Hi, mildgreens.mayorblair@blogger.com!
I thought you might find this Detroit News feature interesting. Check it out.
URL: http://www.detnews.com/2004/health/0410/22/a09-312402.htm
Regards,
Blair
(Brought to you by The staff at Detroit News Online)
Archive for October, 2004
Greetings from blair@mildgreens.com
October 22, 2004Barbarism In New Zealand: Lies Have Consequences.
October 22, 2004Barbarism In New Zealand: Lies Have Consequences.
[Excerpt] Now comes another story from New Zealand that demonstrates that the lies and hatred spread by decades of prohibitionist propaganda can drag any society down into depths of mindless cruelty.
Once again, I am indebted to Blair Anderson of the New Zealand Mild Greens for bringing this to my attention. There are some great activist down there. I was pleased to post an excellent essay by Blair and Kevin O�Connell in 2000.
See New Zealanders� <a href="
http://marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=287″>Analysis of the Consequences of the Violence of Marijuana Prohibition. Bravo!
The victim in this case is, Neville Yates, a one-legged medical cannabis user, who suffered brain damage when he was hit by a truck when he was 14, and has been in a wheelchair ever since. In fact, there are many parallels with the case of the DC quadriplegic. We can only hope that this story does not end the same way, but the signs are not hopeful. Despite clear police perjury, the judge instructed the jury to find him guilty and they complied.
TX to Richard Cowan
an ESR marketing strategy "taking the piss"
October 21, 2004(650 tests per week @ 100ml x 52 = 3,800 ltr or about 3 tonne of piss )
Absent the analysis ‘if any of this is worth the effort’?. This is more a marketing exercise than a rational informed considered business practice response.
Workers caught in drug net
FRIDAY , 22 OCTOBER 2004
DOMPOST By SOPHIE NEVILLE
Workplace drug tests are showing growing use of amphetamines by workers.
While cannabis is still by far the most common drug found, amphetamines – including ecstasy, speed and P – are becoming more prevalent, with their incidence rising rapidly in the past year.
(**** no analysis of which drug is which or even dangerous; given NZ is #1 in cannabis consumption in OECD, hardly surprising that this is a cludged up aint we doing well report to ESR shareholders)
Testing of staff for drug use is rapidly increasing.
Last year the Institute of Environmental Science and Research did 19,000 tests. Five years ago, only 6000 tests were done in a year.
ESR programme manager Shelli Turner said drug testing had become popular with employers who wanted to ensure safer workplaces. ESR does most of the drug testing in New Zealand, with about 650 tests a week.
Results from the past year found 9 per cent of pre-employment tests and 8 per cent of post-accident tests were positive.
Cannabis was the most common drug identified, but amphetamines were increasingly showing up. In the first three months, amphetamines had been identified in 8 per cent of positive tests.
Two years ago only 4 per cent of positive tests were for amphetamines.
“We’re seeing a real trend towards an increase in amphetamines,” Ms Turner said.
ESR is contracted by 400 companies for testing at 700 workplaces. During the past year revenue from workplace drug testing has nearly doubled.
ESR would not say how much money was made from the testing, but its annual report showed a significant increase in total revenue.
The most common industries drug testing their staff were forestry, fishing, dairy, transport, power and roading, mining, and the poultry and meat industries. Personnel and legal firms were also on ESR’s books.
Ms Turner said most of the companies did pre-employment tests on prospective staff, as well as random and post-accident tests if necessary. Companies had different policies on what happened to staff who tested positive.
Labour Department principal adviser Bob Hill said drug testing at a workplace should be part of a wider occupational health and safety package, which would reduce accidents. OSH did not recommend random testing except in industries with a high number of serious injuries or fatalities.
Civil Liberties chairman Michael Bott said the trend toward drug testing employees was worrying.
“It’s an invasion of a person’s right to privacy.”
Testing was understandable in some industries, such as aviation and construction, but Mr Bott was concerned it would spread to industries where knowing a person’s drug history was irrelevant.
—
sig. Blair Anderson
Scoop: Time to rid NZ of "National evil"
October 21, 2004http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO9908/S00047.htm
This link is from 1999. It refers to Neville Yates’s prior conviction. He had already jumped through all the hoops, was represented by a lawyer, pleaded guilty and was sent down for 18months.
