Michael Balderstone

03/06/2026

There needs to be an education campaign to bring everyone up to speed. People using it medically do need quality product and good information.
If you're using it for the first time you want to know what can happen. You can green out if you smoke or eat too much.
The industry needs both quality product and informed service.

With concerns that profits are being prioritised over patients' health, CHOICE decided to visit the doctor.

02/06/2026

Is this the real reason why they banned kids from social media?

Teenagers who frequently use social media are about three times more likely to try cannabis than those who use it occasionally, new research from the

30/05/2026

CBD reduces pain from nerve damage

A new study by researchers at the University of Sydney has shown that taking cannabidiol (CBD) can significantly reduce chronic neuropathic pain in those suffering from it. The findings of the randomized placebo-controlled trial, published in eClinicalMedicine, demonstrated that taking CBD over a si...

28/05/2026

High Headliners!

No let up on the rain yet, every day this week and everywhere is mud, mud, glorious mud. The citrus are scattered under their trees and I can scarcely keep up with drying the bananas.

We’re still tidying up the last of the MardiGrass weekend but otherwise Nimbin has settled into winter, our quietest time of the year—much quieter now that Byron Bay has out priced most backpackers who used to do daily visits on the Happy Bus—no longer in operation.

A couple of historical stories caught my eye below. International researchers concluded a while back that the cannabis plant originated on the Tibetan Plateau about twenty million years ago. Now they think it might be twice as old but what is known is that it was one of the five main grains used by our ancestors, the others are rice, soy, barley and millet.

When you think about the plants high protein seed, super strong fibre and how it is so fast growing, no wonder it was called ‘God’s Gift’. Moreover, that’s without mentioning it being the safest and best medicine!

The other story I liked is about “The Prohibition Paycheck”, something the mainstream rarely discusses. I’m always going on about Big Pharma and the police and privatised prisons, the obvious losers if we can get w**d legal. They all lobby hard to maintain its illegality. Then there’s the alcohol and to***co industries, with the latter now investing in w**d world.

Then the story, in cannabis.net, talking about plastics and fossil fuels, which is refreshing. H**p was a direct threat in the 1930’s to the new petrochemical and synthetic fibre industries. Today, the plastic industry produces 400 million tons annually and we all know, as Henry Ford said, “Anything that can be made from hydrocarbons can be made from carbohydrates”.

Then there’s the booming industries of rehabilitation clinics and treatment, often court mandated. It’s all just business, capitalism at its worst. Politicians have used prohibition for decades to target minority groups. Nixon’s war on drugs rode in on associating hippies with ‘marijuana’ and the blacks with he**in, and we all know how they love the “tough on crime” talk at election time.

They seem to be as frightened of being seen as soft on ‘drugs’ as they are of the ‘drugs’ themselves.

Love to everyone.

Michael Balderstone

Nimbin H**P Embassy Head

https://us14.campaign-archive.com/?u=3b7a3805c4bd1c253536b1e54&id=61dbd62dfb

No let up on the rain yet, every day this week and everywhere is mud, mud, glorious mud. The citrus are scattered under their trees and I can scarcely keep up with drying the bananas.

24/05/2026

Nimbin MardiGrass memories.

23/05/2026

H**p shoes

21/05/2026

High Headliners!

The ground is sodden, full to the brim and overflowing—water everywhere—it was wet before this last six inches! Great for the farmers out west and I’m grateful it waited until after MardiGrass. Citrus are littering the ground across the garden and I discovered a massive Starfruit tree I must have planted twenty years ago, with the magic fruit scattered on the ground beneath it.

Still we wait for the Premier and the police to tell us the good news on RDT, while they bust people in record numbers, while they can. I still think it might be just a shuffle forward rather than a really progressive step, a business deal trying to corner us into buying legal w**d so we can safely drive.

My H**p Hour radio mate and NimFM President, Bob, currently driving across Canada, reports there are pot dispensaries EVERYWHERE and driving on w**d is not an issue. We are stuck in the last century here in Oz.

Did we get 2.9% of the vote in all three By-elections, or did I imagine that? I remember when Pauline came out of jail she was quite vocal about supporting cannabis law reform because people in jail had educated her. Others have convinced her otherwise now, but she was very warm toward Xavier in Albury at the Farrer By-election and I think we should try and get her back on track (see image below).

