Archive for May, 2009

Budget: Prohibition or Pragma

May 29, 2009

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND - MAY 26:  A general v...Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Law and order is also a priority for this Government. In a number of areas, the need for extra resourcing was becoming urgent.

The Budget provides more than $900 million in operating and capital funding over the next four years for initiatives across the justice sector.

Police will receive $183 million to provide 600 more Police by 2011. Half of them will be in Counties-Manukau, with the others spread across the rest of New Zealand.

The Budget also funds tougher anti-money laundering measures, so that New Zealand will meet its international commitments.

Some funding will address more local problems, notably profits from cannabis and methamphetamine sales.

We need to address many downstream pressures within the Justice and Corrections systems. Community Probation and Psychological services will receive an additional $256 million to manage the increased number of offenders serving community sentences and improve the quality of parole and home detention management.

We also know that our prisons are under pressure.

The Budget provides $3 million in 2008/09 and $385 million over the next four years for increased prison capacity and planning for further potential expansion.

Meanwhile, Netherlands closes 5 prisons… Doh!

/Blair Anderson
http://mildgreens.blogspot.com

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New Scientist: Cannabis Kamatua Needed.

May 20, 2009

Cannabis Kamatua Needed

Wed May 20 23:22:10 BST 2009 by Blair Anderson

Cannabis sativa, scientific drawing.Image via Wikipedia

The endless charade maintaining cannabis prohibition on a global scale is being challenged in New Zealand as it reviews its ‘all drug policy‘ through the statutory empowered Law Commission. New Zealand has already given royal assent and passed into law the regulatory model for legal sale, storage, cultivation and manufacture, labeling, place of sale, age of consent and research oversight (Oct 6th, 2008). The UN consultation phase pre-Vienna avoided any recognition either in local or international media of this world first initiative yet cannabis is used in NZ at a rate higher than Jamaica, with clear evidence of extremely damaging consequences to some individuals, the deviancy amplification principally caused by covert Policing. There is scope for New Zealand to lead the world in reform options if it takes the policy analytic approach. The world needs a new Holland!

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227096.300-comment-get-real-drug-czars.html
– /Blair

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The Big Meth Con – Menace or Moral Panic?

May 16, 2009

w:MethamphetamineImage via Wikipedia

This writer has consistently argued that the prevalence of “P” in NZ is a product of a policy that delivers many unintended consequences one of which is more “P”.

It is almost a given that Carla-Louise Wallace’s seminal thesis on methamphetamine and NZ media “Menace or Moral Panic?” will not feature at tonight’s “Holmes” celebrity roast fundraiser before 300+ rich folk ($325 seat) including the Minister of Social Development, Paula Bennet and Minister of Justice, Simon Power.

AUT Communications graduate Carla-Louise draws on extensive work by Prof Jock Young et al supporting the contention that the policy and its policing is creating the problem (deviancy amplification). http://aut.researchgateway.ac.nz/handle/10292/215

Abstract: [excerpt] This thesis, presented as a collection of articles, journalistic in its tone, is titled “Menace or Moral Panic? Methamphetamine and the New Zealand Press”. Within the collection, evidence and background information is presented that supports a claim that a moral panic fitting Stanley Cohen‘s classic model occurred between 1999 and 2004.This moral panic was also identified using Stuart Hall‘s definition of a moral panic outlined in his mugging study published in 1978 as well as the more contemporary model of Goode and Ben-Yehuda (1994). Jock Young’s theory of The Deviance Amplification Spiral is also addressed and can be applied to this collection when considering the close ‘symbiotic’ relationship that our press here in New Zealand have with our police force. In looking at this particular subject it is vital that we look at how drugs and drug use play a role in the media. Also as part of the back grounding for this collection it was of critical importance to find whether a moral panic happened anywhere else in the world in relation to methamphetamine. Two previous moral panics about methamphetamine are featured in this collection as part of a case study presented in “Ancient Anecdotes meet Modernity: Drugs and the Rise of Methamphetamine” in which between the years of 1989 and 1996 America passed through two moral panics brought on to a considerable extent by a mixture of media hype and political opportunism. (snip)

The last article in this collection investigates, using expert interviews, if there is enough evidence to support the claim that methamphetamine may be a menace to New Zealand society, but that the extent of that menace may be exaggerated by a moral panic brought on by our media and fuelled by our police force. (snip)

The police as amplifiers of deviancy [J Young – Drugs and Politics, 1977 – books.google.com ] examines the reasons for police action against the drugtaker and issues of moral disturbance, disproportionality, displacement and volatility.

