreational users of Cannabis.

The protests are not about me. I only stand up for what I believe in and all are welcome to do the same along with me. All we want is for the general public to know the truth about Cannabis and that alone surely can’t make us the bad guys!

The protests take a team to work. It’s as simple as that. Protestlondon.co.uk is intent on bringing the Cannabis community together in one place, en-mass, leaving the government with no choice but to listen.

Over the years there have been a lot of disagreements and there’s been fragmentation within the cannabis communities that still affects many different people and organisations to this day. We at protestlondon.co.uk want all to forget their differences for just one day and unite to fight this unjust law.

Please join in the fun and help get these protests advertised, so we can bring people together and show the world that Cannabis users are a normal part of society and should be treated no different to everyone else.

Your cannabis organisation is welcome to take a place with the Protest London team.
The only thing making us criminals is the law!

Please feel free to come to the next protest which will take place on 2nd May 2009, licences and funding permitting.

We have a donation facility on www.protestlondon.co.uk and every penny is spent on the campaign. Anything you may wish to donate will go straight to work for us all on the campaign.

All of the protests we organise are lawful and managed through open co-operation with the Police and relevant public bodies. You can’t be arrested for merely attending, but you could get charged if the police wanted to get funny with us all, which they clearly don’t. If you come to our protests and don’t want to or aren’t prepared to get arrested then don’t carry Cannabis while you are there.

If, however, you believe you’re doing nothing wrong then feel free to join us for a smoke but please remember to keep it discrete and considerate. The Police do have a job to do and they aren’t the lawmakers. There are many Police Officers that want Cannabis to be legalised in the UK so that they can concentrate on tackling more serious and socially-affective crime.

The Police don’t want to arrest us but may be forced to act if they deem it necessary. So please, always keep that in the back of your mind. The protests are not about arrests, it’s simply about putting our views across to this deaf and dumb government!

Not one search, not one arrest and yet again not one complaint from the general public. The government always moan so I won’t include them in the list! It’s so simple really. We are right and they are wrong. We will unite and fight this unjust law

Here is to May 2nd 2009 and hopefully the chance to meet you soon.

by Pinky Star, 06 February 2009

Jim “Pinky” Starr.