Hemp Embassy

Before I left Canada, Marijuana Man from Pot TV suggested that when I got to Nimbin, I should look up Michael Balderstone—at the time of writing, the President of the Australian Hemp Party and the Unofficial Mayor of Nimbin. So we did.

The ‘Hemp Embassy’ is a big building next to the main hotel on the main street. It’s an older wood construction that feels, upon entering, like stepping into one of Gilbert Shelton and Dave Sheridan’s Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers‘ comics.

We met Michael, who is a wonderful gentle man. He very helpfully found us what we needed and arranged with some of his contacts for me to interview them (videos available soon).

The Three Happy Cats were also invited to sit in and guest on their weekly radio show. Glad we did, it gave us good insight into the internal struggles that the folks have to put up with here on the day to day, which is not much different from what goes on back home in Canada.

I also met Andrew, a cabinet maker by trade who has made Nimbin his home for 30 plus years, and another player in the Australian Hemp Party. We shared some herb while sitting in his shop on a drizzly afternoon for another video interview (also soon to be available).

While looking through his shop I saw a large number of ‘slumped glass’ plates that looked very familiar. Turns out that a Cannabis Culture logo-bearing plate from this same artist sits somewhere at Cannabis Culture head quarters. For the curious, I think it’s on the 3rd floor in the lounge.

There’s no shortage of friendly folks in Nimbin nor supply of weed but finding the good stuff is still somewhat of a challenge. As well as more bush weed available than Hydro, dabs, budder, shatter, and wax haven’t yet taken hold and the market is wide open for pioneering types who might want to move Down Under to teach and empower people into the #710 culture.

I really liked Nimbin, we all did. There will be Cats returning in the first week of May for ‘MardiGrass’, a festival and activist gathering to share information, plan strategies, meet with friends, and smoke a lot of weed.

I would recommend visiting Nimbin, for those in the vicinity, however it’s an awful long way to go from Canada, where weed is second to none in the world. You really start to appreciate how good we have it in Canada, once you start travelling.

Overall Nimbin gets a 7 out of 10 from this Happy Cat.