A recent paper by MIT’s Urban Studies and Planning, Gary T Marx citing Young on the same subject reads like an instruction manual for how to work out what went wrong in Napier placing as it does responsibility for unintended consequences, contrary to the ruling paradigm, on Policing, not just Policy.

MethamphetamineImage via Wikipedia

This evenings Sky City Stellar Trust Dinner “Roast” is just another such moral panic conveniently funding everything that has failed (Methcon, FADE, LIFE are the prime beneficiaries) and further entrenching everything that is broken. Paul Holme’s false assertion of <5% treatment success for “P” may be way off mark, but ‘the roast and its purpose’ speaks volumes. No good comes from putting labels on anyone. Least of all those on those who need help. (http://www.grownups.co.nz/read/directories/community_services_charities/stellar-trust )

The more dangerous a drug is, the more culpable a government for abrogating control to criminal networks, maximising social harm, misplacing resources and deluding themselves and everyone else. However, as this point is likely to fly over the heads of dead tree media it will be interesting to see what the Celebrity Roast’s Cellars and Bar-take is and how that might inform the real drug debate.

The MildGreens say the intersectoral social capital is in the ‘all drug’ approach as originally

self made, based on information in the article...Image via Wikipedia

mooted in the National Drug Policy consulative phase and accepted in principle in the final drafts. The first step, the homogulation of any and all psychoactive recreational drugs safer than alcohol and tobacco (nicotine) to be placed in the October 6th 2008 regulations for sale, storage, manufacture, labeling, advertising, premises, and age of consent for [“Soft” drugs needing] effective control and emperical research. Cannabis, LSD, MDMA, Ibogaine…all administered by the Ministry of Health.

The rules are already there, so with that legislative progress one could wonder why (Health Minister) Hon Tony Ryall is avoiding a “roasting” seat tonight?

Blair Anderson ‹(•¿•)›
ph (643) 389 4065 cell 027 265 7219

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Drug Harm Index Under Scrutiny

May 15, 2009

Whitehall, London, looking south towards the H...Image via Wikipedia

A focus on harm
Mark Easton, BBC News – UK

(snip)

The index has its critics who argue that it conflates two different types of harm: the harms from using drugs and the harms from a policy of prohibition. The campaigning Transform Drug Policy Foundation puts it this way (A Comparison of the Cost-effectiveness of the Prohibition and Regulation of Drugs 2005 [444 KB PDF]):

“The failure to disaggregate drug use harms from drug policy harms or, specifically, prohibition harms, is a major obstacle to meaningful evaluation of existing policy and consequently, to the rational development of potentially more effective policy responses.”

Nevertheless, the idea that we should focus on reducing “harm” rather than simply “crime” is increasingly embedded in Whitehall thinking – and the implications could be far-reaching.

(snip)

Soca’s definition of “harm” goes beyond illegal drug running and the economic costs of crime – this is a complex measure by which the agency pursues all its activities. Physical, social, environmental, economic and structural harms are considered at every level – from the personal to the international:

SOCA‘s focus is not solely on the criminals and the offences they are committing” the agency explains, adding that their “operational business now focuses more sharply on the question of what will make a tangible and lasting difference for those who are being adversely affected”.

Looking at crime through the harm prism may make us reconsider priorities.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markeaston/2009/05/a_focus_on_harm.html

A warning against cannabis
If there’s a good side to the incident at Hospital Hill, it’s that there are decent people in cynical times.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/columnists/rosemary-mcleod/2410739/A-warning-against-cannabis
UK may need Class D, but nothing will save Rosemary McLoud?
Blair Anderson ‹(•¿•)›

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The Inalienable Right to Get High [SOLO]

May 13, 2009

The Inalienable Right to Get High

Tuesday, 12 May 2009, 9:42 am
Press Release: SOLO – Sense of Life Objectivists
SOLO-International Press Release: The Inalienable Right to Get High
May 11, 2009

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s call for a “great debate” about legalizing cannabis should be the catalyst for a great debate about ending the disastrous War on Drugs altogether, says SOLO Principal Lindsay Perigo.

