A new country music collaboration is supporting change in accessing medical cannabis.
The Mother Flower Collective – Jen Mize, Shane Nicholson, Kevin Bennett, Lyn Bowtell, Felicity Urquhart, Jeff Gibson, Jeremy Edwards and John Krsulja – cowrote Mother Flower to advocate for better education and access to medical marijuana.
On a freezing July night in 2019, the group of some of Australian country music’s finest sat around a big country fireplace in Nundle, watched the documentary ‘High as Mike” for inspiration, and wrote Mother Flower.
The campaign to legalise medicinal cannabis in Australia began in Tamworth, NSW when Lucy Haslam and her son Dan began to lobby for change. Dan was a young cancer patient and after four gruelling years of conventional treatment and in absolute desperation he tried cannabis.
Cannabis gave him back some quality of life, but buying cannabis from the illicit market was an uncomfortable experience for the family.
Dan died at just 25 years old, in February 2015, and exactly one year later the law was changed and introduced to the Parliament as Dan’s Law.
Lucy continues to lobby for better access and education of health professionals.
Tamworth Dan Raffaele and filmmakers Peter Cross and Craig Wilson highlighted the many failures of the system with the documentary ‘High as Mike’.
Lucy thought an anthem could be a great way to highlight issues and evoke
change, so at the suggestion of the late David Woodward, she approached John Krsulja from The Dag Sheep Station in nearby Nundle who runs the annual July Country Music Songwriters Retreat.
Mother Flower is more than just another country music song… it is the anthem for a movement based on love and the dignity that comes with relief of suffering. I hope Australia gets behind it to help us Fix Dan’s Law. – Lucy Haslam
You can watch the music video here – https://vimeo.com/459675174
You can purchase the single to support the cause here – https://www.dcstories.com.au/
