Shun the alcohol craving – Use cannabis!

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• She added: “This brings up two important points. First, self-determination, the right of an individual to decide which treatment or substance is most effective and least harmful for them.
• “Secondly, the recognition that substitution might be a viable alternative to abstinence for those who can’t or won’t completely stop using psychoactive substances”. – Amanda Reiman, UoC, Berkley, USA 

The study was published in BioMed Central‘ open access Harm Reduction – see Shun the alcohol craving – Use cannabis!

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Druggies Have Rights Too!

International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy launched

Human Rights Day 10.12.09

The MildGreens Initiative congratulates Professor Neil Boister of Canterbury University School of Law for his important role and contribution to [the launch of]  the International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy.

‘Individuals who use drugs do not forfeit their human rights…Too often, drug users suffer discrimination, are forced to accept treatment, marginalized and often harmed by approaches which over-emphasize criminalization and punishment while under-emphasizingharm reduction and respect for human rights.’  /  Navanethem Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, March 2009

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Today, Human Rights Day (10 December 2009), is the occasion for the launch of the International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy.

The Centre is dedicated to developing and promoting innovative and high quality legal and human rights scholarship on issues related to drug laws, policy and enforcement.

It pursues this mandate by publishing original, peer reviewed research on drug issues as they relate to international human rights law, international humanitarian law, international criminal law and public international law, and fostering research on drug policy issues among postgraduate law and human rights students at universities and colleges around the world.

The Centre’s work is supported by a prestigious International Advisory Committee as well as two Institutional Partners. At present, the Centre has established two ongoing projects:

The International Yearbook on Human Rights and Drug Policy is the first and only international peer reviewed law journal focusing exclusively on human rights and drug policy. We are now accepting submissions to the first edition of the Yearbook to be published in late 2010.

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The Human Rights and Drug Policy Project is a joint initiative with the Irish Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, National University of Ireland, Galway. This Project will establish a Doctoral Studentship in Human Rights and Drug Policy, as well as a programme of activities designed to promote research on drug policy issues among other university human rights programmes. Applications for the Doctoral Studentship are being accepted until 18 December.

For more information, please visit http://www.humanrightsanddrugs.org or email info@humanrightsanddrugs.org

Project Directors: Rick Lines, Damon Barrett

International Advisory Committee: Dr Massimo Barra (founder, Villa Maraini Foundation, IT); Dr David Bewley-Taylor (Swansea University, UK); Prof Neil Boister (University of Canter(University of Essex, UK); Dr Ursula Kilkelly (University College Cork, IRE), Prof Manfred Nowak (UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment); Rebecca Schleifer (Human Rights Watch); Prof William A Schabas (Irish Centre for Human Rights); Baroness Vivien Stern (International Centre for Prison Studies, UK); Prof Gerry Stimson (International Harm Reduction Association)

Institutional Partners: International Harm Reduction Association; Irish Centre for Human Rights

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Nutt’s MildGreen UK Policy?

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“But banning individual substances long after they have appeared doesn’t seem like a reasonable long-term response to legal highs, which are easily and quickly manufactured and distributed on the internet. [Professor] Nutt believes we should follow the model adopted in New Zealand, whereby new drugs are immediately put into a new ‘class D’ category, where it is not illegal to sell or possess but its effects are monitored. ‘The manufacturers and suppliers can define the dosage, do quality control, make sure it is not contaminated. You can also monitor sales and use this data to see how much is out there – from that you can work out the use/harm ratio.’ Nutt proposed this to the government as a way of dealing with legal highs in the first instance. ‘They turned it down. They said they didn’t want to take that route at the moment; they wanted to legislate for specific compounds.'” Click here to find out more!:

(for new Class D category see http://www.legislation.govt.nz/ & search for “restricted subtances regulations”)
Blair Anderson
http://mildgreens.blogspot.com/

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Question for Oral Answer: Cannabis – Legal Status | Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand

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Question for Oral Answer: Cannabis – Legal Status Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand:

“Judy Turner: Has the Minister seen research from the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research and the Australian National Drug Research Institute that shows that prohibition of cannabis does limit the amount consumed by heavy users, and does he agree that that justifies retaining its current legal status in New Zealand?

Hon Jim Anderton: Yes, I have seen that evidence and much other evidence that lead me to believe that the present prohibition on cannabis in this country is the correct prohibition for us to have.

Steve Chadwick: Has the Minister seen studies or reports that link cannabis use with psychotic symptoms or mental health disorders?

Hon Jim Anderton: Yes. I think that was the report referred to in the original question. As I say, I think it would be instructive for members of Parliament to read that report. Other empirical work is also being done in New Zealand, however. Late last year the National Drug Policy’s discretionary fund allocated funding to a number of projects. Three projects deal with research into the health effects of cannabis. These studies aim to gather information on the effects of cannabis on users’ lungs, how it compares with use of tobacco, and the impact on New Zealand households of expenditure on cannabis.

Judy Turner: Does the Minister accept that his proposed drug classification system, which will establish a new class, class D, will open the door wide for any future Labour-Green Government to decriminalise cannabis without the need for legislation; if not, why not?

Hon Jim Anderton: No, I do not. The classification I am seeking is for legal substances. Cannabis is an illegal substance.

Well done Jim.
A clear understanding of not much at all… except that Class D might be very useful for legalising presently illegal substances. Its your law Jim. You made it. And I couldnt have written it simpler myself.

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

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Dakta and the Daktory – Stuff

He calls himself Dakta Green.

(see Dakta in the House, Western Leader, Auckland)

The 59-year-old has been jailed in California and New Zealand for cultivating cannabis but has no plans to change his ways. Dakta is a strong activist for law reform surrounding the drug and has been pushing for its legalisation since 1999.

He’s even set up a cannabis club in a New Lynn warehouse known as the Daktory. Dakta says marijuana use is widespread and causes less harm in the community than alcohol.”

(… the MildGreens are founding member/contributors to the Daktory, and supporters of the Daktavist Vision.)

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NZ Award for ‘P’ing into Wind?

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Holme’s Anti-P campaign is unworthy of recognition by anyone but the deluded.

Which part of what has been done has been effective, efficacious or efficient? Remind me please… everything that has been ‘anti-P’ seems only to on evidence produced more of the problem than existed before.

• (see NZ Herald Kiwi of the Year Award – Awarded to Holmood post the Jan  Molenaar /Napier Armed Siege, again an unintended consequence and ‘function’ of poor drug policy

This is entirely predictable. “P” prevalence is a function of poor drug policy not the pharmacology of the drug.

If such policy as we have now is to be lauded, it cannot be lauded for its success. Mr Holmes waxes lyrical about his own family circumstances but then endorses the very system that has both failed him and others, but worse, has contributed to the very mess he sets out to clean up.

That ranks alongside stupidity and to nominate any ‘award of merit’ would be to bring the award itself into disrepute.

Blair Anderson
http://mildgreens.blogspot.com

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