“The infamous President Nixon instigated this unwinnable war in 1971,” Perigo recalls. “As with the equally misbegotten alcohol prohibition of 1919-1933, the only actual winner has been organized crime. The big loser has been the founding tenet of America: freedom. The right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness implies ownership of one’s own body, which subsumes the right to ingest any substance of one’s choosing, regardless of the moral status of such an action.

“Currently in the United States, 775,000 people have been deprived of their liberty and languish in jail for a cannabis offence. That’s more than the total in jail for all types of violent crime— real crime—combined,” Perigo notes.

“On and below America’s southern border a hideous battle is being played out among drug cartels, each other and American authorities trying in vain to curb the flow of drugs to the cartels’ biggest market. Thousands have died and thousands more will die yet, unless this authoritarian catastrophe is halted. More people are now being murdered in Tijuana by the cartels than by Islamofascist filth in Baghdad. And the police cannot be relied upon to provide protection in a culture whose leitmotif is, ‘Take a bribe, or take a bullet.’

“In an echo of this madness in the Antipodes, a New Zealand policeman has recently been shot dead in what was described as a ‘low-risk cannabis operation.’

“It’s no surprise that even a statist like the onetime pro-freedom Traitornator is coming to his senses at a time when government revenues—California’s most notably—are shrinking with the economy. A 2008 study by Harvard economist Jeffrey A. Miron estimated that legalizing drugs would inject $76.8 billion a year into the U.S. economy—$44.1 billion from law enforcement savings, and at least $32.7 billion in tax revenue ($6.7 billion from marijuana, $22.5 billion from cocaine and heroin, the remainder from other drugs).

“The behaviour of government SWAT teams in waging the War on Drugs has often been indistinguishable from that of organised crime itself, except that the latter has been more efficient in confining itself to the elimination of fellow-scumbags, while SWAT teams have on several occasions burst into the wrong homes and summarily executed entirely innocent people.

“Congress itself, abounding as it does in crooked Democrats and sanctimonious Christian Republicans, all high on a tax-funded power-trip, has been persecuting athletes for taking steroids, when this matter is the business of the relevant private sports disciplines and their voluntary contractees alone.

“The War on Drugs is a disgrace, and subverts the credibility of America’s claim to be the land of the free as seriously as any of President Chavez-Obama’s economic policies,” Perigo concludes.

SOLO (Sense of Life Objectivists: SOLOPassion.com)

ENDS

Poll: America favours pot legalisation

May 12, 2009

A slim majority of Americans favour the legalisation, taxing, and regulation of marijuana, according to a new poll released yesterday.

The poll is the first time more than 50% of Americans have favoured legalisation, said Bruce Mirken, communications director of the Marijuana Policy Project, a thinktank that supports decriminalising the drug.

The survey was conducted by Zogby and the O’Leary Report, a conservative publication.

Of the 3,919 American surveyed, 52% favour legalising the drug, while 37% oppose it. The poll advances slightly from one taken last week by ABC News and the Washington Post, in which 46% favour legalisation compared to 52% who oppose.

“This new survey continues the recent trend of strong and growing support for taxing and regulating marijuana and ending the disastrously failed policy of prohibition,” Rob Kampia, Marijuana Policy Project executive director, said in a statement.

Cops mission; die honorably for hopeless causes.

May 7, 2009

“What are they [Jan] trying to protect? That is what I want to know. A silly marijuana plant? What a thing to protect … [and] take someone’s life.” – Mrs Molenaar despaired that Mr Snee’s life had been lost over a small amount of drugs.

Cop shot Dead, two more Police plus a member of the public in serious
condition, and we pretend drug policy is working! Like the case of Officer Don
Wilkinson, another severe case of deviancy amplification created under Warrant
of the Minister of Health, Tony Ryall! /Blair.

read more digg story

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The Matrix of Dysfunction, the Police/Drug Nexus.

