The media started ringing in at 9am to confirm the meeting between Watters and McCaffrey as we had advertised. Our media release had created a favourable ambiguity. By the time we were driving to Sydney Town Hall for our action, the media were telling me where to find the real McCaffrey - a media lunch at the International Media Centre courtesy of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

About 20 people had answered our call and showed up at Sydney Town Hall. They comprised a crew from Justice Action organised by Brett Collins, a crew organised by Tony Spanos and the Graffitti Hall of Fame and a Timbarra crew from Nimbin (Shamus, Lawrence, Jason and others) who I had met by chance at the Newtown Festival the previous day. At that Festival I also met Hemlock, the acrobat/stiltwalker who has carried the Police Helicopter in the past two Mardi Grasses, and he came to help with the puppets.

Two tv news cameras (Network Ten and Channel 7) turned up and an ABC Radio journalist.

We got the puppets rigged and staged the epic meeting of the drug warlords on the steps of Sydney Town Hall. The skellie puppets were identical except that McCaffery had a dollar sign on his chest and Watters, a cross.

The Watters puppet waited in the arch way of the Town Hall entrance looking magnificent against the architecture. (We had sought no permits and the security guards were jumping but powerless in the face of this grandeur of image.) The McCaffrey puppet approached along the pavement of George Street and climbed the steps. The puppets met on the landing, circled and performed their macabre dance of death.

The dance was flanked by placards reading: "The Law is the Crime. End Prohibition", "Salvo Watter thrives on Misery", McCaffery Drug War Lord - 1.5 million prisoners, 7000 casualties pa".

As soon as the cameras came on Shamus, who was holding the Watter puppet found his voice and took off in a booming monologue that carried over the traffic about the evils of the Drug War.

We repeated the meeting twice for the cameras and then walked the puppets 4 blocks down George Street on the road. The height gave them a powerful presence and, although we held up traffic, we were received with smiles and looks of wonder. No aggression at all.

At the building that housed the IMA on the 29th floor, we parked the puppets and sent a delegation to seek a meeting with McCaffrey - Kilty O'Gorman (editor of Framed and 20 year old daughter of Lee Rhiannon MLC), Seal (feral layout artist at Breakout) and myself.

We found the IMA only lightly defended. We were confronted by a honey blonde who turned out be a NSW Police officer surnamed Bilby (cute!) and a grim US security agent who glared at us and refused to give us his name. When Constable Bilby came out, Kilty moved fast and put her foot in the door. Determined and fearless she was an inspiration to me.

We were told the luncheon was for invited media only and ordered to leave the floor at once. Kilty said as editor of Breakout she ought to have been invited. "Me too as a writer for Nimbin News", I piped up. Our feet were firmly planted on that floor so Bilby got on her moblie and called security.

A small work weary man came by clutching papers, went in, enquired about our disturbance and came out to speak to us. It was perfect happen-chance because, although he would not say his name, he revealed himself to be the PR flak for the McCaffrey tour.

"What is your message to General McCaffrey?" he asked. "End the war on drugs" I replied.

The PR flak explained that there was no War on Drugs. General McCaffrey was merely excising a cancer that had grown on society. And what's more McCaffrey was, comparatively speaking, a progressive who had allocated $US3 billion of his $US18 billion for new, less punitive approaches such as drug courts.

"When will he announce an amnesty for the prisoners of the Drug War?" I asked. "Amnesty can mean many things", the PR flak replied. The spin master was on the back foot.

The dialogue went on for about for about 10 minutes and when the building security arrived, they stood by listening. When we chose to leave the security guys escorted us in the lift and I asked one of them who was from Chile what he thought of US drug policy in South America. "I can't say", he said but in a way that made clear he was pissed off too. So was the Lebanese taxi driver who later drove us down town.

In the foyer we waved at the six police officers who went by enroute to eject us.

Outside I was interviewed by a journalist for AAP about drugs in sport and I took the opportunity to announce our intention to produce the HEMP Olympix in Sydney in August next year as a drugs all in. "If you use performance enhancing drugs, we want to see you in action at the Sydney 2000 HEMP Olympix".

And we are demanding an amnesty for all the prisoners of the Drug War in NSW jails. This coalition between Justce Action and the HEMP Embassy promises to be powerful.

Activism Wrap Up;

US General Barry McCaffrey, the President Clinton's appointed head of the Office of Drug Control Policy, got the cold shoulder treatment in Australia, cut his visit short and left abruptly last Wednesday.

The General, plainly surprised and hurt by the hostile media reception, described the behaviour of his unwilling hosts as "inexplicable".

The president of the Australian Olympics Committee, John Coates, not only refused to meet with him but also urged that McCaffrey be barred from access to Olympics venues so that he could not use the Australian Olympics to "promote his ideologies".

The meeting with Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, and his Australian Drug Advisory Council, which is chaired by Salvation Army Major Brian Watters, was also cancelled. Likewise cancelled was a conference on Drugs in Sport which was promised by the PM and was to take place this week.

At a media briefing set up by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Tuesday, vice president of the International Olympics Committee, Australian Kevin Gosper, refused to share the rostrum with the General.

It is plainly evident that Australians do not respect US leadership when it comes to drug policy.

And why should they? Drug  prohibition policies in the US have led to escalating addiction, drug deaths and imprisonment. At present in the US there are an estimated 7000 drug deaths annually and 1.5 million incarcerated for drug offences many of whom are in for life (three strikes and you're out) and many of whom are in private jails.

The War on Drug Users in the US has created a new slave class and undermined all the liberties for which the US was once respected.

Wherever General McCaffrey travels now he is greeted contempt. He is such a publicity liability that national leaders will not meet with him in public and his presence only serves to mobilise the opposition to local drug prohibition policies.

It is no coincidence that PM Howard announced $200 million for "diversion from jail" programs on Thursday. His advisers must have been watching the opinion polls.

Diversion programs sound good but are not much chop in practice. They include the creation of special Drug Courts and these are something that the US Office of Drug Control is advocating. General McCaffrey, who considers his Drug Warlord leadership comparatively liberal, is proud to point out that $US3 billion of his $US18 billion annual budget has been committed to introducing Drug Courts in the US.

Drug courts are based on a prohibition premise that recreational drug taking is a moral sin and that punishment or the threat of punishment is the only possible redemption.

Drug courts salve the conscience of the middle classes and allow them a doorway to get their kids out of trouble for first offences.

The fact is that if you don't learn your moral purity lesson in a Drug Court and get busted again, Drug Courts are a fast track into criminal justice system. They identify the "bad" boys sooner and focus the might of the Drug War apparatus up them.

End the suffering! End the war on drug users!