It’s the end of an era on the Dak Show this week. This week the show’s main focus is on the closing on The Daktory’s dispensary, which will see more people now replying on tinny houses for their medicine or recreational drug of choice. Dakta Green talks about how The Daktory came about, and what will happen to the club now that it will not be selling cannabis.

Today is the final day for The Daktory dispensary. We will be open noon till 8pm today only. (check 3 news tonight)
From Wednesday 8th June 2011, The Daktory will be a private place for members only of the Auckland branch of Norml. It will provide them a base to campaign from.

More news will be available before the end of the day. Keep an eye out on 3 news tonight for more info from them.

Maki Herbert is running in the Te Tai Tokerau by-election for the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party. She’s a well respected and well loved member at The Daktory, not your stereotypical image of a stoner.

Help grow the economy in the economically depressed Te Tai Tokerau electorate. Help stop the police arresting a disproportionate number of Maori for cannabis offences and locking them away from their whanau.

Vote Maki Herbert in Te Tai Tokerau so she can get change from within parliament and end this war on cannabis and our people. Make sure you’re enrolled to vote and please vote this election.

This week sees the largest group of politicians and celebrities to date petition the UN to urge nations to take a new approach the drug laws. The petition just broke it’s target of 500,000 as I posted this, which is amazing news.

from The Guardian:

Those backing the call include Ernesto Zedillo, former president of Mexico; George Papandreou, former prime minister of Greece; César Gaviria, former president of Colombia; Kofi Annan, former UN secretary general; Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former president of Brazil; George Shultz, former US secretary of state; Javier Solana, former EU high representative; Virgin tycoon Richard Branson; and Paul Volcker, former chairman of the US Federal Reserve.

The global advocacy organisation Avaaz, which has nine million members, will present a petition in support of the commission’s recommendations to UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon.

Danny Kushlick, head of external affairs at Transform, the drug policy foundation that has consultative status with the UN, said current events, such as the cartel-related violence in Mexico, President Barack Obama’s comments that it was “perfectly legitimate” to question whether the war on drugs was working, and the wider global economic crisis, had given calls for a comprehensive overhaul of the world’s drugs policy a fresh impetus.

This one of the biggest step forward since I joined the fight, so I am rather excited to see the out come. Hopefully this will be hitting media outlets around the country in the next few days, so the message can be spread.

Sign the petition at avaaz.org/en/end_the_war_on_drugs/

It’s time to change the law.

Jazz brings some good news this week from Dakta I7′s trial in Rotorua.

Details for our fundraiser this weekend can be found on the Facebook event page.

CANNABIS CULTURE – The Government of Canada will appeal an Ontario court’s ruling that struck down the country’s marijuana laws as unconstitutional.

Matt Mernagh, the med-pot user at the center of a historic court battle over the country’s medical marijuana laws, says he has been served his notice of appeal in the case.

“I received a phone call from the Crown prosecutor today,” Mernagh told Cannabis Culture earlier this afternoon. “He offered his congratulations on the case and told me to get ready for the appeal.”

Mernagh was served with the appeal shortly afterward.

A tweet from posted on his Twitter account just afterwards read, “notice of appeal has just been handed to me wooooooo govt wants its ass handed to them again”.

In an April 12 ruling in the case of R. v. Mernagh, Ontario Superior Court Justice Donald Taliano found that Canada’s Marihuana Medical Access Regulations (MMAR) and “the prohibitions against the possession and production of cannabis (marihuana) contained in sections 4 and 7 respectively of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act” are “constitutionally invalid and of no force and effect”.

The judge agreed with Mernagh, who had tried unsuccessfully for years to find a doctor who would sign his MMAR forms before being busted growing his own plants, that the medical marijuana program is inadequate for the needs of patients. The judge found that doctors’ “overwhelming refusal to participate in the medicinal marijuana program completely undermines the effectiveness of the program” and that “the requirement for a medical doctor’s declaration has rendered the MMAR unconstitutional”.

The Court struck down medical marijuana laws and the laws dealing with cannabis possession and production, giving the government 90 days to fix the program before the new rules come into effect.

