Friday, April 9, 2010

The epitome of liberty

We've all done it sometime or the other, some don't talk about it, some may admit it and others even advocate it. But there is good reason behind not telling everyone you do it, because for some odd reason, it is illegal here! If you haven't already guessed what I'm talking about, I'm talking about weed, also known as marijuana, scientifically known as Cannabis Sativa more commonly known as Ganja in this region. (Ganja FYI is the sanskrit word for cannabis). Weed is technically legal some parts around the world but there are severe restrictions on it.

But there are a few places around the world where there are no restrictions per se. I'm sure the moment I said that, you were thinking of Amsterdam, weren't you?! well yes, that is one of the places but that too has restrictions now. Tobacco has been banned in Amsterdam and there are cops who are trained to sniff out tobacco crawling all over the place, sniffing you. Even a trace of tobacco and you are fined!

So what if I told you there was a place where it was legal, where you could smoke your joint out in public and there would be no cops trying to arrest you or sniffing you. Christiania as it is known is a micro-nation is Denmark. It's been branded as a hippie town and the worlds last surviving anarchist community. I think this is the most significant feature of Christiania because it is a working model of anarchy, one which has been going on for 40 years fighting away attempts from other governments to destroy it.

It was once said that "anarchy only leads to chaos", but then look at this place, it hasn't descended into chaos even 4 decades later, when in the meantime democratic systems have collapsed into chaos in less than 4 years. So forget Amsterdam, Christiania is the place to go to, where you can have a beer at the 'Woodstock Bar' , light a spliff and inhale nothing but pure liberty.


6 comments:

  1. Well, the state of California passed a bill legalising “medical” marijuana and the state is earning a considerable tax income through the pharmacies that are allowed to sell them. The pharmacies are allowed to have a price list too, there are websites and delivery services already facilitating the business. Since this is all new, there are some grey areas; in a recent incident, a jury acquitted Eugene Davidovich for possession and sale of weed.

    Sri Lanka too wanted to allow the Ayurveda hospitals to grow their own ganja; but this proposal went under the radar without much publicity.

    Weed would always be amongst us; remember the incident when they found ganja plants growing in the parliament a few years back?

    Might as well legalise it and earn some taxes, I’d say.

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  2. Proper anarchy will never descend into chaos... as long as there are necessary safeguards.

    Yeah pot has been used in Sri Lanka and other parts of the world for thousands of years. Before the British introduced tobacco (originally from South America) it was one of the ingredients in the betel leaf mix (Bulath vita) that Sri Lankans have... It wasn't banned in the US until well into the 20th century. All because of cigarette companies, sad really! :/ I think it should be legalized too, with necessary guidelines like making it available to only people who are about 21 (legal smoking age) and stuff...

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  3. having 10-15grams of mj on you is quite okay in this city. there are neighborhoods that you could smell a hippie smoking ganja and there's a cop car two blocks away. he's half way to the moon, and the cop doesn't care either, as long as there's a limit, and you don't have a grow up in your basement.

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  5. Legalizing weed to anarchy is a huge difference mi friend. Why not just go a bit further than weed n talk about say, heroin...
    Would be acceptable in anarchy innit?
    Hard drugs are 'illegal' in Christiania too btw

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  6. Haha..good post bro..hmm i heard that Minister Thissa Karaliyadda was a huge advocate of legalizing it, he was the Ayurdewa Minister i think. In fact he has spoken good about it compared to stuff like Arrack and smoking...

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