cannabisnews.com: Thousands Expected at Cannabis Marches Thousands Expected at Cannabis Marches Posted by CN Staff on May 04, 2002 at 08:03:51 PT Thousands have joined previous cannabis marches Source: BBC News Thousands of people are expected to march in various cities across the UK on Saturday to mark World Cannabis Action Day. The Million Marijuana March is a worldwide event involving people taking to the streets in nearly 200 cities across the globe. Participants say it will be a day of discussion, protest and celebration. "It's going to be a huge event," said Shane Collins, from Brixton, south London. "The march is to protest for legalisation, and the festival is a celebration of cannabis." According to the organisers' website, marches are due to take place in London and Manchester on Saturday, and Hull and Edinburgh on Sunday and Monday respectively. Family park 'unsuitable' A march due to be held by campaigners in Birmingham on Saturday has been banned from going ahead by the city council and the police. The West Midlands end of the national march was due to end up in Cannon Hill Park. But Birmingham City Council and West Midlands Police thought the 'family' park was an unsuitable venue. In London the march will go from Kennington Park to Brockwell Park, in south London, where a festival is being held featuring live music, a speakers' tent and food stalls. 'Good natured'Scotland Yard said this was the fourth time the march had taken place in London, and that last year 15,000 had attended. A spokesman said: "Police have been in close consultation with the organisers and they have ensured police that participants will remain within the law during the march. "If participants are found smoking cannabis they will be asked to stop. "In previous years the event has been peaceful and good natured." Marches are expected to take place in more than 30 other countries including the US, New Zealand, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and France. Lambeth experiment The London march will be in the borough of Lambeth, where police have been pioneering a "softly, softly" approach to cannabis. Those found with small amounts of cannabis may be warned and have their drug confiscated, but they will not face arrest. The government has recently said it was "minded" to downgrade cannabis from a Class B to a Class C drug. If it did so, users could be free to smoke it in public without fear of arrest. But the Million Marijuana March organisers say this would not be enough. Its website says: "The recent progress towards de facto decriminalisation in Britain is to be welcomed but is clearly not the full solution. "Only a complete, total lifting of prohibition will do. Anything less is simply a half-way house which fails to protect the public." The recent progress towards de facto decriminalisation in Britain is to be welcomed but is clearly not the full solution -- Cannabis Coalition UK Newshawk: CharlieSource: BBC News (UK Web)Published: Saturday, May 4, 2002Copyright: 2002 BBC Website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/ Contact: http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/talking_point/Related Articles & Web Sites:International Cannabis Coalition UKhttp://www.schmoo.co.uk/cannabis/Million Marijuana March 2002http://freedomtoexhale.com/million.htmCannabisNews - Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #3 posted by FoM on May 04, 2002 at 11:30:22 PT eco and everyone I went ahead and put the small news briefs on one page and archived the article and will add the links to articles from today on my Million Marijuana March 2002 page tonight when I update. Thousands To Mark 'Cannabis Liberation Day' Condensed News Briefs from Around The World http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12732.shtmlMillion Marijuana March 2002 http://freedomtoexhale.com/million.htm [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Jose Melendez on May 04, 2002 at 09:52:47 PT: major concession from NYPD from:http://nyc.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=23730&group=webcastNew York, NY, May 3-Cures not Wars, a New York based harm reduction advocacy group, announced a significant agreement with the New York Police Department today. New York state residents who attend the May 4 Million Marijuana March 2002 and are arrested for marijuana offenses will receive a desk appearance ticket (DAT) instead of being detained 1 to 3 days for arraignment, the common procedure for the past few years. To qualify for a DAT for minor possession or public smoking, police said you must be from New York State, 18 or over, have proper I.D. and no outstanding warrants. "This is a major victory. The NYPD are already agreeing to our main demand: ending the custodial arrests which subjected 70,000 people to imprisonment without judicial review during the final year of Giuliani's administration. It was like Alice in Wonderland: first jail, then trial!," said Dana Beal, spokesperson for cures not wars. (continued...) the rest of the story... [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by eco-man on May 04, 2002 at 09:02:42 PT Manchester UK rally video. Other BBC links. MMM The BBC seems to have slightly changed the article and web page since I saw it earlier: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1967000/1967690.stmThere are some videos from today's MMM marches in the UK. They were previously linked in the right column on the side of the BBC article. Here's one from the Manchester UK rally. It seems to still be working. Click the link below. It uses the free Real Player: http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1965000/video/_1968119_march12_nally_vi.ramThere are many other great links on the BBC page, too. About the cannabis reform that has been happening in the UK and around the world. Also, MMM is the top feature at Italy Indymedia and New York City Indymedia. http://italy.indymedia.org/ and http://nyc.indymedia.org/*MMM 2002 EVENT NAVIGATOR. Cannabis Liberation Day. It lists the names of nearly all of the MMM cities worldwide on one page. In alphabetical order. With the state and country names also. Click any city in the alphabetical list to see the contact and rally info for that city: This is a great new web page: http://www.millionmarijuanamarch.org/navigator.php The main page for the continually-updated, clickable, all-on-one-page, alphabetical city list for MMM 2002, Cannabis Liberation Day, is at the page here: http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/mmm2002.htm and http://corporatism.tripod.com/mmm2002.htm and http://members.fortunecity.com/multi19/mmm2002.htm If one of the 3 links above is down, try another. Some have been swamped at times. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment