the history of cannabis in australia

[gomaos]

Recently i've come across this book "the Sydney Connection" and it includes of "history of cannabis" in Australia.

Being originally from Europe, where i lived to the age of 30 (1982), I knew very little about what happened in Australia in the 60 s and 70s regarding drugs, hippies etc.

So this is very interesting for me.

And I bet there's a lot of Australians (and others) out there, who knew next to nothing regarding the matter since it's all taboo.

It appears, the present days are "the dark ages".

People still get severely punished for cannabis and other drug use.

Why does it have to be like that?

,A Short History of cannabis in Australia, 1788-1977

by John Jiggens "The Sydney Connection"

From the first fleet to the Murder of Donald Mackay

The first cannabis seeds arrived in Australia in 1788 on the First Fleet at the request of Sir joseph banks, who marked the cargo "For Commerce".

The blueprint for the colony in New South wales , appproved by the British cabinet in 1786, envisaged Australia as a commercial colony producing hemp.

Hemp was what the plant cannabis sativa was called when Australia was founded. The word "marihuana" was unknown in Australia until 1938.

In 1804, Governor king wrote to Sir Joseph banks describing the ten acres of cannabis he was cultivating the Lowlands of the hawkesbury and the nepean rivers, which were growing with the "utmost luxurience".

With self-sufficiency achieved, the infant colony needed to develop a "cash crop", and Governor King proudly declared to Banks that his cultivation of hemp had "set the example".

For the first 150 years of white settlement, governments in Australia actively supported the growing of hemp with gifts of lands and bounties and other grants.

The consumption of drug cannabis became widespread in Australia in Victorian times.

Queen Victoria herself was a cannabis user and cannabis was legal and freely available.

Many of the popular panaceas of the time, including Australia's favourite tipple, Dr. Collis Browne's Chlorodyne, used cannabis as a base.

Cannabis was also used as an intoxicant by the literati.

Marcus Clarke, Author of the great Australian Novel of the nineteenth century, "for the term of his natural life", was a cannabis user who experimented with cannabis as an aid to writing.

One of his short stories, written under the influenece of cannabis, was called "cannabis indica".

The bohemian Yorick Club in Melbourne- of which Clarke was a member- were notorious as cannabis users.

In 1938, the plant "cannabis sativa" was outlawed in Australia as a result of a reefer madness style campaign in the Digger's newspaper, "Smith's weekly", orchestrated by the US Bureau of narcotics and it's Commissioner Harry J Anslinger.

This campaign introduced the word "Marihuana" into Australia.

Marihuana was described as " a new drug that maddens victims".

It was an "Evil Sex Drug" which causes "it's victim's to behave like raving sex maniacs."

For this generation of Australians, cannabis was to be "the dreaded sex drug marihuana".

This American renaming of cannabis as "marihuna" meant that most Australians were unaware that this dreaded new drug was the familiar drug cannabis which they had used for many decades without concern.

The love-hate relationship of Australians to the geneus cannabis took another bizarre twist in 1964 with the discovery of hundreds of acres of wild hemp growing in the Hunter valley.

The authorities responded with a massive eradication campaign and another "evil sex drug marihuana" propaganda campaign.

However, the generations had changed.

The baby-Boomers of the Sixties responded to the "Sex Drug" propaganda in a different way than their parents.

Soon groups of surfies and hippies were organizing expeditions to the hunter in search of the wild weed. These groups were to become known in Australian marihuana folklore as "the weed raiders"-the first pot smokers- legendary characters who returned from expeditions to the Hunter with sleeping bags full to the top, and tales of monster plants 12 feet high.

In 1967, the Beatles closed their album "Sgt pepper's lonely heart's club band" with "A Day in the Life' - a musical confession about their pot smoking.

The songs chorus was "I'd love to turn you on".

And a generation did.

Within a few year's of "Sgt pepper's" pot smoking became widespread in Youth culture, not just in Australia but throughout the world.

Sydney emerged as the center of Australia's cannabis explosion because it was blessed with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of cannabis.

From 1964 to 1969, it had the Hunter Valley crop, hundreds of acres of wild pot growing only 180 kms north.

After September 1967 it had the US Servicemen of "R and R" (rest and recreation leave], flying in from Vietnam, with some of the best pot on the planet.

Cannabis supply suddenly became no problem.

If Sgt Pepper's was the spark, Sydney's supply-side surplus was the fuel for Australia's marihuana explosion.

It was the young who were turning on.

Then as now, pot-smoking was concentrated in 18-24 year old group.

A 1971 survey by the NSW Department of health in Sydney's northern suburbs found that while only 9% of the population had tried pot, 25 % of the people aged between 18 and 24 years old had used cannabis, and 13% of this age group smoked pot regularly.

None of the over-thirties smoked pot at all.

In 1973, when Australia's most popular band, Daddy Cool, releaSED THEIR 2ND ALBUM, ITS TITLE SAID IT ALL:

"Sex, Dope and Rock'n'roll: Teenage heaven."

1973, the year of teenage heaven, was the first year of the left-wing Whitlam government.

It was the time of the Aquarius festival in Nimbin, sponsored by the Australian Union of Students, with a grant from the Whitlam government.

At that festival, Pot was smoked openly, and 5000 students rioted when the police attempted to make a drug arrest.

By 1973 marihuana was well established in Australian Youth culture with about 500000 smokers, most of them under 30.

Pot was now a multi-million Dollar industry.

Whe R and R tours ended, the demand for pot provided an enormous impetus for Australian Marihuana growing.

In 1974, the bulletin published an article about "Australia's Marihuana Millions" by david Marr that estimated the size of the Australian marihuana marketat 80 Million dollars.

"Pot", claimed Marr, "was now as big as BHP."

This huge industry was largely in the hand of Amateurs.

Because Police and Customs were unfamiliar with pot, the Sixties was the golden age of smuggling, and there were many Sirfies and hippies and ethnic businessmen, willing to give pot a go.

In the 60s, the pot scene was devoid of the criminal element that would become pervasive after 1976.

It was run by amateurs, young people who were drug enthusiasts themselves.

Much of the 60s drug-taking was purely "experimental" and "safe'.

For sixties counter-cultural youth, addictive drugs like heroin and speed were "uncool" and the hippie dealers would not touch heroin; providing an effective border against heroin expansion, which the criminal takeover needed to smash.

The good sense of this drug-taking was encouraged by the underground press, which published many well-informed articles, including interviews with leading drug-researchers like Timothy leary.

Under current censorship laws, much of this content would be illegal today.

(Remark of typist: Australian censorship laws today are very much like Hitler's, who loved burning books that would not agree with his dictatorship.)

Whitlam and the politicisation of cannabis

The decade after 1964 when pot use exploded in Australia was the era of the Vietnam conflict and, just like in Vietnam, pot use divided the generations. As the conflict over Vietnam deepened, it divided Australia, pitting left against right, and old against young.

In this overheated context, the pot leaf joined the moratorium badge as a revolutionary symbol. To share a joint at a party was "to join the revolution."

The politicisation of the cannabis debate became even greater when, in december 1972, baby-boomer votes took Gough Whitlam and the ALP to victory. Far less subservient to the US than his predecessors (remark of typist: Look at our present slimy mr howard who at every opportunity licks and kisses the boots of that pig president Bush) Whitlam pursued a policy of independence.

Conscription was abolished, draft resisters were released from jail, and troops withdrawn from Vietnam. The people's republic of China was recognized. During president Nixon's Christmas bombing offensive against North Vietnam, Whitlam took a critical line, condemning US policy and enraging Nixon and kissinger. Whitlam's government pursued an indepent line in drugs policy too, intending to decrimalise marihuana Australia-wide in 1975.

Whitlams term as Prime Minister ended in 1975 when he was dismissed by the governor-generaL , sir john kerr.

Whitlam's dismissal- the constitutional coup of 1975- is one of the most controversial issues in Australia's history.

(Remark of typist: It's a bloody outrage. that's not democracy; the stupid queen lets a fart go, and her puppet ousts the australian prime minister. Australia is nothing but a colony after all. Independent? What a joke!)

It ended three years of extensive social and cultural reform which enraged conservative Australia.

(remark of typist: The conservatives are the root of all evil!)

For the triumphant conservatives, it was time- time for revenge.

Marihuana use provided a suitable pretext for the elderly conservatives to attack their youthful opponents.

As the polls showed, pot-use was almost exclusively a baby-boomer indulgence.

As the Sackville Royal Commission noted, cannabis use was regarded as confined to groups, such as radical students, "hippie"-dropout, and opponets of the Vietnam-War.

Following the defeat of the Whitlam-government, Australian Conservatives launched a Nixon-style "War on drugs" in Australia. This war on cannabis was most extreme in Queensland where Queensland premier bjelke-petersen (r.o.t.: that old rotten stinking pig, great he's dead) called for a police-crackdown to drive marihuana users out of Queensland.

The result was the Cedar Bay raid on a hippy commune in far north queensland where houses were burnt to the ground and orchards chopped down as the queensland police went on a rampage. (r.o.t.: Hitler all over fucken bjelke-pig-bastard!)

This trial of US-style "war on Drugs" policies in Australia after 1976 was accompanied by some unusual "mega-features":

Firstly, there was a criminal takeover of the pot scene in 1976, and then a marihuana drought, followed by a heroin plague.

This was the time when Australia was narcoticised. it was also a time of numerous murders of which the murder of Donald mackay was the most famous.

The Criminal Takeover

Throughout the summer of 1976/77, the Australian Underground press carried a number of reports of an attack on the old hippie dealing network by organized crime. Although the reports came from all over Australia and new Zealand, they were remarkably similar:

Marihuana only dealers would be visited by "heavies" who offered a "simple choice": either deal heroin or get out.

Along with US style prohibition, US style organized crime came to Australia.

David hirst, who examined the criminal takeover in his book "Heroin in Australia", characterized the pot scene in Australiabefore the criminal takeover as a "cornershop"-system of totally disorganized crime, which was "one of the remaining aspects of an otherwise disemboweled counter culture.

Hirst interviewed a Number of these"corner shop proprietors in Sydney, canberra and melbourne shortly after the criminal takeover and found their reports alarmingly similar.

In each case a large number of men(up to ten) arrived at night and terrorized the household. They had knowledge of the activities of the dealers and demanded money and drugs.

They raided only dealers who refused to handle heroin and left threads of what would happen "if another deal left the house."

A similar story emerged in Brisbane where "the cane toad times' described the situation in Queensland at the start of 1977.

"The past season saw violence, rip=offs, and the thin blue line fanning out, Dope was in slack supply and in increasing prices.

According to"the cane toad times", pot was almost impossible to get in December 1976:

"No-one was singing All I want for Chrismas except to the Untouchable, Robert Stack.

(Rhyming slang for smack or heroin which began to flood through brisbane's underground at this time.)

One youth arrested by the police was about to shoot up for the first time. In court he pleaded "I'm sick of drinking, there was no dope, and I wanted to get stoned."

This would become an all-too-familiar story.

In his book "new zealand green", Redmer Yska described a similar pattern in new Zealand; a legendary hippie era when "the blissed-out tribes of early pot-smokers rarely sold "sacramental cannabis" for profit, which was relaced by a criminal network around 1976.

There is a consistent pattern in this reports; sometime in late 1976 an organized crime group moved into the drug scene in Australia and new Zealand. They attacked the counter-cultural "grass-only" dealers demanding they sell heroin or get out.

The old hippie-dealers with their ethic of "consciousness-expansion" were removed. The Age of "Robert Stack" was looming.

Marihuana Drought

Following the murder of Donald mackay, pot almost disappeared from the street. This is the time remembered in marihuana-folklore as "the drought" or "the great drought"- when for months on end, pot was almost impossible to obtain. The reaction to Don mackays' murder closed down the griffith operation and with the old hippie network now the subject of attacks by both the police and organised crime, the collapse in Marihuana supplies was dramatic. Those who benefited most were the heroin-pushers. With pot unavailable, heroin-sales went through the roof.

During these years, the amount of South-East-Asian heroin entering Australia increased enormously.

According to the underground press, the drought was caused "by a heroin conspiracy."

The police took a different view:

"Given the vast amounts we were seizing, boasted a senior Commonwealth officer, "it is very likely we have created a marihuana drought."

heroin plague

Heroin meanwhile kept a steady price and had a remarkably high purity.

The lower grade NO3 South-East asian heroin, which had dominated the market ebfore 1977, gave way to more refined No 4 grade powder.

NSW police reported an alarming increase in heroin abuse in the first six monthsof 1978, citing a figure of 7000 to 10000 addicts in Sydney, the police said Sydney was now the heroin capital of Australia.

