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GregKasarik

Bicycle Day, Tripping on the Steps of Parliament House and My Imminent Arrest.

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Hello All,

It has been a while since I have been active here. Unfortunately, life sometimes gets in the way of the things that we want to do, but eventually we get ourselves back on track and pick up from where we left off. I figured I should let people know about my current activities and plans. Which are, as always somewhat dramatic! :-)
Bicycle Day is coming up shortly, on Saturday April 19th and once again, I will be tripping on the steps of the Victorian Parliament House. This will mark the fourth time that I have done so. As with previous occasions, I have notified all members of parliament and the media of what I intend to do.
This time is a little bit different. Instead of writing long letters laying out my arguments, I'm preceding the event by sending out short daily emails with an LSD related video or research article, with a short commentary. In doing this, I hope to generate both interest and engagement.
There is another key difference: I intend to get arrested on the day.
Yes, that is correct. It is my intent to force this issue, by getting arrested and dragging the Victorian Government through the Supreme Court (and High Court on appeal if necessary). Once arrested, I will request a referral to the Victorian Supreme Court under Section 33 of the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act (2006). There I will seek to obtain a Declaration of inconsistent interpretation on the grounds that the Victorian Government lacks the “demonstrably justifiable” reason required under Section 7 of the Charter, for a prohibition on the religious use of Transcendent Compounds.
I know that some people will be horrified that I've decided to take things to this level. If nothing else, it is a great risk, especially as I don't really have the funds for a Supreme Court challenge and nobody can be 100% certain of the outcome of any legal action.

But in reality, what exactly do we have to lose? How can the Victorian Supreme Court make things any worse for us than they already are?
For years, I have been telling people that the Human Rights law in Victoria (and the ACT) are as good as we are ever going to get. Anyone who believes that politicians are going to change drug law voluntarily simply haven't been talking to politicians. The only way that we are going to earn our freedoms is by launching a Roe vs Wade style legal challenge and by forcing the Government to acknowledge that its prohibitions are based on ignorance and bigotry, rather than justice and science.
I'm tired of being run by fear and allowing myself to be confined in the straight jacket of others bigotry. We all know that the science regarding LSD (and the other Transcendent Compounds) is unambiguously clear: LSD is non-addictive, non-toxic and psychologically safe in an appropriate dose, set and setting.
With the exception of a few dubious research papers from the 1960s and 1970s, the Victorian Government simply has no way to justify a prohibition on the spiritual use of LSD and other TCs. They know it, I know it and fairly much everyone here knows it. And once I've been through the Supreme Court, everyone else will know it.
If I didn't truly believe these compounds to be safe, I wouldn't have begun my campaign three years ago and sacrificed so much along the way. If, like me, you believe that using LSD and other Transcendent Compounds is not only safe, but also is something that should be allowed and even encouraged, I'd hope that you will support me in what should be an interesting and potentially world changing journey.

I'm not wanting anyone else to also trip publicly on the day. One sacrificial lamb is enough.

But I would love to see people who aren't doing anything else on Easter Saturday to come and join me on the Steps of The Victorian Parliament House at Midday, when I take the plunge.

It should be a great day to come and show solidarity and raise awareness in the broader community. :-)

Bye for now,
Greg Kasarik
Herder of Cats
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welcome back greg. different group of peeps here now, many of them won't be familiar with your antics.

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Bicycle Day, is it that time of year again already? :)

I won't be in Melbourne, but I will be following your day with interest. I don't know if any legal challenge will get a good outcome (either for us or you individually), but I do wish you the best of luck.

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welcome back greg. different group of peeps here now, many of them won't be familiar with your antics.

Thanks! It is good to be back. Too much time spent chasing my own tail over the last twelve months, or so.

Probably just as well! :wink:

Hopefully everyone will see the opportunity in what I'm doing and those who don't will be nice about it!

Bicycle Day, is it that time of year again already? :)

I won't be in Melbourne, but I will be following your day with interest. I don't know if any legal challenge will get a good outcome (either for us or you individually), but I do wish you the best of luck.

Given the number off doofs and festivals on that weekend, I don't expect it to be a big turnout, but it doesn't need to be in order for me to make my point.

I'll try to keep a few tweets going to keep people updated.

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I wish you all the best in this endeavour Greg.

Pretty stressful set & setting.

