Cardiff Global Marijuana March 2013
At midday as the sun shone down on Cardiff City on a lovely bank holiday Saturday, all walks of life congregated on Cathays Park, situated funnily enough between the Welsh school of pharmacy, South Wales Police and Cardiff City Hall. Young and old, different religions, races, cultures and backgrounds, all with one thing in common. We were all there to show our support for the legalisation of cannabis. At somewhere between 2pm and half past the march set off, with a good strong 1000+ force, hearing chants of ‘FREE THE WEED’ and ‘CURES NOT WARS’, with a sweet haze of cannabis flooding the streets.
I didn’t see one angry, offended or hate filled expression, despite the ‘obstruction’ to traffic and public. In fact quite the opposite! Cars passing showed their support by beeping their horns and to my surprise a white van man stopped, hung out of his window, raised a revolutionary fist and cheered ‘END PROHIBITION, SMOKE WEED’. There were also plenty of stewards sporting fluorescent vests branded with ‘Cardiff Cannabis march 2013’ and a big cannabis leaf. Although most of the onlookers looked happy and supportive to see us, the rest seemed to look just puzzled. But the march officials were soon at hand to hand out leaflets for NORML-UK, who work to reform cannabis laws in the UK, and other educational information.
Several stops were made along the march including one outside the National Assembly for Wales, where speakers such as Greg de Hoedt (UKCSC & NORML-UK) and Des Humphrey (NORML-UK , Cardiff Cannabis Club & Co-organiser of the event) had a few minutes to tell everyone how we can help make a change and that by growing our own, we can help prevent funding organised crime while growing the quality medicine we deserve.
The march came to an end at Hamadryad Park, a remote open space with a couple of tents selling legal merchandise, a raffle was held and a PA for a few last words from the organisers before the power on the system ran out. That didn’t stop the festivities though, people stayed around for several hours enjoying the last few hours of sun and the hospitality of others enjoying their smoke.
On behalf of the Cardiff Cannabis Club and the UKCSCs, 400 Cannabis seeds were handed out to encourage growing your own. If everyone planted the seeds they were given, and they all yielded around 28g per plant, then over £100,000 would be kept out of the hands of real criminal gangs and away from organised crime. Now that’s quite something from a harmless little plant, hey?
Hopefully, with the public seeming to accept these public gatherings, and the zero presence and, I’d like to say, support, from the police; we will now see more events like this and a start to a greener, happier future.