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The Budding Story of New British Cannabis Activism

 Cannabis walks a fine line between permissiveness and illegality
in the UK. For residents, this grey area causes confusion on where exactly the
law stands in a country that currently has 60 ca

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 Cannabis walks a fine line between permissiveness and illegality
in the UK. For residents, this grey area causes confusion on where exactly the
law stands in a country that currently has 60 cannabis social clubs and almost
100 grow-shops in London alone. For the unfamiliar, grow shops are where one can
legally buy, not only the equipment, but also the seeds to start a grow plot of
their own. Essentially, this gives customers the accessibility to grow,
distribute and be in possession of cannabis—which is still wholly illegal.

In the UK, the plant is still considered a Class B drug. While
certainly not as high on the list as cocaine, heroin or meth, its status is
stunting the possibility of utilization and growth of this medicine as a
potentially vital business component and yes, even recreational drug
alternative.

One could argue that up till now, the people, the push and
the tactics for achieving cannabis freedom have been rather two-dimensional. Striving
for the attention and permission of politicians who— because of other interests—play
an entirely different game where the forward push of a legitimate cannabis cause
is seen as a detriment to the current players. So far, every cannabis bill
attempting to legitimize England’s progressive steps, such as ‘Cannabis Social
Clubs,’ comes up short of procuring any real formal legislation, leaving things
in limbo. However, now, across the UK, the public has been motivated to take
the issue of cannabis legality in their own hands by joining a quite ingenious
initiative titled ‘Feed the Birds.’

The group isn’t trying to push a cannabis reform bill
through parliament, nor gather a group of protestors to hold banners in front
of a government building pleading for their rights, they’re simply  handing out hundreds and thousands of
high-grade cannabis seeds to anyone willing to go around the busiest parts of
their respective UK cities and communities, using this guerilla tactic of planting
them anywhere and everywhere as a way of taking the challenge of reform to the
streets and to the people.

The odd title of the group and its stated action—“We will utilize every able bodied human to
spread hemp seeds to feed British and migratory birds,”—works as a
disclaimer for people tossing cannabis seeds around town. It is, of course, a great way of
diverting the legality of what they are doing and bringing the attention to
what they really want to do, and that is to inform the public with, “. . . a campaign which supports the ethos
that cannabis prohibition has a negative impact on our society and gives hemp a
bad reputation. We believe that if we reform these old fashioned laws it will
have a positive effect on British people and the economy.”

The group has even established a network to get a wide
variety of high-quality seeds into the hands of the people supporting the cause.
With as many as seven percent of English adults consuming cannabis on a regular
basis, the group has seen many volunteers ranging from actual gardeners to
bankers, all wanting to somehow contribute to the cause. By asking each supporter
to do little more than dimple the ground with the end of a finger and drop a
seed into it in any public place where the seed might take root, the volunteer will
have helped to sprout an idea for all passer-byes to bear witness to just how miserably
the war on drugs has been lost. The efforts press the notion that such a plant
with so many uses—from industry, to medicine, to recreation—has been so wrongfully
demonized. This should especially resonate with the British, whose country has
had such a long and positive history with the plant as far as industry and
medicine are concerned.

So far, neither the police nor the media have made any
particular announcements regarding the sudden appearance of cannabis plants throughout
city streets, however, the group has noticed that many of the plants have been
removed in various places. It’s obvious that not everyone in England is in
agreement with the plant, or with the message that Feed the Birds is trying to
convey, but the group hopes this campaign will once again, familiarize the
public with the plant, making it a thing of common place and relieving it of
its demonized and taboo status.

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