Same offense as this time, except this time they set a dog (informer) on him. For 18months this ‘paid’ persona couldn’t muster any better than ‘it was a hydroponics grow’ – which clearly on evidence it wasn’t. The prosecuting policeman had barely put his head inside the bedroom and was unable to make any observation of the grow as it was found.
HIS STATURE BEFORE THE COURT WAS THAT HE KNEW WHAT HE WAS TALKING ABOUT, BUT HE WAS THE DUDE WHO LIED BEFORE JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.
He did have to walk past an entire collection of NORML calendars and posters and photographs of a law reform supporter or activists nature. This included a clear and legible “leaf” image placed on the front door. He would have seen, and couldn’t ignore Neville’s bona fides as a member and medical officer of the Christchurch Branch of the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party and duly accredited political party under the electoral act.
His medical support and network of friends includes several past deputy leaders of this party, the current deputy, the secretary and the president.
(the president is waiting the results of the 9th October local body elections for his nomination under the ALCP banner to the district health board)
SO WHO WERE THE POLICE ATTACKING?
OH YES… the Police ‘invoices’ the government for each half hour spent doing this.
The government paid even if indirectly,. the informers silver.
Neville is featured here publicly smoking his medicine in Cathedral Square on MayDay Jay Day.
He is also in photo’s from the same and similar public events 1997-8-9-00=01-02-03-04
He has been interviewed by myself on Community Radio (blairs brain on cannabis)., been on Community Television and has an internet profile.
This is “some reliable” informer, aiming the Police at some pretty easy pickings.
There is a social more that dislikes hunters who shoot sitting ducks.
Who wouldn’t plead not guilty!
The pretense that the police acted anything other than mendaciously is made worse by the fact that this so called “reliable informer” was paid by the POLICE and then POLICE right through depositions and repeated through pretrial conference after conference each time deferring the trial date until one police witness was away overseas – they maintained the utter pretense it was hydroponics sophististiced and mature.
Four furcken pots. In dirt. Two’retired’ street lights. The power lead to the cupboard in his bedroom snaked across the floor. It wasn’t even lined. 5 of the 9 plants were only a few cm’s high. They didn’t even have roots. They were never produced.
But it had a timer! A digital lcd timer. And a muffin fan! Doubtless is warmed his bedroom.
God knows just how clandestine a ‘spare bulb’ that wouldn’t fit a conventional fitting is.
That is how it was portrayed by our honourable Policeman.
No appreciation that he grew inside for all the right reasons, to negate the awful consequence of having your medicine stolen by the Police as had been his experience.
I’m still furckin angry.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO9908/S00047.htm
Blair Anderson
It’s mode of use – stupid!
October 20, 2004It’s mode of use – stupid!
“smoked marihuana more effective than oral synthetic THC and roughly as safe.”
extract – http://www.taima.org/en/grinspoon.htm
Since 1985, oncologists in the U.S. have been legally permitted to administer synthetic THC (the active ingredient in marihuana) orally in capsule form. The trade name is “Marinol”. However, it is apparent that inhaled cannabis maybe preferable for a number of reasons. Oral THC is absorbed erratically and slowly into the bloodstream. Furthermore, a patient who is severely nauseated and constantly vomiting may find it almost impossible to keep the capsule digested until it activates. In addition, the effectiveness of THC is dependent on how much is absorbed into the blood stream; investigators have shown that smoked THC is absorbed more effectively. Most patients also prefer smoking marihuana to taking THC orally, as the latter makes them anxious and uncomfortable. One reason that the oral ingestion of THC makes patients anxious and uncomfortable is the difficulty of titrating the dose of oral THC to control the amount that reaches the blood and brain. In 1990, a survey of over 2,000 members of the American Society of Clinical Oncology found that only 43% were satisfied that the available legal anti-emetic drugs (including oral THC) provided adequate relief to all or most of their patients. On average, they considered smoked marihuana more effective than oral synthetic THC and roughly as safe.