Plenty of news on the NSW police in these Headlines, including that we have more people in jail than ever before in this State. They’ve decided to back off at festivals with their sniffer dogs and concentrate on the dealers instead of the users. That’s after years of frightening people into eating their pills at the gate to avoid getting busted. Insane stuff creating harm not reducing it. The same as RDT.

What is good news to me is that the cops are look like adopting the “right person, right care” approach to mental health call-outs in the future, which means health workers rather than cops attend those incidents. Just the presence of police often escalates the situation, as I have seen in Nimbin numerous times. This will stop people getting shot.

I guess at least twenty percent of people wanting to buy legal mediw**d are not allowed to. Anyone who has ever had a mental health diagnosis, or recent heart issue or operation, all sorts of medical reasons prevent them getting a prescription. Makes me realise what a long way we have to go before the nonsense and stigma dies.

A huge percentage of people suffering with mental health issues love w**d and it keeps them sane and able to live in this world. I agree it’s not for everyone, but for most, it gives their (and our) heads a rest!

Here’s a simple example of the ignorance in the w**d law-makers world of the inexperienced. By law we have to keep our legal w**d in its original container, but they aren’t airtight. Duh. In my hippy shack in the rainforest it goes mouldy in no time.

Love to everyone.

Michael Balderstone

Nimbin H**P Embassy Head

The ground is sodden, full to the brim and overflowing—water everywhere—it was wet before this last six inches! Great for the farmers out west and I’m grateful it waited until after MardiGrass. Citrus are littering the ground across the garden and I discovered a massive Starfruit tree I must h...

20/05/2026

Thank you so much Jacqueline. That was a huge effort.
It's a lot of work but it's also very exciting.
Thank you everyone involved,

17/05/2026

US - High Times
Light It Up: Why NORML Still Matters in the 21st Century

Let’s be real: cannabis culture in 2026 looks nothing like it did even a decade ago. Dispensaries are everywhere, billion-dollar brands are flooding the market, and hashtags about legalization are more common than re**er madness headlines. For many of us, lighting up feels normal.

But here’s the truth: normal didn’t just happen. It was fought for. And, it was NORML—the National Organization for the Reform of Ma*****na Laws—that lit the first spark and kept the fire burning when politicians, corporations, and the mainstream wanted nothing to do with us. For over 50 years, from the advent of prohibition to the reforms of the 21st century, NORML and its local chapters across America have been on the front lines educating lawmakers and the public about the truth when it comes to cannabis.

The United States of America has waged a War on Drugs, with cannabis consumers in its crosshairs, since the passage of the Controlled Substances Act in 1970. The costs of that war?

Tens of millions of Americans have been arrested for a plant that grows naturally. Communities are overpoliced. A law enforcement apparatus that does not make communities safer. Tax dollars diverted from healthcare and education to keep cops violating civil rights and putting billions into a private prison industry that even invests its dollars in selling legal cannabis.

Now the question is: what kind of legalization are we going to settle for?

Because, despite all the progress, cannabis is still federally illegal. People are still being arrested every single day. Black and Latino communities are still targeted. Patients and veterans in prohibition states are still cut off from medicine. And, too many of the people who built this movement are being pushed aside while corporations cash in for their investors.

That’s why supporting NORML matters more now than ever before. This isn’t about protecting Wall Street w**d profits. It’s about finishing the fight for justice, equity, and freedom.

To the younger activists stepping into this fight: this is your moment to carry the torch forward. NORML has always been grassroots, powered by people who refused to wait for permission to be free. The next wave of reform needs your energy, your creativity, your voice.

And to the older readers—the ones who remember when speaking up about cannabis could cost you your job, your freedom, or your reputation—we need your fire again. You know what it took to get us here. You know what it means to fight when the odds are stacked against us. This movement was built on that kind of courage, and we need it now more than ever.

Because legalization without justice isn’t the endgame. The endgame is freedom for everyone, in every state, with no one left behind.

So don’t just consume cannabis—defend it. Support NORML. Get involved. Donate. Volunteer. Share your voice. The future of this movement belongs to all of us, and if we don’t fight for the kind of legalization we deserve, someone else will define it for us.

Light it up, stand up, and let’s finish what we started.

by Christopher Cano
Christopher Cano is labor policy leader, cannabis rights organizer, advocate for marginalized communities serving as Director of Political & Legislative Affairs for the Service Employees International Union Local 500 in the D.C. & Maryland, Co-Founder & Executive Director for Suncoat NORML in Florida for over a decade, and a board member of NORML since 2023.

High Times

https://hightimes.com/activism/why-norml-still-matters-2026/