DEAland claims international jurisdiction over anyone it accuses of growing cannabis anywhere in the world,
http://www.marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=843
What might the White House’s thoughts on NZ’s ‘proposed’ instant fines model be?
(seeing as free trade and nuclear ships are on the election horizon!)
If the NZ GREENS don’t regale and shout – their pot policy aint worth a crock
And that goes for anyone else who thinks that pot reform is ONLY about ‘having a guilt free toke’
/ Blair Anderson
Until this core humanitarian issue is fixed we are, each and everyone of us, just pissing into the wind.
We are victims of what we condemn our neighbors to do to ourselves.
Blair Anderson
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in their 2004 survey has revealed that in 2004, agricultural land acreage in Afghanistan turned over to opium poppy cultivation increased by 64 percent, and the number of persons involved in producing opium increased by 10 percent compared with 2003. These are terrible statistics. They also indicate that drug lords have been more successful than the Afghan government in gaining the support of the Afghan farmers. The same UNODC survey estimates that the value of the narcotics industry in Afghanistan is equivalent 60 percent of Afghanistan’s 2003 GDP.There has been a direct consequence within Afghanistan to this situation. Warlords and drug traffickers are again rapidly increasing their economic, military and political presence in that country. This is natural, given the fact that they are providing money-earning opportunities to farmers and also tertiary employment opportunities through the hiring of armed militias to protect this illicit trade. Drug money is also assisting indirectly and financing the renovation of houses and shops as well as the construction of many new buildings in Afghan cities. This in turn is creating employment opportunities in urban areas.
The second threat to peace and stability has emerged from the continuous fight against ‘insurgents,’ such as the Taliban and the Al-Qaeda activists. Such combat inevitably involves local residents, destruction and humiliation of local communities. This creates hatred for the coalition and the government forces among the local people.
Some commentators are comparing cannabis law reform to lowering the drinking age and/or to the lifting of alcohol prohibition.
There is a serious flaw/misconception in comparing cannabis-alcohol prohibition.
Alcohol was a partial decriminalisation – simple possession or consumption was never a crime. Only stills [clan labs] sales, storage and transport (hence expression trafficking offense) were illegal and then only for some alcoholic beverages . In the USA, imported whiskey was ‘protected’ as it was the drink of the rich anyway.
This evidences considerable ignorance by some who should know better and a significant if not singular reason why the drug by drug approach and ‘instant fines’ falls short of policy analytic standards.
Cannabis “fines” is the 1930’s ALCOHOL prohibition by another name, and just as dangerous and corrupt.
Moreover, contemporary society is [likely] less able to adjust because of the elevated hypocrisy and double standards created by an entrenched blanket prohibition in disrepute. Fine’s is a model predicated on a history of failure, elsewhere labeled “the worst possible scenario”, end of story! No amount of ‘progressive step’ alliteration will convince me otherwise.
The right to consume is a barren right without the right to cultivate, store, process, package and transport.
Else, it’s just a road to hell paved with good intentions.
/Blair Anderson
Marc Emery and BC Marijuana Party face the might of the USA track the story emerging on the blogs….
http://technorati.com/search/Emery (cannabis OR marijuana OR marihuana OR hemp OR THC)
Friday 29 July 2005, 10 � 11am
Soci252, Level 2, Link Block, Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology Building.
Associate Professor Greg Newbold
School of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Canterbury
The emergence of an identifiable ‘drug problem’ in Australia, New Zealand and Britain occurred less than 40 years ago. This paper begins by looking briefly at the effects of various drug control strategies in New Zealand since the late 1960s and concludes that the efforts reported so far have been largely ineffective. Although styles of illegal drug use have changed, the magnitude of use is apparently higher than ever, particularly in relation to more dangerous substances such as opiates and amphetamines. This is part of an international phenomenon: it is difficult to find a single instance of a drug control policy that has produced a sustained reduction in drug use anywhere in the democratic world. Successful policies targeting certain drugs have typically been short-lived or have resulted in increases in alternative forms of use. This paper argues that eradication policies are futile, and that harm reduction is the only realistically attainable objective. In order to succeed, such policies need to differentiate between drugs that are potentially very harmful and those that are not, and focus upon the former. Moreover, the paper argues that the majority of drug users are casual, and only a minority use drugs in a way that produces a significant risk of harm to themselves or to others. It is at these latter groups that harm reduction policies should concentrate their attention.
22/07/2005. ABC News Online
Summary: … But the state’s medical board has told a parliamentary committee that it did not believe Dr Mauro’s cannabis habit affected his ability to practice medicine. …”
Doh!
“‘There are clearly things that parents can do to ensure that they equip their children to cope with the pressure to first experiment and then choose drugs as part of their lifestyle.
‘The first step is to educate themselves, the second is to review their own behaviour and attitude towards drink and drugs in the home and set an example.’
Last week, Ofsted reported that drugs education had improved in most schools in England since 1997.
