Police Racist Ageist and Naive

photo: Blair Anderson of the MildGreens Initiative with
Sandeep Chawla, Director, Policy Analysis and Public Affairs, UNODC

The media hullabaloo around legalisers and drug policy in the lead up to the Te Papa “Healthy

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Drug Law” [mischaracterised as a] symposium was nonconstructive with National and Labour naively entrenching their positions and then Police issuing one of the most blatantly racist and ageist reports since they covered up ‘Harvey Thomas’! (NZ Police: Illicit Drug Strategy to 2010).

Why any government agency or NGO paid $850/pp to hear that unmitigated fraud (stating cannabis is bigger problem than Methamphatamine and is both a gateway drug and criminogenic) beggars me.

Image via Wikipedia

While the two big players at the select committee tables (and Peter Dunne with less than 1% of the party vote) remain seemingly ignorant of the implications of the unintended consequences of a criminal policy that ‘creates crime where there would be none’ – we are destined to continue the inefficiency that is so socially debilitating that it an impediment to anti-recession initiatives while making society sick, unsafe and dysfunctional…. and prisons swell at the seams.

Consider this private email to the writer from a USA State Senator; “With disbelief I read your Class D regulations for “restricted substances.” “It’s such a useful model – I still can’t believe you’ve actually set up this rational structure. Let’s see what happens when you try to get cannabis classified…” sig: Senator Roger Goodman, WA.

Yet Class D as a ‘partial prohibition’ was barely mentioned in Wellington, not by Police, not by Health sector, not by visitors, not by the NGO’s nor by the UN Office of Drugs and Crime[UNODC]… and certainly not in the context of a post prohibition paradigm.

Image via Wikipedia

We shouldn’t be surprised, the only Kiwi with a “Class D” brief at Te Papa was warned off at the door by the National Drug Intelligence Bureau Chief… under duress of arrest.

The New Zealand Drug Foundation should be embarrassed.

The exclusion from the debate was in direct breach of Ottawa Charter principles and ‘good faith’ with its own participation in and organisation of the Beyond2008 UN NGO consultations that highlighted the important role of ‘drug consumer’ representation and that drug policy is a human rights/health matter above all else.

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

related links

Image by Sigs66 via Flickr

Law & health must co-operate to reduce drug harm Scoop.co.nz (press release), New Zealand – 18 Feb 2009 A visiting British drug expert told the Healthy Drug Law Symposium in Wellington today that health and law enforcement professionals would best protect …
Treatment smartest option for drug offenders Scoop.co.nz (press release), New Zealand – 18 Feb 2009 The New Zealand government could save millions of dollars by diverting New Zealanders with drug problems out of the court system and into the health system, …
Harsh cannabis laws defy good sense – Expert Scoop.co.nz (press release), New Zealand – 18 Feb 2009 Drug legislation and policy tend to focus too much on enforcement and tough-talk and too little on evidence about what really works, a visiting expert told …

No relaxation on cannabis laws in New Zealand: Dunne 3 News NZ, New Zealand – 17 Feb 2009 The Government will look at an open-minded and balanced approach to reducing drug use but there will be no relaxation of the laws around cannabis, …

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What alternative to the War on Drugs? Scoop.co.nz (press release), New Zealand – 17 Feb 2009 Drug control in the form of prohibition or a ‘War on Drugs’ has been a spectacular failure, a visiting American expert told a symposium in Wellington today. …
Police release illicit drugs strategy New Zealand Police, New Zealand – 17 Feb 2009 Tackling the harm caused by drug use is the key element of the Police Illicit Drug Strategy released today. The strategy, released by Deputy Commissioner …

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Clean-Out Police HQ [Cactus Kate]

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Blair Anderson said…

>We need a clean-out in Police HQ starting at the top and going a long way down.

I would start with the twats that were behind the BERL drug harm index. They are self interested and thus dangerous. They are resource guarding. I would follow with a sideways ‘amputation’ of the arm they call national drug ‘intelligence’. Why? Well, hell, what on their watch has been measurably accomplished, other than a palpable belief in a bottomless pit of money while clamouring for more resources, and a selfless disregard for reality endangering not only themselves but the public at large.

