Global Million Marijauna March

This is a movement I was only made aware of last year, just in time to start organising, as far as I know, the first Million Marijuana March in Cardiff, Wales. The GMM/MMM is a worldwide protest against local and international cannabis prohibition laws, that takes place on the 1st Saturday in May each year. It was originally started in Toronto and New York back in 1999 by a chap named Dana Beal and since then has grown to include over 300 cities annually, stretching from the aforementioned North American cities, as far as Amsterdam, Tokyo, Manila, Copenhagen, Mexico City, Brighton and Dunedin, just to name a handful.


The marches are an important event in the calendar of any pro-cannabis / anti-prohibitionist for many reasons. Firstly, having us all demonstrate together on the same day shows a sense of unity which is often lacking in the cannabis community. One only has to look at the number of like minded groups on Facebook or the rest of the internet to see how many people are singing the same hymns but from different sheets. Just off the top of my head we have The Legalise Cannabis Alliance (recently re-branded as CLEAR), NORML UK, 420 UK, Frank-Dont-Know-Jack, as well as a number of different marijuana tea party groups and events. All of which are perfectly respectable organisations, as far as I know, but it's just a shame they're so scattered. Having a march brings us all together, and not just in an online forum where words get misconstrued. It's a great way of opening doors between groups, and sharing skills, information and let's face it, tactics in what is an ongoing battle. It also lets people know that there is a movement, there are organisations working hard to get the issue legitimised and that they're not alone in the struggle. 


The other unmissable benefit is the impression these events can give to the spectator. Seeing that several hundred or (said wishfully!) several thousand people in your home town feel passionately about the issue to take to the streets and march, chant and rally their way through town may change a lot of minds about the subject, or at the very least get people thinking and talking. This alone in the UK is a step forward.  The nature of the protests can also be a bit of a surprise to people - obviously there's a lot of tie dye, dreadlocks and green smoke, but the chirpy, fun loving, non-anti-social nature of the protest is a breath of fresh air compared to what's seen at a lot of marches and protest.


Following the above, if we here in the UK can make the protests big enough, it pretty much guarantees some media attention and hopefully some words of reason printed or (again, said with a hint of wishfulness) broadcast, from the mouth of someone that has a clue what they're talking about. This can get the "on the fencers" who are crucial in this debate, to understand not only the truth about the alleged harms caused by the plant but also the wider picture of the costs of cannabis prohibition and the harm it causes. These marches do bring media attention in the States and Canada, which in turn leads to TV debates. This is the step forward we're crying out for in this country.


So, take a look at the websites below and find you nearest Million Marijuana March, or if there's nothing close enough, start your own. As the organiser of the Cardiff marches, I have to say it's really not that hard: Start a Facebook group, invite everyone you know and post it on every pro-cannabis group, forum or website you can find. Then, just keep emailing the members to invite their friends etc. You'll be gobsmacked by the number of people getting in touch to offer help. Get some flyers made (you'll no doubt have loads of offers from people willing to design them for you) and get out to club nights and gigs flyering, stick them in pubs, coffeeshops and anywhere you can. My event has grown to almost a thousand in less than a month and I'm no one special! 


This year, organisation for Leicester, Cardiff, and Birmingham is well underway, as well as a 420 event on April 20th in Hyde Park, London, so get involved and get the UK stuck into the struggle!


http://cures-not-wars.org/wordpress/
http://www.globalmarijuanamarch.com/ (this one's currently down, but keep checking)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Marijuana_March
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=137598619602596

Birmingham - http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=166824986679996
Cardiff - http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=198100900217983
Leicester - http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=156375064417650
London 420- http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=149182248470105

Students, Please Pay For Your Own Education

Probably not the most popular blog title you'll ever read, but these are my feelings nonetheless. First of all, let me address the Clegg issue. Yes, of course if a politician does not stick to the promises set out in their manifesto, then that is immoral and they deserve to be discreditted. But let's remember a couple of things: Nick Clegg is not the Prime Minister and is in a coalition with a party and leader who had always openly supported increasing student fees. The coalition government was formed over a few days last May where various policies had to be negotiated and compromised over. Maybe the decision had already been made at this point and should have been brought out in the open then. Either way, we need to stop looking at this in a black and white "Nick Clegg said he'd do this, but now he's in power and he's doing something else", which really isn't the case.

Another myth that needs to be dispelled is the "Poor people can no longer afford to go to university". If anyone took five minutes to look into the policies, it's very clear that this is complete rubbish. The fees are paid via student loans, which are increased to allow for the increased fees and are payed back when the university graduate is earning over £21,000. Thereby meaning that a very poor child still has as much opportunity, from a financial perspective, as a child from a wealthier background. A person's wealth at the point of starting a degree is completely irrelevant.

Now, onto the reasons that I feel that an individual's higher education is not the financial responsibility of the rest of the nation. Certain things in society are obviously the responsibility of all of us: Healthcare, children's education, local and national security etc. But I fail to see why I should bare the financial burden of an 18 year old's biology degree. A biology graduate is likely to be getting a fantastic salary if they work hard and should have no problem paying for the resources that got them there. University is about jobs and money. The argument that we need a better educated population has no weight at all to me. I don't see the value to society of someone getting an economics degree and then choosing to go into a completely unrelated field upon their graduation, because they are no longer interested in persuing a career in a financial field. That's not adding value to society, that's a gross waste of resources. By trade, I work as a trainer - in order for me to gain a recognised qualification, by the way of a CIPD Certificate in Training Practice, I would have to fork out, or get a company to sponsor me to the value of, £15,000. Unsurprisingly this hasn't happened. My father, by trade is a qualified driving instructor. A qualification also costing several thousand pounds. So why do these have to be privately funded up front, even though they are qualifications directly related to industries, that will directly benefit society? I'm not advocating these should be funded publicly, I'm merely drawing comparison. Why does it seem right to publicly fund an English literature degree but not a driving instructors qualification? Oh, because one is "accademic" and takes place at a "university" it is automatically assumed that it is our responsibility?

Apparently the increased fees are going to deter people from going to university. Great! If your commitment to your course of choice was so weak that it could be broken by the fear of slightly lower take home pay when you reach the equivalent of £21,000 per year then I'm glad you didn't wast your time on the course. Find something you genuinely are committed to and do that. Or if you're not sure, wait a while. I don't quite get the point that we need more graduates. We don't have enough jobs for the graduates we have, why do we need more overqualified people working in our callcentres?

I, and I'm sure you, have met countless graduates who are not using their degree at all and end up working an entry level job or going on to study something completely different. Ah, but university is more than just a pathway to gaining a qualification, it's a life experience that alters your perspective blah, blah, blah. Well, I'd quite like the life experience of travelling around the America's for a few months - much cheaper than a degree and will probably give me invaluable experiences, broaden my mind and make me a much more "valuable" member of society. So, essentially adding much more to society than a degree without purpose. So who wants to chip in for my trip? No one, really? Rather pay for Johnny's 3 year Star Wars degree?