In January 1979, Bill Crews, director of the crisis centre of the Wayside Chapel at kings Cross, spoke about the changes occuring in the street drug scene as a result of the crackdown on pot:

"More and more of these people who can't get marihuana are getting into mandrax and alcohol and also heroin. When grass was around, they used that most. But now it's mandrax, heroin, and they are into booze as well."

......

As david Smith, a doctor at the height Ashbury Free Clinic in San Francisco, commented:

"The government's line is that the use of marihuana leads to more dangerous drugs.

The fact is that the lack of marihuana leads to dangerous drugs."

Edited September 5, 2006 by gomaos

[PD.]

Finally, there it is.

The love-hate relationship of Australians to the geneus cannabis took another bizarre twist in 1964 with the discovery of hundreds of acres of wild hemp growing in the Hunter valley.

I read this in a little book about seeds around ten years ago when i was visiting a friend in Port Maquarie, nsw. I have told alot of people this but never had anything to back it up, so i guess alot of people dismissed it as stoner bullshit.

Thanks Gom <___base_url___>/uploads/emoticons/default_smile.png

Edited September 5, 2006 by Passive Daemon

[gomaos]

Finally, there it is.

I read this in a little book about seeds around ten years ago when i was visiting a friend in Port Maquarie, nsw. I have told alot of people this but never had anything to back it up, so i guess alot of people dismissed it as stoner bullshit.

Thanks Gom

i guess seeds from that "australian" strain would be priceless nowadays....

[PD.]

I just assumed (the mother of all fuckups) that alot of the real weedy shit you can get around NNSW would have been a relative of the original strain from the hunter.

Anyone got any idea?

Edited September 5, 2006 by Passive Daemon

[devance]

Legistration in California will allow farmers to grow hemp.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20060822/pl_u...ignature334_xml

Industrial [fibers stronger than steel, used for roping cables in the past for ships]]not psychoactive.

I will never too get to be president but if I was everyone can grow as much as wished of any type.

[devance]

Carbon fiber panels.

Carbon is not as strong.

Cannibis fibers.

So a new era in fiberglass panels for aircraft and cars.

Not much good for a direct impact but very good otherwise.

[apothecary]

For the NZers

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CANNABIS SATIVA L. (HEMP) in NZ!

by D J Macintosh, NZ Hemp Industries Association

http://www.norml.org.nz/page17.html

[gomaos]

and nowadays it's prohibited because 50-100 years ago some stupid, whiskey-drinking idiots (who happened to run the FBI and CIA and/or whatever stoopid dork-club) most likely in America, decided it's no good for the population, which they perceive and look at as cattle which must be "farmed" so it returns the greatest possible profit...

to hell with those idiots, I say...

[xShiva.spacetechnology]

I just assumed (the mother of all fuckups) that alot of the real weedy shit you can get around NNSW would have been a relative of the original strain from the hunter.

Anyone got any idea?

yea, i also assumed this because it is found nearly everywhere in NNSW area.. but a few months ago a friend of mine introduced me to this strain he'd grown and called it 'Australis'...it was a very fruity but leafy bud, but grown to perfection and stored great, these buds were as compact as hydro buds and all on average the size of a small to medium banana.

[_e_]

I dont know much about the hunter valley strain, but having grown up in the hunter valley ive definately heard some stories about it.

They came in and bulldozed/ploughed and then sprayed the entire riverfront around aberglasslyn.

from what ive been told the entire population was wiped out with poisen over many years, however i would be very surprised if the strain hadnt made it into personal cultivation around this time.

In whch case i very much doubt any pure genetics still exist, however it could definately be an ancestor of some of the australian bush strains.

[apothecary]

I heard it is still to be found E, in some escaped stands that were out of the way of the eradication effort.

Unconfirmed though.

[gomaos]

They came in and bulldozed/ploughed and then sprayed the entire riverfront around aberglasslyn.

horrible people they are. their own little hitlers, every single one of them.

I heard it is still to be found E, in some escaped stands that were out of the way of the eradication effort.

E? where's that?

i very much doubt any pure genetics still exist

well sure of course not, unless some hermitwas been living and growing there for the last 50 years, totally isolated from the outside world... which is very unlikely...

but banana-sized buds sounds very good...

Edited September 17, 2006 by gomaos