So far the best we get is an attempt to redeem themselves with advertising real-estate. (so much for getting better work stories, like humping swathes of pot back to the helicopters).

Thank Gawd, the new Class D regulations legalising recreational psychoactive soft drugs is administered by the Ministry of Health. (Nov6th 2008)

That will do more to restore confidence in Police (and Health) than any MadMan can achieve.

see link at Cactus Kate, 10:24 PM, January 23, 2009

(it remains enigmatic that NZ Police, who on one hand advertise “community policing” but are poker faced when it comes to listening to authoritative opinion and scientific evidence from ‘the community’. Case in point, National Drug Intelligence refusing point blank to as much as meet visiting Law Enforcment Against Prohibition [www.leap.cc] speaker Judge Jerry Paradis. No time for as much as a coffee, a drug in and of itself ranked more dangerous (harmful/addictive) than cannabis. To busy writing inane ‘police reports’ or surfing the net looking for the latest drug threat to postulate ‘will be invading’ the country, or fraternising with inumerable other grifters like customs and border control who mysterioulsy appear ‘in numbers’ around the “Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs” [EACD] table when ever a ‘health issue’ needs voting on. /Blair )

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NZ Police Intel ‘New Cannabis’

The 102 page report is on the Police website at

http://www.police.govt.nz/resources/2008/Cannabis_Strategic_Assessment_Final3_2007_mirror.pdf

It is written in the traditional Image via Wikipediaprohibitionist style, is poorly referenced, makes numerous sweeping declarations (one sample 4.2.4 below), and is effectively a call to arms against cannabis, and by implication, the cannabis law reform movement.

It makes use of SHORE’s data, cherry picks a little from others, but treats statements by the INCB, Kofi Annan, Mario Costa as data.

Some sections, including some recommendations , are withheld , under the OIA act. (heads up thanks to BrandonH)

4.2.4 Cannabis Hospital Admissions by Gender and Age

The abuse of cannabis by young New Zealanders is a key focus of this assessment primarily because of the widely held perception that cannabis is a harmless drug. Many young people know national policies on cannabis vary from country to country that includes partial legalisation in some countries which portrays confusing and conflicting messages about the perceived harms posed by cannabis. Such messages ultimately undermine the credibility of the international drug control system and the findings of inquiries such as the 2003 Health Select Committee Inquiry Report on Cannabis

A keen observer of the human condition would clearly identify the acute irony in this Police interpretation of the 2003 Health Select Committee report.

extract:

“Based on the evidence we have heard in the course of this inquiry,” the committee concluded, “the negative mental health impact of cannabis appears to have been overstated, particularly in relation to occasional adult users of the drug.” “Evidence received in the course of this inquiry has raised serious doubts about commonly held beliefs about cannabis,” wrote the committee. “Evidence received during the inquiry supports the view that there can be subtle cognitive impairment in cannabis users,” the report says. In this respect, the committee drew to a large extent on the work of Prof. Wayne Hall of the Australian National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, who was commissioned to report on scientific research in this area. He found that long-term use of cannabis may cause subtle impairment in the higher cognitive functions of memory, attention and the organisation and integration of complex information. The committee said the evidence also suggested that cannabis did not cause behavioral difficulties, but rather that cannabis was frequently used by youths who misbehaved; neither was it a cause of suicide. “

Perhaps if Police Intel would read BHO’s quote heading this blog then they might acquire some ‘intelligence’ they seem to seek. (on our tick at that!)

“Because the truth is that promoting science isn’t just about providing resources — it’s about protecting free and open inquiry. It’s about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology,” – Pres Elect, B. Obama

If Police Intel would like to pay me $600wk for ten years, I would inform ‘them what is wrong with their strategic assessment , and who said it’. /Blair

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Police in Disrepute

Police ‘disreputable’ behaviors these past 4-5 years was predicted by visiting ‘top cop’ Det. Chief Super Eddie Ellison. He laid the responsibility for the emerging dysfunction at the feet of poor drug policy. Eddie had recently retired as head of New Scotland Yard.

