You are in Library / What you did

End Cannabis Prohibition TOTALLY

29th September 2001

The Cannabis Coalition organised a second demonstration in London in 2001 following the successful, if somewhat damp, Cannabis Carnival held in June.

The issue of cannabis legalisation had been a hot issue since the general election of June this year and the planned march from Hyde park to Trafalgar Square promised to be huge. Everything was in place by the time the terrorist attack on New York happened on September 11th and swept all other issues off the news. It also had the effect of putting a bit of a damper on the proposed celebration of the cannabis culture that the march was going to be.

There were a lot of last minute discussions held as to whether to go ahead with the demo or not, in the end it was decided to go ahead, not because all the resources of the coalition had been invested in the march, but because it was decided that it was the right thing to do. Normal life should continue.

So it was that the first major public demonstration held in the streets of London following the events of September 11th 2001 was a demo to legalise cannabis.

I set off from Norwich in plenty of time to to get there before the advertised start of 12.00. However, the train was delayed and then the tube got stuck and so it was I arrived a little after 1.30 to find a smallish group of people standing around under grey skies at Hyde park corner. They were listening to Mr Free Rob Cannabis as he auctioned small plastic bags which he claimed contained cannabis.

Time passed and eventually the police told the organisers that either we marched or called it all off. By now the crowd had grown to a fair size, but nothing like it should have been, and the decision was made to move.

Unfortunately, there was a disagreement at this point between the organisers and Free Rob which ended with him not coming on the march and as a result getting arrested. To date I have no information on what happened to him.

It's worth mentioning that Free Rob (that is his name) has been an activist in the legalise cannabis campaigns for many years, this was a very unfortunate incident.

Anyway, the march set off, much to our surprise in sunshine and, although numbers were well down, it was a march of a few thousand, so it was worth doing.

We made our way to Trafalgar Square through strangely empty streets for a Saturday in the West End, the lack of tourists a direct result of Sept 11th I suppose.

Eventually we arrive in the square and the speeches start. Shortly after the heaviest downpour I've endured on any demonstration I've ever been on (including the hailstones we had on the June cannabis event) happened as a thunder storm passed overhead. Once that was out of the way though, the sun came out and the sky remained clear for the rest of the night.

One of the best speeches of the day was from Alun Buffrey of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance - "Mr Bliar, leave us alone"

Says it all really.

I spent the night in a party in Hackney and eventually made it back to Norwich sometime late the next day. Till next time...

Derek