May 7, 2009

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND - APRIL 28:  Tony Ryal...

Free health advice when you need it… Yeah Right!

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Cop shot Dead, two more Police plus a member of the public in serious condition, and we pretend drug policy is working!

It has been reported that the incident started during a police drug operation at the two-storey house. One officer was shot in the back and managed to radio that officers were down, he said. (see http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/2391507/Police-officer-shot-dead-in-Napier

(shall we all pretend this is not a severe case of deviancy amplification, created under warrant of the Minister of Health, Tony Ryall! /Blair)

NZ Police subdued Armed Offenders Squad should...Is this an ideological crime/gang patch we should ban?
Image via Wikipedia

A large part of Napier Hill and surrounding areas have been cordoned off by police, bringing parts of the city to a standstill.

With the Hawke’s Bay AOS stretched, back-up was called for, with Gisborne AOS members and a dog unit flown in by the Lion Foundation rescue helicopter around 10.30am.

It is understood the elite Special Tactics Group is en route from Wellington.

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Re: [cclr-public] Dakta Green arrested

May 3, 2009

Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis PartyImage via Wikipedia

This has to be incredibly stupid thing for the Police to be doing on J-Day, when political parties are nominating candidates for the by-election to replace, now UN Social and Economic Development head, Rt Hon Helen Clark’s seat of Mt Albert. (See MAYDAY Press Release by the ALCP, a crucial, if preemptive strike, Dakta Greens nomination announcement)

… it must have been NDIB’s Mills exacting the new police drug strategy with its focus on protecting society the from billion dollar harms of cannabis. (Police Drug Strategy to 2012: released at the ‘healthy drug law reform’ symposium )

By ‘drug intel’ reasoning the more money they spend on the ALCP candidate, the ‘safer the community’.

Helen Clark“I favour partial prohibition” – Rt. Hon Helen Clark

Clearly the Mt Albert DAKTAVISTS are ahead on both intelligence and strategy.

The ALCP might be getting political advertising money couldn’t buy, but Dakta’s incarceration is still an injustice under existing law.

Where’s Habeas corpus when ya need it!?

On Sun, May 3, 2009 The Cordings <cordings@ihug.co.nz> wrote:

On Friday the Cannabus was in Albert Park for a hotbox, parked just up the street from the Hemp Store in the old 4.20 spot. Hotbox xompleted, smiles all round, when 9 police show up to arrest Dakta Green for “permitting a vehicle to be used for the commission of a crime under the Misuse of Drugs Act.” No one else was searched or otherwise bothered. A tow truck was sent for the bus, but was too small to tow it and a driver was eventually found to take Mary Jane to safety.

Dakta Green was released that evening on bail with conditions including not to enter the CBD except to go to court. But he was committed to being at J Day with the bus. The area comprising the CBD was not specified in the bail conditions.

J Day went off despite the rain, and as 4.20 approached Dakta Green took the stage to announce himself as the ALCP candidate for Helen Clark’s seat. He gave an excellent speech, joints were sparked up for 4.20 and J Day wound down from there.

Nearly everyone had left when the cops struck again. Dakta Green was just about to drive the bus away when he was arrested for breach of bail – from the charge the night before.

He is now locked up at Auckland Central police station in a 2 x 2 metre cell where he has been stuck from the time of his arrest until court tomorrow morning.

Because of breach of bail, he could be remanded in custody, possibly until after the byelection – killing his campaign before it has started. For this reason, I believe it is not coincidence that the police have taken such an interest after largely ignoring the Cannabus tour and 420s.

Democracy in action, folks,,, what do the NORML board and ALCP intend to do about it?

Anyone who can provide court support, 10 am Monday May 4, Auckland District Court, 69 Albert St.

Harry




__,_._,___

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Treatments for Swine and Bird Flu – Cannabis Science Inc.

