Source: The Big Issue (UK)



Pub date: December 7 1998



Subj: UK:  The Bong Squad



Author: Steve Peake





The Bong Squad



The Campaign to Legalise Marijuana shifts into top gear as a newly-formed

'Cannabis Liberation Front' vows to plant weed in Jack Straw's Garden.



While 500 police, some of them armed with semi-automatic rifles, mounted

London's biggest ever drugs operation to bust an Amsterdam-style 'coffee

house' last week, the campaign to 'free the weed' took a significant step

forward at a conference at the Exodus rave and social justice community in

Luton.



A gathering of 40 activists agreed on a list of demands to support a new

Campaign Against Narcotics Abuse Because of Ignorance in Society (CANABIS)

and lent their support to an emerging International Cannabis Coalition that

is organising a number of global demonstrations on May 1, 1999.



UK campaigners from Exodus, the Green Party Drugs Group, Transform, The

Campaign to legalise Cannabis International Association, Legalise Cannabis!,

the Legalise Cannabis campaign Scotland and the Cannabis Hemp Information

Club intend to unify the fragmented anti-prohibition movement for the first

time.  In an unprecedented global link-up, UK campaigners are co-operating

with activists in the US, Canada and New Zealand.  The aim to attract over a

million people worldwide to the May 1 demo.



The demo will follow the example of the Reclaim the Streets, creating a

party atmosphere with sound-systems, drummers and street performers.

Campaigners will call upon authorities to 'Free the Holy Herb' and restore

the right to use cannabis as a sacrament, as enshrined in the UN Universal

declaration of Human Rights, which states that: "Everyone has the right to

freedom of thought, conscience and religion."



Shane Collins of the Green Party Drugs Group called on club promoters and

artists in particular to lend their support to the campaign: "Cannabis is

the most popular drug on the dance scene yet people cannot smoke it freely

without fear of being thrown out of the club or arrested."



The May 1 demonstrations will also see the relaunch of the Sow the Seeds

campaign, which encourages the planting of cannabis seeds in public places,

particularly outside police stations, law courts and doctor's surgeries.

Biodegradable balloons filled with helium and cannabis seeds will be available.



To highlight the absurdity of the law, campaigners will openly water the

seeds, challenging the police to arrest them.  However,. A Home Office

Spokesman said: "While the physical act of sowing is not an offence, an

offence will occur when the seeds actually germinate."  As the sowers will

be long gone before the sees sprout, the police will be unable to prosecute.

Guerrilla plantings, in Parliament Square and in jack Straw's garden for

example, are also planned.



The Coalition will highlight how cannabis can relieve the pain of multiple

sclerosis sufferers, to boost the appetites of AIDS patients and others on

courses of chemotherapy and in the treatment of respiratory ailments.



Despite the recent House of Lords report recommending the medical use of

cannabis, for 'compassionate reasons', the following day, police in

Stockport arrested Colin Davis, founder of the Medical Marijuana

Co-operative.  Davis, a spinal injury sufferer who uses cannabis for pain

relief, set up the co-operative with the intention of supplying herbal

cannabis of a known quality to those with an identified medical need.

Although the organisation publicly announced its intentions to work with the

local authority and police, 10 officers raided Mr Davis' home.  As Mr Davis

has previously been acquitted of charges relating to the cultivation and

supply of medical marijuana, his arrest appears to be a test of political

will engineered to gauge public opinion.



Campaigners will call for the personal possession, cultivation and

non-profit supply of cannabis to be unlicensed, while commercial trading

should be registered according to ethical and ecological trading standards.

An age limit of 16 would be placed on those buying or selling cannabis

commercially.



The coalition will also call for a pardon for all cannabis offenders - the

latest Home Office figures confirm that 64,058 people were prosecuted for

cannabis possession in 1996.



Calling for the campaign to be as imaginative and amusing as possible, the

founder of the Medical Marijuana Foundation, Rob Free Cannabis (who changed

his name by deed poll), suggested that a crack 'Cannabis Liberation Front'

should be established to launch surprise protests.  He also proposed the

formation of an elite 'Bong Squad', which would telephone police stations to

warn them of the lighting of a 'bong' (cannabis pipe) in shopping centres,

railway stations and locations around London.