MEDICINAL CANNABIS LOBBY TO FIGHT

IF PRESIDENT Obama can't come to Nimbin, then Nimbin will fire up the
Kombis and head to him.

Nimbin Hemp Embassy has admitted defeat in its nearly-brilliant
off-the-cuff campaign to get the United States President to visit the
Northern Rivers hemp haven, despite gaining plenty of media attention
culminating with a segment on last week's Good News Week.

Organisers are packing their banners, rolling up their 'big joint' and
heading to Canberra by car, caravan or Kombi to push for cannabis law
reform like that in the US.

Hemp Embassy representative Max Stone said, unlike many of their
campaigns, this protest wasn't about the right of people to smoke pot,
but the right of sick people to access the documented pain-relief
available from medicinal cannabis.

Advocates argue the treatment is free from many of the side effects of
prescription pain-killers.

Mr Stone explained that Mr Obama had directed federal US agencies to
leave the issue of medical cannabis to individual states where many
had laws in place allowing access to the drug for medical reasons.

Meanwhile, Hemp Embassy president Michael Balderstone has written to
both the Prime Minister and the US President ahead of his visit later
this month.

He has asked Mr Rudd to raise the issue of medical cannabis with
President Obama, and Mr Obama to 'enlighten our PM on the issue'.

"We will be travelling to Canberra with our Big Joint and Polite
Force, hoping to get medical cannabis on the political agenda, and we
are asking cannabis consumers and friends to write to the Prime
Minister and urge him to talk to the President about what is happening
in America," he said.

"We know Kevin Rudd is looking for evidence based policies and surely
it's time to introduce cannabis regulations, quality controls and a
tax system for Australia's more than 2 million cannabis users."

Mr Balderstone said they would also be dropping into the Australian
Electoral Commission to check on the revival of their political
contender, the Hemp Party.