But inspectors warned they might be focusing too much on illegal drugs rather than smoking and alcohol, which worried pupils more”
Govt policy on biofuels out during campaign
By Dene Mackenzie / ODT
Business&Money section (page 18) June 27 2005
The first major announcement on firmly establishing the biofuel industry in New Zealand is likely to be made during the coming election campaign. Transport Minister Pete Hodgson told the Otago Daily Times he hoped to announce a policy on biofuels in the next month to six weeks. �Work is under way on introducing biofuels. It is a small start but work is being done both here and overseas,� he said in an interview.
The United Nations announced last week an initiative to help developing countries exploit their renewable energy potential, such as fuels derived from agricultural crops. Biofuels such as bioethanol, biodiesel and biogas, which are derived from crops such as sugar beet and sunflowers, are an ecological alternative to conventional fossil fuels which are expected to run out soon. The UN estimates petroleum reserves will not last more than 50 years, although other studies indicate a life of 60 years. Coal reserves could last for another 200 years.
Biofuels help countries meet their Kyoto Protocol reduction targets. They offer an alternative development to burning carbon. Countries can reduce greenhouse gas emissions while pursuing energy targets.
Any announcement on biofuel development would be a welcome sign that something was happening to counter the damaging turnaround on Kyoto which recently saw New Zealand move from a net seller of carbon credits to a buyer from 2012 of about $1.2 billion worth of credits.
The main change from a 36-million-tonne credit to a 32-million-tonne deficit came from the re-rating of scrub land which had been clear-felled. Some agricultural science was also discounted. Mr Hodgson said he would not criticise the officials who prepared the report but felt he was entitled to a peer review of the latest figures because of the significant shift in the findings.
He was encouraged by the large number of ideas flowing into his office since the latest Kyoto announcement.
�When something is hard, some prefer to ignore it or deny that climate change is coming. Others are now saying this is something that is probably the biggest challenge we face as civilisation.�
The answer to meeting New Zealand�s Kyoto targets lay in research and development and the use of technology, Mr Hodgson said.
Meridian Energy was the largest producer of windgenerated energy in the Southern Hemisphere and had been able to do that because of the carbon credits it received. �There will be more opportunities around that.�
Mr Hodgson took another swipe at National Party leader Don Brash for statements which indicated National would find a way to get New Zealand out of Kyoto if it won the election this year. �He is wondering whether climate change exists or if it is a fantasy. That is a pitiful response from someone with access to the information he has,� Mr Hodgson said.
Kyoto Forestry Associations spokesman Roger Dickie said public support for the protocol would crumble unless it was implemented without putting funding for schools and hospitals at risk. New Zealanders strongly supported the protocol and were concerned about climate change. �But the Government has implemented the protocol incompetently. It will now end up writing large cheques to industry in Chernobyl, Gdansk and Lake Baikai [all Russia] instead of investing in energy conservation, social services, tax relief and economic development at home.�
Mr Dickie told a Parliamentary select committee that public support could be maintained if the Government implemented a free-market strategy requiring polluting industries to buy carbon credits from those that earned them by planting trees, reducing their own carbon emissions or investing in projects in the developing world to reduce emissions.
�The unpopular and unnecessary carbon tax could be dropped. Tree plantings, which have plummeted to nearly zero in 2005, would return to 1990s levels of more than 50,000ha a year.� That approach would create no risk to the taxpayer and it would create economic incentives in favour of the environment and against pollution, Mr Dickie said. (picture of Pete Hodgson)
“The US and New Zealand UN based regulatory model of criminal sanction is administered by the Ministry’s of Justice. They cannot ignore being held accountable of impaired reasoning while driving a flawed policy. If true, reason suggests there is culpability in ‘business as usual’ models where self interest is served.
A political anomaly, a ministry failing or corrupt due process the opting to simply do nothing is to fail in duty of care!
However for those of you who are American, NZ’s drug laws are exacted under writ of the Minister of Health. And that makes is just plain malfeasance!
MANAGING EDITOR
Otago Daily Times.
Dunedin.
Saturday 23rd July.
Dear Sir,
You and your paper Sir, are a traitors to the truth.
Is your latest editorial on drug policy published in the nieve expectation that no one is going to challenge your deceptive claim.?
See your OWN PAPERS editorial pre-2002 election and tell me what changed? (attached)
Please tell me which part of the ‘terms of reference’ you didn’t understand.
Committee Chair, MP. Judy Keal made a point of reading these terms out at the commencement of every hearing “Inquiries into the public health strategies related to cannabis use and the MOST APPROPRIATE LEGAL
STATUS” (my emphasis).
If you have a problem with the strength of my language.. please NOTE I have published this on my blog below. It is in the public domain. I did say and publish:
“The Editor of the Otago Daily Times did, on the 22nd of July 2005 lie on the public record.”
The web address (attached) may assist remind you of the facts being considered. I am sure you will have no problem with the integrity of the source. http://www.mapinc.org/newscc/v02/n1362/a07.html?397
With that Sir, I request retraction and apology.
Blair Anderson
50 Wainoni Road, WAINONI
Christchurch, NZ 8006
phone ++64 3 389-4065 cell 027 2657219
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