May 2, 2009

Cannabis sativa from Vienna Dioscurides, 512 A.D.Image via Wikipedia

Cannabis Science Inc. Reports on Prospective Life Saving Treatments for H1N1 Swine Flu and H5N1 Bird Flu

Cannabis Science Inc. [GFON] an emerging pharmaceutical cannabis company, reported today on the current state of development of its whole-cannabis lozenge in response to Homeland Security Administration Secretary Janet Napolitano’s declaration of a public health emergency to deal with the emerging Swine Flu pandemic.

The Company’s non-toxic lozenge has properties that could alleviate many of the symptoms and harmful effects of the H5N1 bird flu and H1N1swine flu viruses, and has offered its assistance to HSA today in a letter to Secretary Napolitano.

An American poster from World War II describin...Image via Wikipedia

The Company has offered to produce up to 1 million doses of its whole-cannabis lozenge, and provide them to HSA for distribution at cost.

Cannabis Science Inc., President & CEO, Steven W. Kubby said, “We have the science and preliminary anecdotal results confirming the anti-inflammatory properties of our new lozenges and indicating they may present an effective and non-toxic treatment for minimizing the symptoms and harm from influenza infections. Our lozenges appear to down-regulate the body’s excessive inflammatory response to the influenza virus, which could reduce the deadly consequences of an infection into something that is more like a common cold. Because of my cancer and diminished auto-immune functions, even common influenza is a deadly threat, and I’ve had incredible symptomatic relief with the lozenge.”

Diagram of influenza nomenclatureImage via Wikipedia

Dr. Robert J. Melamede, Director and Chief Science Officer, stated, “The influenza virus has a unique genetic make up that, in combination with its replicative machinery, has an extraordinarycapacity to mutate. As a result, the high lethality of some strains can be attributed to the resulting adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). ARDS is caused by an excessive immune inflammatory response driven by Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) that leads to the death of respiratory epithelial cells and resulting organ failure. Endocannabinoids are nature’s way of controlling TNF activity. Existing peer reviewed publications have shown that phytocannabinoids can prevent this cell death by mimicking the endocannabinoids that nature has selected to prevent excessive inflammatory immune responses.”

Dr. Melamede, who is also a researcher and past Chairman of the Biology Department at the University of Colorado Springs (UCCS), cautioned, “Smoked marijuana will not effectively prevent theexcessive inflammatory response, despite delivering the beneficial pharmacological agents, due to the irritating, pro-inflammatory nature of smoke. In fact, I believe it will make things worse and should be avoided by infected individuals.”
Mr. Kubby added, “If a swine or bird flu pandemic emerges — and everyone seems to think that it is just a matter of when, not if –, there is simply no time for the usual bureaucratic process. With emergency government approval, we can legally access the huge supplyof medical cannabis available in California to produce millions of life saving doses within a relatively short period of time.”

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND - APRIL 27:  Students ar...Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Dr. Melamede furthermore stated, “Based upon recent discoveries regarding the role that endocannabinoid system plays in maintaining human health, we have a unique solution to the looming threat posed by deadly influenza strains that we believe, if implemented, could save millions of lives. We will strive for an emergency review of our cannabis extract-based lozenge because we believe its availability will prevent many of the deaths associated with the hyper-inflammatory

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND - APRIL 27:  Students ar...Image by Getty Images via Daylife

response associated with known lethal strains of the influenza virus. Current anti-influenza medications have a demonstrated decreased effectiveness against some of these lethal variants. Mankind cannot wait for the emergency situation to materialize. We must be proactive in gaining the necessary governmental approvals to test, and pending the outcome of our studies, produce our lozenge.”

Mr. Richard Cowan, Director and CFO, who recently spoke in Mexico City to a conference sponsored by the Mexican Congress, stated, “I believe the Mexican Congress recognizes that doctors should be

Refleja tu tiempo IIImage by Sarihuella via Flickr

able to prescribe medical cannabis. We are prepared to work with the government of Mexico to produce similar medical cannabis products to help fight the outbreak there. We look forward to working with Government officials, including Homeland Security, to help advance our treatments for these outbreaks in Mexico, Canada, the USA, and around the world.”

For the rest of this press release from Cannabis Science Inc., seehttp://drugsense.org/url/gtHZDFxy