Anti-prohibition campus campaign (Latrobe Uni for starters)

Well its taken a semester and a bit, but anti-prohibition campaigners at LaTrobe University will finally be holding our Inaugural General Meeting in order to
%) set our campaign goals
8) establish our name, constiution and office bearers so that we can affiliate to the SRC
meet each other and no doubt have a more informal long-lunch after the meeting closes

We have actually gathered together quite a collection of interested punters. While we will be focusing on anti-prohibition activism, i think there will naturally be a support function for drug users on campus.
My radio show Dissident Dance (on latrobe's subfm www.subfm.org - streaming online tuesday nights 22:00 -0:00) will act as a regular voice for the campaign
And although our focus will obviously initially be consolidating and expanding our work here at LaTrobe, i think it would be great to look at some victorian cross-campus collaborations for OWeek 2006; anyone from other campuses who are interested in exploring this should PM me.

While there have obviously been heaps of groups, orgs and campaigns opposing prohibition, these are often coupled with a whole range of community development priorities for users (VIVAIDS, Ravesafe etc), this will be Victoria's first user - initiated organisation with the specific goal of fighting against prohibition, so its quite an important step i reckon.

i've always wondered why i've never seen a protest on the steps of parliament house or in front of the state library in melbourne, against prohibition.

it would be good to see the general bluelight community turn up in droves to attend such a protest. 300+ people would be a great sight, even a march down swanston street would really be a treat to express something that seems to only be expressable at parties & amongst fellow like-minded individuals.

but then i think that a lot of people value their privacy and wouldn't want their head put on the channel 10 news, an ugly backlash from people. much like a backlash you'd get parading down the street wearing a swastika in a jewish town.

are their more political groups out there that are pro-active. for example. they hand out statistics to the general public on drug use and abuse and harm minimisation and denouncing scare tactics?

The anti-drug prohibition moment is destined to fail for the simple factor no one is prepared for the backlash, personally with their families and those who disagree with their choice and perhaps even financially with employers who despise such behaviour.

People who seek alternative states of coconsciousness have been lumped into the same group of people who suffer denial and under mental conditions which push them into massively destructively behaviours compelling them to meet (irrespective of the ends) their requirements of self-medication.

Sometimes it seems like drug users are nearly as bad as paedophiles.

It’s this awful combination of propaganda, misunderstanding and generally an inability to understand the causes of behaviours (instead of blaming the symptoms of denial) which have created an environment reminisce of when gays were persecuted for their behaviour.

It took a brave group of people in the 70s to get up and march for their right to engage in that behaviour (and hell at that point they weren’t even aware of the genetic possibility they were made to feel that way by their very biology). Ultimately however those people suffered greatly to win the right to live their life in that manner.

The question is, are we..........?

augie march said:

are their more political groups out there that are pro-active. for example. they hand out statistics to the general public on drug use and abuse and harm minimisation and denouncing scare tactics? [/B]

Click to expand...

The Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation

http://home.vicnet.net.au/~adlrf/index.html

Good on you for starting this up!!

is that radio show 22:00 AEST
and that is 3h? ahead of W.A. ?

chugs said:

The anti-drug prohibition moment is destined to fail for the simple factor no one is prepared for the backlash, personally with their families and those who disagree with their choice and perhaps even financially with employers who despise such behaviour.

Click to expand...

As i recently commented in another thread, the great ideological victory of the ideology that supports our current system is that it has been able to convince people that we have reached 'the end of history', that what we've got is what we will always have.
Its not correct. People almost undoubtedly made similar comments at the time that the gay & lesbian rights movements emerged - people are scared, we'll be arrested, we'll never reach critical mass. 30 years on, and while there is still a long way to go, most western nations have removed prohibitions on gay sex, many have anti-disctimination laws, a few have same sex marriage.
The current system is not sustainable. Buy "No More Prisons' double cd from raptivism records - it provides an amazing but harrowing view into the impact of the drug war on urban underclass and/or minority communities.
In the Bronx - which has the lowest avg income of any 'congressional district' (our electorate equivalent) one in three black males dies between the ages of 18 and 25. 1 in 3!
1.6 million americans are behind bars - 80% of those for non-violent drug related crime. Prison growth is now one of the key economic indicators used by wall st to judge the state of the US economy.
This is genocidal, and an atrocity.
Holocausts do end, though. But they have to be fought. One thing is certain: "The anti-drug prohibition moment is destined to fail". It will be, if noone does anything. It will fail if there is no movement. It may seem melodramatic, but it really is better to die fighting than to live a slave.
If you don't fight, you lose!
augie: i think i PMed you, but for activist sites you can't go past the Network Against Prohibition NT ( www.napnt.org ). If the anti-prohibition mvt is to succeed it has to be led by users. There are some amazingly dedicated pro law reform supporters who don't use out there, and their involvement is crucial and much appreciated, but mvts do rise or fall on the involvement of the people who they seek to liberate. Nap lead the way in oz for direct action
PS Juvenile: yes the radio time given is AEST, which is two hours ahead of WA, 3 during daylight savings (last weekend in oct- last wkend in march)

Fuck it im down, shit i whent on the chanel seven listen box n had a half assed spiel about the subject, it actually made it on the air! all my friends have talked about it but funnily enough my family hasn't. I think my greater family would'nt care if they new i did drugs just as long as i live my life right!