Bill Hicks

Jay Day 2010-260 People Didn't Get Arrested.

An official estimate put the number of people attending Brighton's Jay Day protest at 262. Thats 262 people that are considered criminals by current law. Now, if 262 criminals walked down your street, you would think that more than 2 of them would be arrested, what with them all being criminals and the like. You might even say, that out of 262 self proclaimed criminals, 260 of them not getting arrested is more news worthy than the 2 that did.  The BBC clearly disagreed. The article they posted on their website, which can be found here, fails completely at giving an unbiased representation of the days events, concentrating entirely on the actions of a tiny minority and completely ignoring all issues and arguments from the day. This is typical of the mainstream press, to ignore all anti-prohibition arguments, and focus only on supporting their pre-existing agenda, and swaying public opinion in the favor of government policy. I suppose it wouldn't have helped the Labour campaign much had they reported the origins of the cannabis found in a medicinal users prescription. Or how much a prescribed user has to pay for their prescription. And they say the press are the true defenders of liberty. I wish I could have been around in those days.

So, to try and sum up the day where the BBC failed. The honest way. It pissed it down with rain. I mean, a lot of fucking rain, but the march went on regardless. Arguably a better turn out could have been achieved had the weather been on our side, but I'd like to think 260 stoners standing in the pouring rain being ignored is a pretty appropriate symbol of our struggle. Some good points were made here and there, but really the event didn't seem organized with any form of public speaking, or serious awareness raising in mind, rather than getting a rabble of stoners together, wandering through the streets having a bit of a shout, and not a very unified one at that. In conclusion, we managed to get a lot of tokers out of bed before mid day, some wild speculations were thrown around quite carelessly, some important ideas were also shared and everyone got very wet, but some seeds have been planted and hopefully we can learn from this, so that next year can be taken as seriously as it so desperately needs to be.

Peace. x