Each year our national J-Day sees cannabis enthusiasts turn out to protest New Zealand’s prohibition of the drug.
Around 200 partook in J-Day in Dunedin’s Octagon which falls on the first weekend of May each year. This years events marked the 25-year anniversary since its foundation in 1986. The R18 protest is famous for large-scale demonstrations which sees its participants smoke weed in public areas. The protests are typically peaceful affairs aimed at raising awareness around the medical properties of cannabis, the societal harm prohibition causes and the benefits of decriminalisation and legalisation of cannabis.
The day’s event was marked by an absence of the police. For the last two years Dunedin’s J-Day has seen it’s protesters march to the Dunedin Police Station at 4.20pm. On arrival the protestors hot boxed the station’s reception. Otago NORML President Abe Grey admitted that the police had visited him at the Otago Cannabis Museum to check that this year’s event was not going to end up in another smokey protest inside the station.
Dunedin’s event was typically chill, as its protesters lounged on the Octagon’s upper lawn smoking weed, playing hacky sack and discussing the various aspects of cannabis culture and the benefits of decriminalisation and legalisation. A DJ was set up to provide the protestors with a variety of techno, drum and bass and reggae.
The Otago NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) organised the non-violent protest and provided various information panels along with a small stall selling pipes, and other pieces of cannabis paraphernalia.
The event ran from ‘high noon until 4.20’, and NORML’s theme for this years event was ‘stop the war, start the healing’. At 4.19pm, the crowd counted down the final ten seconds towards 4.20, before smoking a range of pipes, bongs and joints. Following the mass blaze, a series of speakers gave short speeches on personal experiences with cannabis and the movement towards law reform.
Abe Gray spoke to Critic at the protest, stating that the protests were “basically people coming out in public to show their support for cannabis law reform, to show that they think that prohibition is causing more harm than it is preventing”. Gray explained that prohibition marginalised cannabis users, creating a negative stigma around cannabis use. “J day is a day for people who support law reforms to come out in public and show their support, not hide it away”.