German Hemp Partisans Long to Inhale

by Sheryl Oring 12:09pm 25.Aug.97.PDT Last year, Petra Namyslo and a
few friends tossed around an idea: They wanted to organize a
demonstration for the legalization of marijuana.

"We met each other at the Hemp Museum [in Berlin],"
said Namyslo, a 42yearold former secretary. "We
built the museum up together and we decided to try
this too, to try to join people together from all
over Germany."

Last week, in a oneroom office in a workingclass neighborhood of
eastern Berlin, Namyslo and three others hammered out final logistics
for an event they called the Hemp Parade. No one knew quite what to
expect. More than 100 market spaces had been leased, Namyslo said
with a bit of surprise. But who knew how many people would show?

The answer Saturday was thousands and thousands police estimated
15,000, journalists who have covered Berlin events guessed 30,000.
They traveled to Berlin by bus, car, train, bicycle, and on foot to
parade down one of the city's grand, treelined boulevards in
Germany's first mass demonstration for drug law reform.

"The Love Parade is out, the Hemp Parade is in," said Sylvia Stuerzl,
referring to Berlin's annual techno music parade. The 23yearold
Bavarian student was festooned with a garland of synthetic marijuana
leaves in her hair, and she carried a real leaf tossed out by one of
the passing floats. Like many others, Stuerzl was at the parade
because "I like smoking hemp and I think it should be legalized."

Marijuana and other drugs are illegal throughout Europe, though some
countries are more tolerant than others. In Germany, a federal
republic where each of the 16 states has a fair amount of power,
tolerance for possession of marijuana varies from a couple grams in
the southern state of Bavaria to 100 grams in the northern state of
SchleswigHolstein, drug activists say.

Germany opened up the market for products made
with THCfree hemp last year. But that's not
enough,
say parade organizers and supporters.

Intense opposition from the ruling party will make reform difficult,
if not impossible. Dieter Hapel, Berlin spokesman for the dominant
Christian Democrats, said druglaw reform doesn't stand a chance. "We
are completely against legalization," he said.

Furthermore, said Hapel, the people marching at the Hemp Parade
"represent a minority in our society." The only party to come out
wholeheartedly in favor of drug legalization is the Green coalition,
whose representation varies from 10 percent to 15 percent in
different parts of Germany.

"Cannabis should be like cigarettes or alcohol," said Tibor Harrach,
a member of the Green's council on drug policy. Harrach acknowledged
that the chances for such reform are slim. "The only hope is that the
government will change next year and we will get a new majority in
this country," he said.

But Saturday, politics were not the only thing on
the
minds of people at the Hemp Parade: They were also
there for a good time. Most were young, dressed in
everything from '60s tiedye to camouflage or
leather,
some with their hair dyed intense pink, green,
blue,
orange, or purple. Floats provided music, either
the
incessant beat of techno or a brass band that
played
everything from Copacabana and The Candy Man to
polkas. Many brought their own props or banners
and, of course, smoke was everywhere.

Swen Buenger, a 23yearold warehouse worker from Berlin, carried a
giant joint made out of newspaper. "I like smoking," said Buenger.
"But I only smoke pot, I don't use other drugs. I want to show people
that it's possible to only smoke pot."

While young people were clearly the majority at the parade, they
weren't the only ones. "You've heard of Woodstock? It's a little bit
of the same," said Peter John, a 57yearold unemployed aerospace
worker from Berlin. "I feel connected to these people."

Demonstrators walked more than two miles past the
Siegessaeule, a column topped with a golden
angellike figure commemorating Prussia's 1871
victory in the war against France, down the Strasse
des 17 Juni, whose name recalls the day in 1953
when eastern workers rebelled against the
government for its wage policy, to the finale in
front of
the Brandenburger Tor.

There, under an overcast sky and in muggy heat, the
party began.

Organizers dubbed the commercial area at the end of
the parade the "Market of Possibilities." And among
the bongs, pipes, buttons and Tshirts there was an
astounding array of products made with hemp oil,
hemp fiber, hemp flour, hemp seeds, flowers and
extract. Bread and cookies made with hemp flour.
Soap, massage oil, shampoo, pasta, socks, jackets,
shirts, laundry detergent, stain remover, furniture
oil,
and beer.

Beer?

Yes, and it tastes better than regular beer, said
30yearold Torsten Weiss. "You can taste the
herb."

Many of the products were made by small, entrepreneurial firms and
have yet to be sold outside of Germany. Such is the case with the
laundry detergent made with hemp oil and other natural plant extracts
by Max Olschewski, who spent 25 years working as a chemist in East
Germany and then, after the wall came down, suddenly found himself
without a job at age 50.

"I was too old to get another job, so I started my own business,"
said the founder of Cycloclean BO Umweltchemie GmbH. Olschewski began
experimenting with plant oils in an attempt to make an effective
laundry detergent that wouldn't harm the environment. Plant after
plant provided similar results. Then Olschewski met some people who
were active in the hemp campaign and they suggested he try it. And
hemp, he found, had the best cleansing power of all.

"It was an invention by trial and error," he said. So far, Olschewski
hasn't had the money to launch a marketing campaign, so the detergent
is only available at a few stores in Germany. But he has high hopes:
several Japanese firms have expressed an interest in the product.

As curious demonstrators checked out Olschewski's
laundry detergent and other goods, sipped hemp
beer, and ate bratwurst, parade organizers looked
out
on the crowd with satisfaction.

"It's important that so many people came because it's the first
demonstration of this sort," said parade spokesman Juergen Barth.
"The politicians who are against hemp must consider it now."

The world is watching.