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| Hemp Group Moves Office To Melbourne |
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Posted by FoM on August 16, 2001 at 09:58:44 PT By Brad Buck, Florida Today Source: Florida Today 
The Florida Cannabis Action Network, which advocates, among other things, the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes, now has an office in downtown Melbourne on East New Haven Avenue. Group President Kevin Aplin got his indoctrination to local politics when the City Council on Tuesday night rejected his request to waive the liability insurance requirement for the planned Our Voice Street Festival. His group plans to host the festival Sept. 8 in Melbourne. "Every group in the downtown area, we require insurance," Mayor John Buckley said. Aplin said Wednesday the group feels marijuana should be separated out from the harder drugs such as heroin and cocaine. "Prohibition is a failure," he said. The Cannabis Action Network is a nationwide team of people working to make cannabis legally available for medicinal, industrial and personal use, according to its Web site. The group wants to put an initiative on the statewide ballot in 2002 to legalize marijuana for medical purposes. The network unites more than 250 groups from all 50 states and around the world. National headquarters are in Berkeley. Aplin said the network has moved to Melbourne for a more central location in Florida. Council members Richard Contreras and Pat Poole wanted to know if Aplin planned to sue the city if his request for a waiver was denied. "I'm not here to threaten anybody," Aplin said. "I don't want to alienate the city administration." Aplin's organization held a Cannabis Freedom Festival at Wickham Park Pavilion in Melbourne two years ago. It was billed much the same as the Our Voice Street Festival - "a political free speech event to bring together grassroots organizations and to educate a broad spectrum of the public regarding their activities." The group has an attorney, Gary Edinger, in Gainesville, who has successfully sued several cities and counties in Florida who have tried to prevent the Cannabis Action Network from holding events in their areas. The network holds a Hempfest in Gainesville in which it encourages people to smoke marijuana and legalize its use and registers people to vote. The group also teaches civics classes at universities in which it encourages students to get involved in politics. The Hempfest resumed in Gainesville in 1999 after skipping a few years. The Cannabis Action Network scheduled the festival, not held since 1995, for Dec. 3, 1999 after a resounding victory in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Gainesville refused to grant permits for a festival in 1995. The 1999 court ruling struck down the city's noise and street closing ordinances, ruling they violated the First Amendment to the Constitution. Note: A group famous for its Hempfest in Gainesville is setting up shop in Melbourne. Source: Florida Today (FL) Related Article & Web Site: Florida Cannabis Action Network Judge Backs Hempfest Over Law CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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