Peace

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i'm dreading the possibility that this generates another series of massive debates on the forum :P not that there's anything wrong with opinions and debate, but it reached a stalemate early and just carried on and on, and Greg: i think you've got better ways to use your time and energy than justifying your actions at length to a few people here that disagree with you.

for whatever its worth to newer members, our fearless (and absent of late) leader gave Greg a character reference i guess. something along the lines of "Greg? yeah he's alright. i reckon he's a good cunt".

is the oberon meet on that date?

whatever happens, be sure to come here and tell the story. these things interest us :P

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I wish you all the best in this endeavour Greg. Pretty stressful set & setting. Peace

Thanks Muskrat.

It is difficult tripping in such a public space, but I'm experienced and have done it before, so am not too concerned.

Of course, if I get arrested, I won't actually end up tripping, so that won't be an issue either! :-)

i'm dreading the possibility that this generates another series of massive debates on the forum :P not that there's anything wrong with opinions and debate, but it reached a stalemate early and just carried on and on, and Greg: i think you've got better ways to use your time and energy than justifying your actions at length to a few people here that disagree with you.

for whatever its worth to newer members, our fearless (and absent of late) leader gave Greg a character reference i guess. something along the lines of "Greg? yeah he's alright. i reckon he's a good cunt".

is the oberon meet on that date?

whatever happens, be sure to come here and tell the story. these things interest us :P

I have no intention of getting into debates trying to justify my existence.

Reality is that I've come a long way in the years since I first went public and since I first landed here. I've realised that the haters are always going to hate and that they are just part of the challenge of existence. They still crop up, but I don't get tied down with their silliness.

There are so many better things to do, and I don't really have anything to prove to anybody. :)

I will certainly do my best to keep people informed of the events and whatever fallout occurs. Looks like I'll have a few more attendees than I initially thought I would so it should be a good day.

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good luck Greg

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Edit - go for gold Greg

Edited by incognito

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have a great trip !!

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Don't have a psychotic episode and fuk things up for everyone! ;)

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Anyone heard how this went?

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Greg posted info on the facefuck page, if you follow the link you'll see it wasn't much of anything.

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Yep, ignored again. I never thought the expression "couldn't get arrested" was potentially so literal. :wink:

While it is most likely that Greg has been placed in the 'too-hard' basket by pollies and police, it would be a mistake to write off their tactics as idiotic.

Obviously, denying him PR oxygen is deliberate. But the smart operators might also be hoping to provoke him into an escalation that results in a disastrous PR outcome and/or serious criminal charges.

I'm not saying that activists shouldn't do this sort of thing. But I would advise that be careful that you don't inadvertently give your opponents what they want.

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THIS IS TAKEN FROM FACEBOOK PAGE, FYI THE NEXT TUESDAY =  tomorrow 10/01/2017. 

Thought I'd post here for non facebookers interest

Goodluck Greg!!!

 

"

Next Tuesday Greg Kašarik will be once more appearing in front of the Melbourne Magistrate's Court, as he attempts to put Victoria's drugs policies on trial.

This is a special hearing to determine whether the matter of his charge for the possession of LSD for spiritual and religous purposes should be forwarded to the Supreme Court of Victoria, under sections 7 and 14 of the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act (2006).

You are invited to attend and in doing so to demonstrate your support for sensible drugs policy.

All going well, the Magistrate will make the Supreme Court referral, but if not it is Greg's intention to be re-arrested for LSD possession at the earliest opportunity, because the first step in forcing change to our drugs policies has to be forcing the Government to acknowledge that their laws regarding LSD and other Transcendent Compounds are based on ignorance and bigotry, rather than the scientifically demonstrated facts of the reality based universe.

http://kasarik.com/on-being-arrested-for-lsd/

 

"

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This is not the best way forward.  While I agree with his crusade his methods are flawed.

 

Drugs have an image problem, and getting arrested repeatedly isn't going to help that.

 

This just isn't going to resonate with the government or voting public.

 

On top of this change is incremental and we don't have any form of cannabis legalisation in Australia yet in any jurisdiction.

 

Concentrate on things that have a fighting chance in the current political climate.  If we can get the ball rolling on legal recreational cannabis THEN we can cross this bridge.

 

You may not like it but certain realities just can't be ignored, and drug law reform is a hoop jumping business.

 

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This is not the best way forward.  While I agree with his crusade his methods are flawed.

While I'm inclined to agree with you, I'm not going to argue against Greg's methods because I've got nothing better. You tell me what methods will work to get recreational drugs legalised and we can use those instead.

