 | NORML News: censors, customs target Cannabis culture magazine |
 Norml News could be next Freedom of expression is the latest casualty from the Customs Service's ongoing campaign against The Hempstore, with referral to the censors landing Cannabis Culture magazine an R18 rating. Norml News Autumn 2004.
The ruling effectively puts Norml News under the same threat.
Customs has been paying close attention to everything imported by The Hempstore, ever since they raided the store to seize Knaster Hanf, a smoking blend containing hemp. Customs were apparently surprised to find that The Hempstore had declared every shipment and they were all approved by Customs officers. Charges of importing 40kg of cannabis were threatened but never laid, and The Hempstore dropped it's countersuit.
Since then, The Hempstore reports that Customs have inspected virtually every box they import, resulting in costly and tiresome delays.
The Hempstore has imported and distributed Cannabis Culture for five years without any problems. Then customs referred the Oct/Nov 03 issue to the censors, who in a contradictory ruling released in April gave the magazine an "objectionable" rating meaning it can only be sold wrapped, to those over 18 years old.
The ruling quoted from a previous precedent, when NORML appealed the banning of High Times magazine. That ruling had said "High Times advocates the reform of marijuana laws... Advocation of a lifestyle and the reform of laws does not promote criminal activity."
The censors agreed that the same point can be made about Cannabis Culture, then concluded by giving the magazine an R18 rating on the basis of "the publication's treatment of matters of crime, namely the cultivation and use of cannabis."
The ruling only effects the Oct/ Nov 03 issue, so customs submitted the April/May 04 issue before the first ruling had even come out, and have detained all copies imported by The Hempstore.
Meanwhile, magazine distribution company Gordon & Gotch, who also import Cannabis Culture, received their issues without any problem from Customs or the censors.
NORML News is unaffected, for now, but the ban on Cannabis Culture is a worry for us - and should be for everyone living in this "free" country.
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