The ninth edition of our Shit happens

After two partial revisions, the BetmG would be fixed for a long time: a professionally printed brochure could therefore make sense. There was an urgent need for a new edition. But was our association, after years on the back burner, still capable of such an effort?

The project had been in the pipeline for some time: once again an edition of our Shit happens as a “proper” legal aid brochure, printed in the print shop, stapled and in a large print run. Because we had published the updated editions 7 and 8 in our own print. Laws were constantly changing during this time, and a large print run would quickly have become obsolete. But then it became apparent that the legal situation would be fixed for a long time in 2013 after the administrative fine bill came into force.

So the approximate deadline was clear, we had been able to build up a few reserves over the last few years, but how were we going to raise the costs of the offset printing, an estimated 3-5,000 francs? Let alone how we were to pay for the necessary man hours of the project…

In 2012 I organized my departure from my main job of the last years and made sure that I could work at least half a year at the LI as a secretary at 60%. For this I had to find 20,000 francs…. After this was achieved, I started again in April 2013 with 60% and the brochure project. At first I had to tidy up the office and make room for the new project.

Originally I wanted to simply update the old texts. But when I read through the last brochure again and marked the passages that needed to be changed, I soon realised that it wouldn't work. Too much had changed, and ultimately the old layout had been based on the structure with “Hemp herb for narcotic production”. We had made the changes in each case, but always as changes to the previous. But now it was about a new situation fixed for a longer time. Therefore I decided to design a new layout and with it a completely new logic: Now the brochure should deal with the THC content and the stages of illegality. I had always emphasized the latter, because it is a crucial difference between a violation and an offence. And the THC content was now since 2011 definitely the decisive variable for whether some thing is a narcotic or not. I needed May to think this through and see the new structure in front of me.

It was unclear for some time whether we would be able to raise the printing costs. So I organized the layout and the project in such a way that I could have printed a small edition in the office. But the goal was clear: we wanted a “real” brochure! So we started a crowdfunding project for the first time. So we had to create a video about the project, put the project data on the site, get criticized, start a second attempt, get accepted and deposit the first 25 francs. And that stayed like that for a few days… So we had to send mails, motivate people and really: In several spurts 4'050 francs were collected after 90 days (4'000 francs were the entered target - if this had not been reached, people would have received their money back and the project would have died). As so often in all the 20 years: It is always just barely enough…

In June and July it was now: write, layout, fill, elaborate. Now it would be decided whether the theoretical framework would also work in practice. Here it needed a lot of hard work, texts in the boxes beautiful, texts more succinctly summarize, eliminate errors…. And it worked, even if in two phases I no longer believed that I would get it right. Because thinking up 32 pages from scratch and then getting them into shape is a big Büez. Well, it was also exciting. It's my favourite project, what can I do?…

Then Fabian came into play in August and challenged me again and again with his corrections, which he persistently kept at. This push did the booklet a lot of good, even if I sometimes almost despaired. Fabian was simply right in many points… A hard month, but it was worth it.

At the beginning of September I had to bring the data up to scratch, because not all data can be printed. In order to prepare the goods for printing, I then went once again to the print shop where we had previously printed our Legalize it! magazines and Shit happens brochures. A lot had happened there, expansions and investments had been made and that in a really not easy market.

Finally, in mid-September, 5,000 copies actually arrived at our office and shipping to members could begin. The boosters also wanted to be served, as they were entitled to a stack for their crowdfunding donation. Former major donors could also order a pack if needed (see box above left).

And then: That's it, we thought. Nice thing, we managed it. Without much expectation we sent a copy to all 51 journalists who are immortalized in our blue folders with articles. After no reaction from them, I prepared myself for some holidays….

But then it happened: 20 minutes brought us 2.5 hours as a header on the online front at the beginning of October, which brought a really amazing boost in enquiries. Now it was time to get to work! Collecting addresses, filling envelopes and parcels and sending them. Then followed a week of silence, which was ended by a big article in the Tages-Anzeiger: “Sven is the hope”, that was the title of the rather special article. Now the second flood of inquiries broke loose. Our forms, our website and our office were able to cope with the onslaught and we were able to welcome many new members. We could always… By the beginning of November, half of the print run had been distributed. And we were very, very satisfied. After that the whole thing calmed down.

After the summary of the legal situation, it is now a matter of seeing and documenting as many concrete cases as possible from the new era. Also how many people come into which category, there are open questions, which we want to trace the next two years. That's why we are happy to receive any information. These extensions and clarifications should now be made available on our hanflegal.ch and further sharpen the picture of the repression against cannabis in Switzerland.

With the 9th edition of the legal aid brochure, we presented the legal basis. Now the new provisions have been in force since 1 October 2013. Now we would like to see as many cases as possible that have been dealt with by the police since then. Please send us documents (administrative fines, penalty orders, court decisions or even your experiences as text). We are very interested in as many concrete cases as possible. It is this everyday repression that we want to specifically investigate again in the next few years. This information is a basis for our legal consultations.