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The 2001 Cannabis Carnival - June 16th 2001 London

I arrived at the meet up point in Kennington park around midday. The tube train from Liverpool street carried several people who were heading to the demo with quite a few spliffs which had been skinned up on the journey, ready for use once they got to the park.

We got there to find a fairly good crowd gathering beneath dark grey skies. About 15 minutes before the start time, one of those dark clouds passed overhead and it rained. No, it didn't rain, it hailed - big lumps of ice indeed.

So the march got off to a wet start, but the sun came out and we all dried off a bit. Maybe 10,000 people or so made their way towards Brockwell Park through the streets of Brixton.

The news of the day before - that cannabis is to be effectively decriminalised in Brixton whether the politicians want it or not gave the feeling that this wasn't so much a demo, more a victory parade.

The police were friendly and openly chatted to people as they smoked joints, pipes and bongs. If there was ever any doubt of the fact that cannabis does not cause violence, I think we put that to rest.

I spent most of the march towards the back, near a lorry with a sound system playing hard London techno sounds, I like that sort of thing. On the back of the lorry was a huge joint hanging over the heads of the crowd of people dancing.

We arrived in Brockwell park as the skies again became very dark, but this didn't stop the party. There were sound rigs all over the place and stalls selling all sorts of stuff, the cannabis culture in all it's glory was on display

To be honest I spent most of the time wondering around looking for people who I never met, but I did bump into a several people I knew, just not the right ones. Oh well, turns out something similar happened to everyone else as well

Around 5.00pm or so, the big black clouds that had been hanging over the park all afternoon started leaking and it chucked it down, so it was time to go hide in a tent, listen to decent techno, have a dance and socialise. Needless to say, someone nicked my lighter.

The whole day passed in something of a haze to be honest, everyone having made the effort to enjoy a rare chance to have a nice smoke in the park. This, of course, will be what it will be like when this nasty little drug war is finally put to rest.

Thanks to the International Cannabis Coalition for organising a wonderful exhibition of the British Cannabis culture. We can be proud of ourselves, we will win.

However, because of the weather (which was really bad, even for England), the organisers are out of pocket. If you can help in any way, please contact them. For the ICC website, click here

Derek
UKCIA

Photos of the march Dave Foulger and in the park Phil Stovell - thanks!