"If you see anything mysterious or unusual,
just enjoy it while you still can."
Connect..Assist..Serve..Share..Heal..
Life will get better that way.
People often write asking how they can help as a volunteer.
The HEMP Embassy runs an information centre/ paraphernalia
shop in Nimbin all year round to fund our fight against cannabis
laws. This is staffed by rostered volunteers
who live locally, or are on an extended visit.
If you do not live close enough, there is still an opening.
Every year, on the first weekend in May, we have the Nimbin
MardiGrass Drug Law Reform Rally. To do this takes
lots of volunteers
who live locally OR are attending the MardiGrass. We have volunteers
from all over the world who come to help make MardiGrass possible,
not just stand and watch. It's fantastic to see. Feel free to
come and joint in.
If you ever come to Australia, drop in to the HEMP Embassy
in Nimbin. Try to make it coincide with MardiGrass, if u can....otherwise,
come anyway, or oppose stupid laws wherever you are, and you
will be helping us all...
That is the Norml state of affairs, but if you feel you have
special skills that could help the cause, or see a need that
isn't catered to, then communicate
and contribute.
Send us your hemp related writings or art!
"Reject the illusion of power
brought by violence."
"Men, it has been well said, think in herds;
it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover
their senses slowly, and one by one." -- Charles Mackaya
In the US there is an annual gathering of Rainbow People,
in a National Park. For the last few years the County Sheriffs
and Forest Service Law Enforcement officers have tried to forcibly
remove people, using tasers even.
2007 - Dressed in flak jackets and armed with handguns and
several semi-automatic rifles, Rio Arriba County sheriff's deputies
and Forest Service Law Enforcement officers raid a regional
Rainbow Family gathering because the group's size dictates the
needs for a special permit.
"We were attending the 2008 Gathering in Wyoming - staying
in Kiddie Village. During the pre-dinner prayer circle I noticed
Sherriffs sprinkled through the woods between us and dinner.
They arrested a mother and attempted to take custody of a child.
We reacted nonviolently however this was what happenned. More
to come later - Shot by Linnea Dahl"
Nick Brash - cannabis campaigner
and community artist dies aged 54 after brief illness.
Nick Brash, Illawarra cannabis campaigner who in the 1980s ran
for the NSW upper house representing The Australian Marijuana
Party (AMP) has passed away in Sydney's St George Hospital of
heart failure. Nick suffered a heart attack just after 7 am
on Friday 13th June 2008 just prior to planned cardiac surgery
to replace an aortic valve damaged by a recent infection. He
was being seen by medical team when he arrested but unfortunately
was unable to be revived despite their best efforts. He had
been ill for only a few weeks and his passing comes as a shock
to his family and all who knew him.
Nick is survived by his son Jack, partner Sharyn Lacey, his
siblings and many nieces & nephews. Greg, one of Nick's
brothers lives locally in the Jiggi Valley and another brother,
Justin, has been politically active in recent history as a medical
cannabis patient.
Sale of drug equipment banned in South
Australia June 8, 2008 - 11:34AM
The sale of equipment used to consume illegal drugs - such
as bongs and cocaine kits - has been banned in South Australia
from Sunday.
State Attorney-General Michael Atkinson said it could no longer
be tolerated that the tools of illicit drug use were freely
available from dedicated drug-device shops, tobacconists and
some franchise outlets.
"Allowing the devices of illegal drug use to be marketed
openly is an affront to the laws of this state," he said
in a statement.
"It normalises the use of illicit drugs, particularly
in the minds of impressionable young people."
The Summary Offences (Drug Paraphernalia) Amendment Act 2008
outlaws the sale of bongs, cocaine kits, hash pipes, hookahs,
and ice pipes, with offenders facing maximum penalties of up
to $50,000 or two years' jail.
Mr Atkinson said under previous laws it was difficult to prove
that a retailer intended the items to be used to prepare or
consume an illicit drug.
Dutch-State Earns a Massive 400 Million
Euros a Year from Cannabis Coffee-Shops
AMSTERDAM - The Dutch state earns 400 million
Euros annually in tax revenues from 'coffee shops,' as the Dutch
cannabis cafes are called. Sales in the sector total around
2 billion Euros, according to conservative estimates by TV programme
"Reporter".
Reporter calculates that the some 730 coffee shops in the
Netherlands sell around 265,000 kilos of hashish and cannabis
annually. That’s 265 ton's of cannabis. WOW!
The bulk of this is grown in the Netherlands. Although coffee-shop
owners do not have to pay VAT, the tax service does calculate
income tax at the highest rate of around 52 percent.
In fixing the tax rate, the tax service assumes that the selling
price of weed is twice the purchasing price.