The case will now go back to court on appeal. If the government wins, Mernagh says he will take the case all the way to the Supreme Court.

“Our people have waited way too long for this,” he told CC last week. “This could very well be the final kick.”

If the government loses the appeal, it would likely be forced to make significant changes to the medical marijuana program.

“If the government is not successful on appeal,” lawyer Alan Young told the Toronto Star, “they are going to be caught between a rock and a hard place because they don’t have an alternative program in mind. They don’t have a plan B. They’re in trouble.”

Source: Cannabis Culture

If you thought M*A*S*H* ran for ages, the war on drugs continues at triple the running length with no end in sight. Over 36 years and we’re no closer to a ceasefire from the state than we were in Muldoon’s day. The police continue to wield the Misuse of Drugs Act as a tool of oppression and collateral damage.

What’s a pacifist to do in a war zone? Render aid.

The Compassion Tour kicked off Friday morning. It is on the way to Timaru in support of Peter Davy, a cancer survivor who is facing unjust imprisonment as well as losing the support for his partner who has advanced Multiple Sclerosis. Peter is determined to go on hunger strike if he is imprisoned. It’s the only tool he has left, the tool of the political dissident.

Peter Davy is due to be sentenced at Timaru Court House next week. Dakta Green and a team of volunteers from The Daktory are on their way down to gather people for a candlelight vigil outside Timaru Courthouse next Tuesday 15th, the night before Peter is sentenced on Wednesday 16th.

It would be remiss to avoid Christchurch in its time of need as well. Everyone at The Daktory was speechless the night of the earthquake. Hillary Barry’s staunch and professional marathon frontage on TV3 sunk into us all. Searching for a way for us in Auckland to help those in Christchurch, I contacted a mate working in the Civil Defence Beehive Bunker:

Me: We have a bus and a bunch of volunteers keen to help with ChCh in any way. You looking for any help?
Them: LOL thanks we’ll keep it in mind. Shall I tell the boss that a bunch of stoners wants to help?
Me: Paula Rebstock would approve. Welfare to Work indeed!
Them: Offers of help: emergency.management@dia.govt.nz

There was no way I was contacting the Department of Infernal Affairs. I have an axe to grind with them. And I’m sure no offence was meant by the “bunch of stoners” jibe as well, but this is the same dreary stereotype that really pisses me off (Andrew Sullivan shares this sentiment). We are not all Cheech and Chong idiots incapable of action or organisation. We are a social club stitched right through the fabric of NZ society, as valid as Ratana, Black Seeds and Bro Town.

After many joint conferences in smoke-filled clubrooms, we decided to do what was in our power to provide for the people of Christchurch; medicine and humanitarian supplies.

Assorted survival supplies have been donated by our hundreds of Daktory members including cash, blankets, cans, baby supplies, water, chemical toilets and gas stoves. These will be handed over to the Christchurch Mayoral Fund.

The Compassion Tour will also be helping salve the psychic injuries and chronic medical conditions of the Christchurch residents who can’t or won’t leave their quake ravaged city. The team will be handing out donated medicinal cannabis supplies at Switched On Gardener Linwood on Monday. Here’s a few photos of the Daktory members preparing the rescue kits:

We wish the Compassion Tour all the best on their trip, and the very best of outcomes for Peter Davy and Christchurch.

Cross posted from here.

Better late than never, here’s a summary of media stories covering the Armistice Day rally at Parliament:

TV3

Cannabis campaigners light up at Parliament (Video here)
Police take ‘peaceful approach’ to cannabis campaigners (Video here)

The Sydney Morning Herald and National Business Review both ran the NZPA story, but the NBR had nicer pictures

NZ Herald did one on the parliament rally and one on the Wellington police station gig.

Tracy Watkins covered the protest for the DomPost.

Radio New Zealand’s Checkpoint program spoke in detail on the matter.

Further out into the blogosphere, the Armistice Day rally and later smoke-out of the police station made Toke of the Town and ChronicCandy.com.