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The NZ Police are not as corrupt as some, but what’s norm elsewhere is no standard to aspire too. Eddie addressing NZ Rotary’s said that under existing drug policy ‘give me a rookie cop and in three years I’ll give you a compromised cop’. He also predicted that NZ’s Methamphetamine prevalence and problems would get worse.

Few Police believe the war on drugs is winnable. Visiting Judge Jerry Paradis [LEAP.CC] remarked on the death of Don Wilkinson in Sept. “An honorable man on a hopeless cause”.

The longer we fail to understand the social mechanisms that create this dysfunction we will continue to find Policing in disrepute. And that serves no one.

(as seen on TRADEME Opinion Forums)

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Police Need Better Work Stories

NZ Centre for State Propaganda and Crime Proliferation, otherwise known as ‘Police College’.
“Yet the legend continues and the press repeats it daily, and today there exists an almost collective conviction that cannabis is specifically criminogenic.” – United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, 1964

New Zealand Police Alert 9:00am 8 Dec 2008 Tasman
Location of incident: Westport

Incident type: Police terminate significant drugs operation.

Police are this morning executing a number of search warrants in the Westport area in connection with the termination of a major cannabis cultivation and supply operation. Operation Marvel (all a bit comic, if it wasnt so serious, /Blair) O/C, Detective Inspector John Image via WikipediaWinter said that staff drawn from the 3 South Island Districts were involved in the operation which brought to an end a syndicate supplying significant quantities of cannabis into the supply chain. (note the language of prohibition, along with the pretense of success, /Blair)

D/I Winter said that while there had been a recent, and proper, focus on methamphetamine as a source of harm in the community, police were still concerned about the ongoing harm caused by cannabis. (for which the Police commissioned the report “NZ Drug Harm Index” /Blair)

Tasman District figured in the top 3 Police Districts for the number of cannabis plants seized annually, and was 5th on the list of DHB hospitals recording admissions of cannabis-related harm. (double speak alert, control the language, control the dialog! and these guys are tollerated at the policy table? NZ Health Select Committee… “the harms are largely overstated” doh!)

D/I Winter said that cannabis was still the most prevalent illicit drug available in the District and police would maintain a 3-fold strategy of reducing demand, strangling the supply chain and community education on drug harm. (“the double Supply Chain in A legal Setting / Blairstandards surrounding cannabis law is an impediment to credible drug education” NZ HSC 1998 – doh!) The operation today was in accordance with that plan. The strategy included a strong focus on major growers of cannabis and this provided the potential to unlock a wider range of criminal offending. (“Cannabis is not criminogenic, whereas prohibition is.”, Canadian Judge, Justice McCart, Ontario Court of Appeal)

The syndicate targeted by Operation Marvel was involved with both indoor and outdoor Image via Wikipediacultivation of cannabis. This was significant as indoor cannabis had a shorter turnaround time to harvest, and had a higher THC content, thereby making it a more valuable commodity to the grower. (So attracts more punishment? Doh!)

Police believed the syndicate had been in place for some time and had a turnover in the millions of dollars. (Actually, it wasnt a syndicate, it was largely a freindly network of otherwise law abiding folk, members of the 330,000 odd casual users of cannabis, for whom the plant doesnt just materialise, it has to be grown, and the grower, in this case is the easy target and at the highest risk of prohibition harm. /Blair)

Those arrested today would appear in the Westport District Court at a special sitting at 2.15pm this afternoon. Police were also conducting searches in other locations throughout the country and those arrested as part of that phase would appear in the respective District Courts.

And all at our expense…. to achieve what measurable outcome?

A higher prevelence of methamphetamine? Greater control of the cannabis distribution by gangs with guns?

The POLICE are pretending, and in many cases, outright lying about what this is really all about. It must be “Better work stories…”, as there is precious little that can be said for this latest littany of Reefer Madness.

“Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active
substances known to man.” – Judge Francis Young, U.S. Department of Justice,
September 1988.

“[The risks from cannabis] would be unlikely to seriously [compare to] the public health risks of alcohol and tobacco even if as many people used cannabis as now drink alcohol or smoke tobacco.” – World Health Organization, March 1998.

*** Lucky New Zealand’s Law Commission is reviewing BOTH cannabis and alcohol. Tthe outcomes will be highly instructive to a world hungry for some commonsense. / Blair Anderson
http://mildgreens.blogspot.com

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Random Drug Testing Coming To A Street Near You.

Judge Jerry Paradis gave us some insight on drug testing that applies irrespective of the ‘state of the technology’ – its still a machine and the test is still arbitrary – bearing little correlation to ‘evidence of impairment’

Former London “top cop” Chief Det Super, Eddie Ellison described such testing as the logical equivalent of licking an exhaust pipe to see if the car had been speeding. He also had grave Image via Wikipediaconcerns as to the public perception of Police in general arguing that any such ‘goodwill’ cache will satisfy ‘a few, desperate for drug policy to somehow work’ while degrading vital public support. His emphasis was on good police management, value for money resourcing and effective evidence based options.

It is a dangerous step in invasive practice degrading civil liberty, and represents the worst in “pharmakos” – (google it here)

In Scotland a new technology that detects the merest hint of illegal drugs on the hands of [potential] patrons of bars and night clubs leads to forbidden entry and in liaison with police providing ‘probable cause’ to search invoked.

It is a small step for ‘drug intel’ to do the same from roadside collected data. (data matching, so clearly protected against in the beginning of Wanganui Computer central records, is now common practice)

We should not suck up to this in silence, the NATIONAL PARTY has indicated it will pass at the earliest opportunity this perceived to be ‘tough on crime’ legislation. Image: Mike Kline via Flickr

(see Timaru Herald’s slightly more considered DRUNK, rather than drugged drivers, are the more prolific on South Canterbury roads. compared to Roadside testing for drugged drivers hailed in Wairapa Times-Age.)

Clearly this is an issue in which public perceptions will be fundamental to the justification. (note the comment in the Time-Age “a two-year campaign in Britain led to a halving, to none, of dead young male drivers being on drugs. ” – so just how big exactly was the problem? Now compare that to alcohol! Could they be so lucky! )

Media has set the ground for this radical intervention with its policy, intended or otherwise of pharmakos. (all drug use is misuse, all illegal drug users are bad, and legal drug abusers can go to hell too.)

We are in dangerous social engineering territory….far far more dangerous than anything LABOUR was accused of. Image by CalAggie via Flickr

We need a constitution and protection from the corrosive excesses of givamint.

see

Motorists to face roadside drug tests

Police to use handheld machine giving fast results from next year

New technology that can test drivers for illegal drugs in as little as 90 seconds will be ready for police use as early as next year, The Independent has learnt.

Government officials are keen to approve the roadside gadgetry “as soon as possible”, with developers working to have the devices ready for use by the second half of next year. The breakthrough technology will allow police officers to test drivers for heroin, cocaine, cannabis, methamphetamines and amphetamines by testing a swab of a driver’s saliva in a handheld device. (one needs to be very precautionary, this is and has ‘serious’ implications for those accused – very serious, and socially very expensive, yet the problem space may be very small and best addressed by enabling credible health promotion)

Roadside testing has been hampered in the past by the slowness of the process, which can take about 10 minutes. Other effective drugs tests require a urine sample (largely ineffective and socially unacceptable in practice), making them difficult to implement for drug-driving tests. ( Just because we have found an easy way doesn’t make the policy automatically acceptable or appropriate)

The Transport minister, Jim Fitzpatrick, wants to crack down (war talk alert) on those who use a car while under the influence of drugs, including legal drugs that can impair concentration. Up to a fifth of drivers killed in road accidents are found to have drugs in their system. (it is known that inclusion of cannabis testing ‘data’ grossly distorts this data set in favour of the elected official whose ‘policy’ of cracking down is expediency pandering to fears where there may well be none. )

An older version of the technology is already being used by the Home Office to test offenders (and innocent people) for drugs. They are also used for roadside testing by police in countries including Australia, Italy and Croatia. (which still doesn’t make it pass the analytic standard, Australia’s experience has not been as good as this would imply)

A swab of saliva is placed in a handheld tester the size of a chip-and-pin machine. Officers are then told (by a machine) whether the driver has passed or failed the test and which drugs have been detected. (watch out the poppy seed bun and innumerable other false positives.!)