 

 

Drugs have an image problem, and getting arrested repeatedly isn't going to help that.

 

One of the problems is the image many people have of "drugs" & drug-users, which combines them all together as "equally bad". Efforts to increase public awareness & education about any individual drugs, to show that they are not all the same, is a necessary step in any path towards legalisation (unless we're just talking about a "legalise everything" scheme, and hands up who thinks our country is headed in that direction?).

 

I dunno stonewolf, I think you could be wrong about getting arrested necessarily looking bad. This strategy has been used to draw attention towards other stupid laws & to garner sympathy for those persecuted under them. Of course, you can always end up looking like a fringe screwball as well - it does depend on the circumstances. But it is also possible to get a lot of public support this way. And not just public support, but in some cases support from cops as well, which can also be useful - because it kinda doesn't matter what the actual laws are if the people tasked with enforcing them decide to look the other way.

 

 

On top of this change is incremental and we don't have any form of cannabis legalisation in Australia yet in any jurisdiction.

Concentrate on things that have a fighting chance in the current political climate.  If we can get the ball rolling on legal recreational cannabis THEN we can cross this bridge.

You may not like it but certain realities just can't be ignored, and drug law reform is a hoop jumping business.

Okay, but is that the only way to get the recreational-drugs-legalisation-ball rolling? Couldn't we all just push our own small agendas alongside each other? I think as trippers we should really be pushing harder for getting psychedelics bundled in with recreational weed, lest we get forgotten about when stoners get their way. Because we are a much smaller group, with a much smaller voice. We have less public sympathy, and we have less popular scientific/medicinal cred behind our drugs.

 

I think it's entirely possible that recreational cannabis legalisation (if it were to happen in Aus) would not be the start of a broad sweeping reform of puritanical & outdated drug law, as we might like.

 

It's just as likely (or more), that if cannabis-legalisation happened, then that would be considered to be a good compromise, acknowledging some convincing scientific & anecdotal arguments against the basis of the law (albeit a few decades late), and more importantly keeping happy a voting majority who support this idea - but all without giving too much ground and looking like they were backpedaling on their tough-on-drugs stance by saying that they were going to do this newfangled "evidence-based" thing with all drugs, now let's not get carried away here!

 

I think it's possible, perhaps even likely, that it would then be used as an excuse to crack down even harder an any non-approved illicit drugs: "we already gave you druggies permission to smoke weed for your back pain, but now you want LSD as well? Now that's just taking the piss. Don't cha know that the US military was using that to make enemies go literally CRAZY! Next you'll be asking for heroin! Angel-dust! Syringes full of pixie-pills in vending machines! I don't want my kids to be exposed to you degenerates and your poisons - how do we go about making these things MORE illegal? If it's no longer PC to belittle & persecute pot-smokers, then I damn well want to make sure there's someone left who I can still look down on!"

 

Yes, I'm probably taking this too far. God I really hope so. I guess I just don't share your rosy view that legalising cannabis will necessarily be a first step toward greater & brighter things in drug reform. It's got enough support & momentum to get moving all on its own. While the same can not be said for most psychedelics. Which is why I think it's important to get people thinking about our drug laws in the broader sense - not just: "which drugs might benefit a lot of people if they were legalised" (which makes our law into popularity contest), but rather: "hey, maybe while we're changing one drug law because it doesn't have a scientific basis like we said it did, we can just take a look at all of those, and maybe try educating people about the dangers instead of trying to magic them away with legislation"

 

...and they all lived happily ever after.

 

 

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Frankly, i wish we all had the balls (me included) to stand up like Greg for the things we believe in.  Perhaps if we were more cohesive and organised then it would happen sooner and with far less consequences for individuals like Greg.

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The forum was so alive with discussion back yonder....

 

I dont believe nations form drug policy in isolation.  Wars fought, regimes changed to channel illicit drug trade!  Massive profits at stake and its all off the record, so the dollar value alone doesnt encapsulate the value of illicit trade.

 

Our government is limited in what they could implement even if they wanted without risking foreign interference.  Australia's fortunes and trajectory, more than most countries, is dictated by what happens around it.

 

A changing international power dynamic could bring changes in what our politicians are able and willing to implement, maybe.

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Australia's fortunes and trajectory, more than most countries, is dictated by what happens around it. A changing international power dynamic could bring changes in what our politicians are able and willing to implement, maybe.

