From 2pm Friday 5 May Until 2pm Sunday 7 May
@ Nimbin Town Hall and Indica Arena
About our Speakers
Link to Program
We are pleased to present some mind-bending action at this year’s HEMPOSIUM at the 25th MardiGrass where we pull back the curtain to reveal creative, happening and abundant places around the globe basking in the post-prohibition green glow. As Australia is just waking up to the benefits of medical cannabis, the MardiGrass HEMPOSIUM aims to inspire, as we learn, share and network about our favourite plant ally and healing herb.
There is an impressive line-up of speakers who will share their cannabis expertise and experiences, and reveal the gains made in both Australia, and throughout other cannabis loving communities around the planet. In 2017 we are excited to host expert speakers from North America, in particular a tsunami of talent from Canada.
Dr David Bearman first spoke at the 2015 Hemposium, and we look forward to his contributions to this year’s conference on the topic of Cannabis and cancer, as well as exploring why cannabinoids work for PTSD, ADHD, and Endocannabinoid Deficiency conditions. David is one of the most clinically knowledgeable physicians in the U.S. in the field of medicinal marijuana. Dr. Bearman was a pioneer in the free and community clinic movement in California. His career includes pain management and cannabinology. Dr. Bearman is also the author of Drugs Are NOT the Devil’s Tools: How Discrimination and Greed Created a Dysfunctional Drug Policy and How It Can Be Fixed. Copies will be available at a book signing during MardiGrass.
Sita von Windheim first attended MardiGrass in 2010, and we’re excited to welcome her back to Nimbin in 2017, this time as a guest speaker. Sita will provide a root extraction demonstration, as well as share the benefits and use of Cannabis infused suppositories. Sita has been involved in Cannabis activism since opening the original Amsterdam Café and Hemporium in Vancouver, Canada in 1997. She now works full time with Cannabis Medicine – consulting with patients and making custom formulations to manage a wide variety of conditions: migraines, insomnia and arthritis, women’s health, skin disease, ADD, PTSD, seizure disorders, cancer ….. the list is very long.
We also welcome from Canada, Robert Laurie, lawyer, writer and speaker. He enjoys practicing law in the ever-changing medical cannabis industry in British Columbia. He has acted for licensed producers, dispensaries, patient growers, cannabis entrepreneurs, activists, international marijuana clients and First Nations. He is a frequent speaker at cannabis industry events, and a contributing author and columnist with ‘Grow Magazine’, based in Oregon USA. He is a former Board Advisor to the Canadian Association of Medical Cannabis Dispensaries (CAMCD). For the 2017 Hemposium, Rob will talk about the importance of the Canadian Charter of Rights to Cannabis legalization in Canada, and explore whether Australians need a Charter of our own.
Returning to MardiGrass 2017 from Vancouver, Ajia Mae Moon will share ways to protect your family while fighting for Cannabis freedom. Even though there are progressive laws governing the use and sale of marijuana in Canada, prohibition remains extremely harmful to families through continued persecution and discrimination. Ajia has been a medical and recreational cannabis activist since 2005. Since the closure of her dispensary (Three Happy Cats) Ajia has focused on twelvehighchicks.com and weedwoman.com.
We are also pleased that Carl Martel, a Canadian hemp farmer and developer of industrial hemp products has travelled to MardiGrass to share his expertise. Carl has developed hemp vanishes, paints, plastics and is currently working on Hemp masonry and building products. Carl is also working on Hemp based Graphene which is 100s of times stronger than steel, flexible and can carry electrical current very efficiently. Graphene is the next revolution in renewable materials it will be used to vastly improving solar energy and battery storage systems. And grown from HEMP, rather than mined from Mother Earth.
We are also excited to announce an outstanding line-up of Australasian based post-prohibition proponents and cannabis experts including Arik Reiss, documentary film maker from New Zealand, Fiona Patten [Sex Party MLC Victoria], David Shoebridge [Greens MLC NSW], Glenn Druery [Political Strategist], Derryn Hinch [Justice Party Senator Victoria], Andrew Kavasilas [HEMP Party], Tony Bower [Mullaways Medical Cannabis], Andrew “Dr Pot” Katelaris, Martin Ernegg [Hemp Fibre Fusion], Steve Bolt [Bolt, Findlay Solicitors], Damon Adams, Michael Harding, Rebecca Houghton & Brooke Vogler [Weeded Warriors], Radha Rene [Love Hemp], Dolph Cook [Charmaster], Wayne Wadsworth [Health Farms International], Dr Deb Waldron, Paul Taylor [Trust Nature], Ben Grose [Levi Foundation], Glen Ossy-Orley, David Leyonhjelm [Liberal Democrats Senator], and Kog, as well as a magnificent array of local experts in cannabis for medicine, food and industry!
The Hemp Embassy’s Medical Cannabis workshops held in Nimbin over the last two years have attracted large numbers of the newly emerging and increasingly visible Australian cannabis demographic – families with extremely ill children, and people dealing with chronic pain and often terminal illness. The HEMPOSIUM will include real world stories from the Australian medical cannabis community, including families whose lives have changed dramatically for the better thanks to medical cannabis. Parents will discuss how cannabis has helped a wide range of serious conditions like brain injury and adult epilepsy.
It’s time this magnificent herb was welcomed into mainstream Australian life, and the persecution and prejudice to stop. Medical cannabis has been a growing international phenomenon over the last few decades, and Australia is only now starting to catch on and catch up. The HEMPOSIUM brings together speakers and doers, and aims to expand the mind as much as that special weed herself. We look forward to making the HEMPOSIUM a space to inform, learn, agitate, inspire and connect in this massively important green revolution. Come help us get the police out of healTHCare! And while we’re at it, let’s OVERGROW THE GOVERNMENT!
Check out the Hemposium programs from the last few years:
