The safe and natural high has been booted from some festivals: why?
It has been an interesting 18 months for Happy High Herbs. As many fans know, they’ve had a strong and vibrant presence at most of the music festivals around Australia for many years now. However, much to our great disappointment, the larger of these festivals started refusing their market stall applications.
The first of these was Woodford, which was a huge blow, as this is where they started getting the word out and making their presence felt almost ten years ago! Hot on the heels of our Woodford disappointment was the great sadness we felt when the another Australia-wide festival followed suit.
The strangest thing about these refusals is that no reason was given. Many of the store’s loyal customers complained to the festival organisers to no avail. They also had numerous reports that due to their absence, and the absence of the safe, legal, ‘soft’ alternatives to harder drugs that they provide, there were more incidences of drug overdose, alcohol poisoning and related problems than usual.
Feeling fed up with this treatment, one of their trusty marketeers decided she wanted to get to the bottom of the mystery: why would all these festivals, who had supported us for so long, point-blank refuse us with no explanation? After speaking to the organisers of the market spaces at a number of these festivals, she came up with this:
“Basically the organisers of [some major festivals] (and others of the same school of thought) don’t want to be associated with promoting or backing any kind of "high". The reason for this is that if something adverse were to happen, the festival organisers will be accountable to a large extent as they endorsed the "high" in the first place by having a "high" market stall present. So, because of this, there are a number of festivals that will no longer allow any businesses promoting any kind of high into their festival. It becomes a "legal thing" now because it is in their contract.”
But really, Happy High Herbs have been around for a very long time and have always been seen and welcomed as a safe alternative for festival-goers, reducing the amount of harm that is usually inflicted upon them through illegal drug and alcohol abuse. What’s more, it doesn’t really make sense then to have the presence of energy drinks such as Red Bull, V, Monster and Mother at these events as they are also promoting an "energy high" and can be rather dangerous when people start to consume in excess of two, three, four cans, especially when they are mixing these with alcohol.
Apparently, it is the word "High" in the store’s name that is what is now making it a legal matter with us entering most festivals. Even the word "Happy" is implying a sort of high (…go figure). The market and festival coordinators the detective marketeer spoke to assured HHH that they were on "their side" and believe that what they do is an amazing thing.
The advice that they did offer as far as being able to re-enter these festivals is to possibly go through another name change and actively demonstrate that their products do authentically provide a source of harm reduction and are a healthy and safe alternative to illegal drugs (and even alcohol). Ironically, this is what they are already doing!
They’ve completely revised the selection of products offered at festivals where alcohol is also available for purchase. While their strongest party highs are extremely fun, they can cause adverse reactions in people who have been drinking or are dehydrated. In the interest of everybody having a good time, Happy High Herbs have taken these ones off the festival menu, and instead are offering the wonderful Ignites and Super-Gs. Both of these are full of herbal extracts like chocolate and ginseng, which create feelings of bliss and energy, while supporting the body systems. Products like this never have adverse reactions with alcohol or other drugs! This is part of our strategy to demonstrate that we are here to help create a healthier festival environment.
What is most concerning is that this morning, in a service station, there was a school boy in front of me who couldn’t have been more than 13 years old… buying two 500ml cans of the energy drink Mother! As a nation, we’re allowing minors to purchase a LITRE of energy drinks that contain the maximum dose of caffeine (as well as strong amino-acids and neurotransmitters) for an adult in one can! The kid was buying two cans!
Yet we turn an absolute blind eye to this, not even the mildest bit concerned about the implications this has on the health of a minor… Not to mention that there is a huge potential here of setting up this boy’s (and all other minors that drink this hardcore stuff) biochemical feedback system to crave and desire harder and harder substances for more of an energetic boost, potentially leading to harder addictions such as amphetamines as he grows up.
What a crazy world we live in where watching something like this is not only absolutely legal, but not even noticed, and yet providing the public with healthy, and quality herbs that have helped many, many people kick their addictions and have allowed people to have a good time without the anxiety or come down is being frowned upon.
Crazy! What do you think? What’s your stance on drugs use at festivals, and have you ever used herbal alternatives? What did you think? Is it better to drink? Are you concerned about your health in terms of drug and alcohol use? Should Happy High Herbs be at your favourite festival? Leave us a comment and let us know.