Well sure, I do like getting high - I figure that's as good a reason as any to kick off a worldwide socialist revolution. Though somewhere around our third failed ceasefire attempt, as the fallout rained down and Googlestate claimed another continent, I might start to wonder if it hadn't all been a bit of overkill...

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Freedom isnt worth socialism, even if they werent mutually exclusive to begin with...

 

What I was mainly referring to was the decline of America as the sole superpower, and other changes flowing on from that.

 

Drug laws are the symptom of something much broader.  IMHO campaigning for drug reform doesnt strike nearly deep enough towards the root of injustice.  This is how I feel anyway: injustice is a system of interlocking components.  As long as we are powerless to take freedoms and live in a functional society, why expect to be granted any single arbitrary consession?

 

I mean would any of you actually feel that society is fixed if, in an act of pacification or to serve some hidden nefarious purpose drug law reform occurred?  I didn't think so.

 

This isnt supposed to be negative, its a decisive strategy, attack the disease not the symptom.  There is such political and soon economic upheaval in Western nations right now that major reforms are guaranteed.  For instance, the popular five star movement in Italy is seeking direct democracy.  That will have its hurdles but can you imagine?  Italy is a horribly corrupt place, citizens directly deciding issues could produce astounding improvements.  I could go on.  This stuff isn't discussed here anymore.

 

Edited by ThunderIdeal
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Good points I hadn't considered Anodyne.

 

However I would counter with a win for cannabis legalisation would be a victory for evidence based drug policy.  I mean it has never happened before, that the relative harm of a substance correlated with its legal status.  The only recreational substances we currently have as a society are alcohol and tobacco.  I'd see it as getting points on the board, proof of concept that they sky won't fall in.

 

Furthermore it's far from a done deal.  Cannabis has been decriminalized and public traded for over 3 decades in the Netherlands and that hasn't correlated with a change here.  We can't complacently think it will with the US doing there thing.

 

Political discourse isn't tip top currently.  Bronwyn and her helicopters and Susan and her apartments apparently arent doing anything wrong.  If the liberal party can stick their head in the sand about that, then they certainly can about drug law reform.

 

Add to that that cannabis has over 50% of the population with experience over multiple generations and psychedelics far less and only since the 70s.  

 

People demonize what they don't understand, and they don't understand psychedelics.  Unfortunately the only way to get your head around them is to try them.  The current love for Ayahuasca in pop culture is doing more for change than this guy.  I give him 100% credit for bravery and persistence, just don't see it working.

 

What do I suggest we do then?  I think we need to make sure recreational cannabis happens now that their is wind in the sales of progress.  Complacency could lead to another 20 years of prohibition. Simultaneously we need to push the envelope on psychedelics.  EGA type stuff. Opening up to anyone who shows the least bit of interest.  We need a larger experience base in the population before anything will change for psychedelics.

 

Having said all this I do feel that if I'm not trusted to ride a bicycle without a helmet I'm certainly not going to be let to ingest psychedelics any time soon.

 

Fuck it, best of luck to Greg.  Too complicated to get my head around and you're doing something rather than nothing which is more than most of us can say.

 

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Part of it is a matter of scale, isn't it. 1 person taking acid on the steps of a legislature is an opportunity to make an example of someone, 10 is a nuisance, 100 - Daily Telegraph/ACA feature (on a slow day), 1000 - politicians start to worry, 10,000 - full 'moral panic', 100,000 - ? 

 

My reservations (now, as opposed to 3 years ago) are not so much about the value of non-violent direct action, it's that, in my sketchy understanding, his legal argument will just not fly. 

 

Greg is undeniably actually trying something. The least we could do is write to our various pollies to argue for a more reasonable legal framework. But actions that actually enhance social currency of psychedelic legality might be more constructive in the long run.

 

As to whether cannabis legalisation will lead to a greater chance of psychedelic legalisation - I think it's too soon to tell. Most people seem to think that it can't hurt - though the commercialisation of cannabis is contentious. The reformist approach has it's critics though, not least Julian Buchanan, who considers most reform as a 'Metamorphosis of Prohibition'. 

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^I made the point of scale to Greg way back when he was doing his hunger strike, after telling him he needed hundreds of people to do it with him to get results, he politely invited me to join him, to which i declined. 

 

Much respect to you Greg 

I really respect after all these years, your still fighting the fight 

A true hero never gives up, and thats whats im seeing here

Greg, your determination and dedication to this cause is inspirational and nothing short of heroic 

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