SWORN BEFORE ME
at the City of Boston
in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, USA
this 26th day
of March, 1997
DR. LESTER GRINSPOON
Blai Anderson
50 Wainoni Road, WAINONI
Christchurch, NZ 8006
phone ++64 3 389-4065 cell 025 2657219
Mild Green Initiatives for your liberty, pleasure, health and safety.
homepage http://mildgreens.com
blogon http://mildgreens.blogspot.com
_______________________________________________
Scoop: A Case of Prohibition ‘at its very worst.’
October 19, 2004The Case of Neville Yates.
19 October 2004
Today the Jury deliberated and found him guilty.
Judge Holderness who remanded Neville on bail was at pains to point out that his previous convictions, including jail for cannabis cultivation, all medicinal use, indicated a probable further jail term. Sentencing NOV 2.
Neville’s in person, in court, and sworn medical evidence from his Doctors (x3) was considered irrelevant.
ALCP President and drug policy researcher Kevin O’Connell, who’s evidence was accepted reluctantly by Holderness and heard by the jury, pointed out that there were about 80,000 NZ’ers growing there own stash.
Like sending Neville to jail was going to stop them…
The rest of the Press Release is at Scoop: A Case of Prohibition ‘at its very worst.’
More on this story is at http://mildgreens.com/press
and also visit http://www.marijuananews.com tomorrow (20th Oct) for Richard Cowan’s analysis.
/Blair
myths and fears exposed
October 16, 2004As i predicted…after seeing the 1960’s inspired ‘the day after’, a
movie about how to survive armageddon (“hold a wet tea towel up to
protect against the nuclear heatwave” mentality) I have been suspicious
the confluence of power was not to be found in the mechanics of E=MC2,
but in the fear and duress of the atomic maybe! In order for the worst
case scenario to be credible, one had to accept the delusion it was
survivable. Irrational fears depend on the worst happening to everyone
else.
“The Day After” “Black Rain” and its brethren films of the era are
possibly the greatest propaganda films of post W.W.II
After Hiroshima, [Fear of] Terror has been a staple to US Presidents.
The mind fuck as a weapon of mass delusion is more powerful than a
nuclear arsenal, witness a envelope dusted with corn flour made more
potent than the plague.
Bush et al. may as well give the statue of liberty back to France as
they aren’t using it.
After the War on Drugs – Options for Control = Transform report
October 14, 2004‘After the War on Drugs – Options for Control’ is a major new report examining the key themes in the drug policy reform debate, detailing how legal regulation of drug markets will operate, and providing a roadmap and time line for reform. Launched October 12th 2004.
There is nothing moral in pursuing a policy that has
created so much crime, violence and conflict, that
criminalises and marginalises the most needy and
vulnerable members of our society.
http://www.tdpf.org.uk/Policy_General_AftertheWaronDrugsReport.htm
sig. Blair Anderson
Meth sales doubled drugs trade in decade
October 14, 2004The huge rise in amphetamine dealing has led to New Zealand’s illegal drugs trade doubling in less than a decade, researchers say.
The market for amphetamine, methamphetamine, MDMA and Ecstasy was now worth $168 million a year – about the same as cannabis.
The trade in amphetamine type stimulants (ATS) had effectively doubled the dollar value of the New Zealand drugs trade in less than 10 years, concluded the study by Massey University’s centre for social and health outcomes research evaluation (Shore).
Authorities were seizing about 10 per cent of ATS stocks, researcher Chris Wilkins said in the university journal, Massey News this week.
The study also found about 100,000, or one in 10, New Zealanders aged 18 to 29 had used an ATS in the past year and a third of that group were regular users.
The group had a more “middle-class profile” than other drug users, with many in well-paid jobs and high levels of education.
People who had been arrested were more likely to use ATS drugs than the general population.
One third of ATS users had sold methamphetamine and a fifth had made it or exchanged it for stolen property.
The proceeds from the trade found their way to a small number of criminal gangs, who had introduced methamphetamine manufacture to the country.
The study, undertaken for the police, drew from several sources and surveyed ATS users in Auckland.
New Zealand Cannabis Health/Law inquiry reports.. (summary)
October 13, 2004Grasscity.com Forums – New Zealand Cannabis Health/Law inquiry reports.. (summary): “BRIEFING NOTES TO THE REPORT OF THE NEW ZEALAND PARLIAMENTARY HEALTH SELECT COMMITTEE INQUIRY INTO CANNABIS “
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