A (unnamed) spokesperson at the Department for Transport said: “We are working very closely with the Home Office to make sure the approval document needed for roadside devices is completed as soon as possible. We are serious about tackling the (unquantified) problem of drug-driving.”

Talks have been held between the company producing the technology, Concateno, and the Department for Transport. Philip Hand, a consultant with Concateno, said: “The new system will be easy for police to use and appropriate for roadside tests (sales pitch alert). We are hoping to receive the necessary approval before the devices are ready to be rolled out at the end of the year.” (absent evidence this intervention is even warranted, in particular, for cannabis, where the correspondence to public danger is unproven or the ‘harms’ of creating unintended social downsides uncosted. )

The Government plans to create legislation to bring drug-driving in line with drink-driving. (and the evidence for this is? alcohol is a central nervous system depressant that has a linear correlation to impairment, whereas for cannabis the determinant is pharmakos ) Other measures proposed in its road safety consultation, published yesterday, include a plan to ban drivers who are twice caught exceeding a speed limit by 20mph. The Government is also considering a lowering of the legal alcohol limit from 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood to 50mg – the level most commonly used throughout the EU. (decreasing the size of the net, is not addressing the recidivist or the grossly impaired…. )

Blair Anderson ‹(•¿•)›

Spokesperson on Climate Change, Environment and Associate ‘Shadow’ Law And Order.
http://www.republicans.org.nz/

Social Ecologist ‘at large’
http://mildgreens.blogspot.com/
http://blairformayor.blogspot.com/
http://blair4mayor.com/
http://efsdp.org/

ph (643) 389 4065 cell 027 265 7219

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Police and Prepaid Cellphones

Police have cultured this ‘problem’ just as they have Tasers and other escalations towards powers to which they are not entitled. (Hansard debate: Hon. Tom McGuigan, Minister of Health 1975 “Prevention of Misuse” Drug legislation).

Image by Stephen Witherden It has been suggested in other media that Police ‘are supporting’ calls for legislation. (see http://www.stuff.co.nz/4740997a4621.html)

This is disingenuous. The Police National Drug Intelligence have a “google” search watching what other countries are doing. It is obvious to anyone who also does this (like me) that Police follow international policing development with a ‘spin’ of their own within days of any international focus on issues. There is NO ANALYSIS – its just strategy development by following others. (Yabba/methamphetamine policy is such a case)

Image via WikipediaThe point is that some 1.3million or so cellphones were not used for any crime today… so why do Police wish to engineer a solution “to enhance the ability to fight crime” in areas where phone monitoring absent a warrant is, patently a breach of a right to privacy.

That the kind of crimes NZ police are ‘interested’ in surveiling are more often ‘consensual’ and ‘victimless’ relating to certain substances should hardly be surprising..

McGuigan was onto something!

Police should practice getting good at solving crimes.
They have been pretty lousy at predicting them.

Having (yet another) a list of a million citizens will only confuse them.

Slippery Internet Slopes: are we to ‘register’ anonymous email addresses with our community constable, and those who fail too, are they to be investigated for potential criminal activities. ??
Image by ToastyKen via Flickr
Its just the same “if you have nothing to hide’ argument pandering to the consent of the stupidly insular AND lacking ANY evidence it will produce an outcome for either the ‘investment’ or intrusion.

And all this while there is a Surveillance bill before the house… no mention of it though. Are the media stupid?

Blair Anderson
http://mildgreens.blogspot.com

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