Media Release 11 September 2000
BIG JOINT TO PUT THE DRUG WAR
ON WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM AGENDA
The Big Joint will put the Drug War on the agenda of the World Economic
Forum:
11 are ? noon Tuesday 12 September 2000
Crown Casino Melbourne
The Big Joint is a 42 foot bamboo and hemp structure that is the central
icon of the Nimbin's world famous annual hemp harvest festival, the
Nimbin "Let It Grow" Mardi Grass.
The Big Joint needs about 20 fit people to carry it. Like a giant
battering ram it will be attempting to burst through the doors of the
besieged WEF tomorrow.
The Nimbin HEMP Embassy has sent the Big Joint to s11-13 to bear witness
to the social cost of the global Drug War and the failure of drug
prohibition policies across the world.
"The global black market in illicit drugs is second only to weapons as
the biggest trade cash earner of them all", said Michael Balderstone
spokesperson for the HEMP Embassy. "The WEF would be remiss if they
didn't take into account the harm done to world trade by the slosh of
black money and the billions spent around the world laundering it."
The Big Joint was carried to Melbourne by the Freedom Riders, a group
who recently undertook a 12-week journey for justice to the jail towns
of counting the NSW prisoners of the Drug
War.
"The Drug War is the pointy end of globalisation," said Freedom Rider,
Graeme Dunstan. "Drug prohibition laws have been foisted on us by the
USA and locked in by the treaties of bureaucrats similar to those
promoted by the World Economic Forum."
"In every country where the US drug prohibition madness has become law,
drug abuse has escalated, civil liberties have been stripped away and
prisoner populations have gone off the clock", he said. "The Australian
prisoner population is increasing at about 8% per year; and 80% are
incarcerated for drug related crimes."
"The global Drug War has provided the fodder that has made incarceration
a global growth industry," said Mr Dunstan. "The newest jails in NSW,
Victoria and Queensland were built and are managed by Wackenhutt, a
Florida based, Wall Street listed multinational that has, since 1990,
secured incarceration rights to at total of 40,000 prisoners, about
2,000 of whom are Australians."
"Private prisons spell the return of slavery", said Mr Dunstan. "We are
at s11 to say we are determined that we will NOT let these bad laws make
Australia a convict colony again".
"At this time Australian governments are building prisons at a faster
rate than they are building universities or hospitals", he said. "It is
considered economically rational to spend $60,000 per head per year to
send the children of the poor to prisons rather than find money for
scholarships to send them to universities".
End the Drug War and release the prisoners. No more Drug War prisons. No
more Drug War prisoners!
Further information.
Check the web site www.peacebus.com
Michael Balderstone, spokesperson, Nimbin HEMP Embassy 02 6689 1842
www.nrg.com.au/~hemp
Graeme Dunstan, director Australian Cannabis Law Reform Movement 0412
609 373
www.nrg.com.au/~graeme
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