The LEAF THE LEAF May-June 17 | Page 16

Grow your own Cannabis Australia. It is time for civil disobedience. We must obey our own conscience instead of unjust human laws that have been enacted here in Australia on the basis of propaganda and greed. We have an unalienable right to medicine. The scientific community has shown that cannabis is a therapeutic and medicinal plant. The scheduling of cannabis as a poison and narcotic has no scientific basis what so ever. The Australian government is allowing its citizens to suffer so that pharmaceutical companies can produce synthetic products that are in fact far inferior and produce, as always debilitating side effects. The government are doing this as they receive massive amounts of political donations and our own prime minister has shares in pharmaceutical companies as do many other politicians. We the people have a human right to food and medicine and we have to grow our own if we are able and allow our own people to grow and produce whole plant cannabis and not have to make a rich man richer than more is the beauty. The potential for Australians to profit from cannabis from farm to table is a real and much needed industry in these times of record unemployment with little hope of change. It is up to each person to disobey unjust laws and until we do this collectively we shall all suffer. We as human beings have rights. They are not man made, they are those that are not dependent on the laws or customs of any particular culture or government, and therefore universal and inalienable rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws. These natural laws are used to challenge the legitimacy of man-made laws that are unjust and immoral. International law is the set of rules generally regarded and accepted as binding in relations between states and between nations. The Geneva Convention of which Australia is a signatory is used in diplomacy to mean an international agreement, or treaty. By “Change the System” 31/3/2017 The fourth convention specifically deals with the treatment of civilians and their protection during wartime. The Australian government has stated that it has conducted a war on drugs under which cannabis is included. In this war thousands, have been detained. As a result of the war on drugs whole communities have been affected, people have died and hundreds of thousands if not millions are suffering. All at the hands of our own government. The war on drugs has not had any positive impact on the numbers of people taking drugs or dying from drugs. The Australian government has committed breaches against its people by wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health by declaring and enacting a war on drugs, by knowing that cannabis is a therapeutic medicinal plant, harassing and jailing people for using and growing it and not allowing people to have access to it. All the while allowing the black market to flourish with many corrupt politicians, police and judiciary benefiting. Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes the right to a standard of living adequate for health including medical care. As such the use of cannabis as it is a therapeutic and medicinal plant which allows for healing via the interaction of the human endo cannabinoid system on our other body systems, is one of our basic human rights. In article 12 the right to health is the economic, social and cultural right to a universal minimum standard of health to which all individuals are entitled. The concept of a right to health has been enumerated in international agreements