US speakers for Nimbin hemp fest
A Californian author and campaigner for the legalisation of hemp, Jack Herer, will be the special guest of the 1995 Mardi Grass Fiesta del Locoweed being held in Nimbin, on the NSW north coast, over the April 28-May 1 weekend.
Herer's best-selling book The Emperor Has No Clothes is credited for the renewal of demands for hemp to be legalised as an agricultural resource. The book details the uses of hemp down the ages.
Herer will be accompanied by Lynn Osbourn, an expert in hemp's qualities as a fuel. Osbourn will explain that hemp is the suitable plant for the distillation of ethanol-based fuels. Cars can be made to run on hemp-derived fuel. The oil industry was a major backer of outlawing hemp in the USA in 1938.
The Mardi Grass Festival features music, food, fashion parades, films, art exhibitions, a monster street parade and giant marketplace — all with the aim of extolling the virtues of the humble hemp plant. For more information call (066) 891 123.