Party Vibe

I’d suggest going for the BASS meetings rather than Ganja Day

Bass is 100% good spin and obviously positive stuff

but cannabis is still a contentious issue

the declassification actually caused a liberal backlash as a lot of teens thought is was OK to blaze skunk all day, their liberal parents didn’t mind at first and some clearly have suffered problems (even if its just demotivation lunching out college or spending too much money on pot rather than schizophrenia or violence) – also the recent incident where a heavy pot smoker carved up his 14 year old girlfriend in Scotland (was widely reported by Auntie and a special feature on their website) won’t help

I saw the grauniad reports slowly shift in angle from pro-decrim to “not quite sure” since 2002 (or whenever the law changed)

but I can’t see a single negative thing BASS does – they are reducing the risk to lots of people involved in urban music events. (I also reckon Auntie would rather show BASS as it fits in with their attempts to be trendy but isn’t too controversial)

if you are gonna play the media spin games you need to at least know their rules and play tactically

its difficult as I understand where BASS is coming from..

having been involved heavily with the media industry myself as an engineer, I know well how dysfunctional it really is – OTOH the resources can be used for good

Its as if I were a gunsmith – guns can be used to oppress and shoot people – but they could also be used to feed people (if you eat meat or were in a survival situation) or merely for sport without killing anything (target shooting)

what I will say though is as BASS become more effective – and particularly if they are receving any kind of support or funding from a publically funded body, the media will find out about them and their activities – the effort some journos put in to find out stuff about people and organisations is beyond what many detectives put in to solve crimes (and often beyond the rules the cops are supposed to comply with when it comes to covert surveillances)

if it is a hostile person it could be “public cash used to promote drug filled events”

but if BASS went on one of these programmes that could also spark a backlash anyway

as you have said on many occasions you are prepared to “put your head on the block” it may be better as an individual to show your support for these kind of free events, whilst not affiliating yourself to any particular group

but even then you could be seen to be “speaking for everyone” and others would not like that (you could even get personal hostility from other ravers, as obviously your face would be on the box and people would know who you are!)

but then again other ravers have gone on reality TV (Soaps from SJ being a good example on “Bricking IT” – tbh they made the poor girl look like an idiot and she was shown up as having let the team down by going out partying 🙁 )

and showing ravers/travellers etc on video diaries is hardly a new thing, it has been done serveral times in the last 14 years its up to you (after consultation with anyone else who would be affected by publicity) whether you do it or not…