Cannabis in Australia - Cannabis Culture

Cannabis Culture

The Nimbin Hemp Embassy is a non-profit association that was established in 1992. The embassy's objectives are cannabis law reform via an education program for the community about hemp products and cannabis and "promoting a more tolerant and compassionate attitude to people in general". According to the HEMP Embassy website, "the Nearly NORML Nimbin group formed in 1988 as the district's first enduring drug law reform outfit and later became Nimbin HEMP – Help End Marijuana Prohibition – then later in 1992 the name changed to the Nimbin HEMP Embassy. Generally the group discussed the cannabis laws of NSW and how they might be changed" In 1993, as a passive response to police raids in Nimbin and increasingly negative local reaction, the HEMP Embassy created the inaugural "Let It Grow" May Day rally and street parade, a celebratory and non-provocative form of political action. This became the first-ever MardiGrass, now a well-known cannabis-law-reform rally and festival held annually in the town of Nimbin.

The Australian Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP) political party has a number of objectives, including:

• endorsing candidates in federal elections
• legalising cannabis in all states and territories in Australia for
  • personal use
  • medical and therapeutic use
  • industrial purposes
• collecting and disseminating knowledge relating to any or all of the Party's aims
• campaigning (and lobbying) in all sectors of the community
• organising fundraising for the Party
• conducting and facilitating research relating to any or all of the Party's aims
• applying for public funding for electoral purposes, in accordance with the provisions of the Australian Electoral Act (1918) as amended
• do all which may be necessary, expedient or desirable to carry out the aims of the Party

The aims of the party centre on decriminalising both possession of small amounts of cannabis and the cultivation of cannabis for personal use, as well as legalising cannabis for medical use. A more radical proposal is that of "drug-free" zones which would "address issues of public consumption of cannabis through community policing" and the party supports greater funding for treatment services. In 2001 and 2004 the National President of the HEMP party, Michael Balderstone, ran as a Senate candidate. The party did not contest the 2007 Federal elections because it had been de-registered and could not re-register in time. It is campaigning to enroll more members, to be eligible to register again.

Following in the footsteps of the Cannabis Cup in the Netherlands, the Cannabis Cup in Australia is a competition run by MardiGrass to judge strains of cannabis. Growers submit samples of their crop for judging and the Hemp Olympics, held at MardiGrass, includes events such as bong throwing, joint rolling and "a growers' Ironperson competition, which requires participants to crawl through lantana tunnels dragging large bags of fertilizer".