In Amsterdam, where coffee shops often have non-price-conscious
foreign tourists as customers, the taxman actually applies gross
profit margins of 150 to 180 percent.
The finance ministry claimed in a reaction that it does not
know how much tax the 730 coffee-shops pay. Nice "out"!
Tax inspectors who wish to remain anonymous suggest "they
do not want to know about it in The Hague, as it is all much
too politically sensitive," according to Reporter.
The report reveals that sales of hashish imported from abroad
are much smaller than sales of home-grown grass. More cannabis
is actually produced in the Netherlands than is consumed domestically.
An estimated 60 percent of the cannabis is exported; no tax
is levied on this.
"As export product, Dutch cannabis comes second or third
after cucumbers and tomatoes. Germany and the United Kingdom
are big customers," said police commissioner Max Daniel,
responsible for combating the organised crime behind cannabis-growing.
Although police destroy 15 cannabis nurseries daily, the raids
have no effect on the supply but only on the price of the cannabis.
The growers want compensation for the bigger chance of being
caught in the price they get for their grass. And the tax service
benefits from this too, the reportage reveals.
2008 Nimbin Cannabis Cup Results
Outdoor
1. Little Nimbin, by Bill and Ben. No32 - 18 votes
There is to be a Protest at the Lismore Courthouse
on the 28th April starting at 10:00 am to draw attention to
the ridiculous overkill of the recent Police raid of Nimbin.
These are two of the three defendants it took 50 police seven
hours to apprehend. Where are the "eight arrests"?
Bring your banners and signs to expose their waste of resources
on a political media stunt.
In April 2006 this letter was
published in the Northern Star. Nothing has improved.
Editor
Northern Star
Dear Ed
I refer to recent NS headlines regarding the upcoming MardiGrass.
Firstly, I acknowledge that the interviewed officers may have
been asked loaded questions. However, I wish to make a few pertinent
points in this endless debate:
The police service should not claim community support if they
don’t have it/can’t prove it. I remember the infamous
El Dockin operation in Nimbin where senior police spokesmen
claimed community support. My household survey of Nimbin (answered
by 8 out of every 10 households) indicated that the local community
most assuredly did not support those police activities. My finding
were supported by the numerous complaints to the Ombudsman,
and to the media (including the NS), and by an article published
at the time in a law journal (The Death of Community Policing
by a local lawyer). The police then claimed support from local
businesses, but that was quickly disputed when the Chamber of
Commerce surveyed Nimbin businesses, who almost unanimously
called for police to be ‘less heavy-handed’.
Furthermore, most Australians don’t particularly care
about pot smokers either (eg see the Aus gvt’s National
Drug Strategy household surveys). We have quite a list of crimes
that do concern us, notably child abuse in all its forms, all
crimes of violence, property crime, etc. The NSW Police Service
should adjust its priorities to better reflect community concerns.
Perhaps packing a tiny village with up to 10,000 happy revellers
is a nuisance to some, but it is not a crime. There is no doubt
that trips to the north coast, motel stays, and easy targets
are a soft policing option, but they cost taxpayers’ money,
and utilize officers and other resources that would be better
spent tackling serious crime. Aside from some pot smoking, the
crime rate is low or nonexistent during the festival despite
the thousands of visitors.
Finally, the MardiGrass is an established, major
Australian festival. It is much more than a drug protest rally.
It is a celebration by the alternative culture who settled,
and forever changed, the north coast of NSW. Cannabis is symbolic
of much that distinguished the ‘new settlers’ from
the established farming community, and it was always their weak
spot. Because it was an integral part of the counter-culture
cannabis made the ‘damned hippies’ an easy target
during police operations that often escalated into Drug Wars
(eg who remembers the skull & crossbones on the police helicopter?
the grandmothers carted off the multiple occupancy for a couple
of plants? .. for those who don’t remember, the NS covered
it all in the 70s, 80s & 90s). And one only has to attend
a MardiGrass today to see the culture on parade—they dress
up as fairies and plants, put on face paint, play lots of musical
instruments, display their arts and crafts, and generally enjoy
themselves whilst spreading values of peace, tolerance, sustainability
.. in fact pretty much what they first did in 1973 at the Aquarius
festival, except that they keep their clothes on.
So for heavens sake, readjust priorities and
allocate resources where the community wants them. As an alternative
to drug wars against largely law-abiding and productive communities,
police should be trained in, and rewarded with promotions for,
their community policing activities; community policing involves
law enforcement officers working with communities, in a partnership,
to address each community’s specific local concerns. It
is an effective, and sensible, use of resources.
Dr Carol de Launey
Proclamation
All self recognised Knights Hemplar and Dharma Farmers
are called on a Religious Crusade to Nimbin, home of the Church
of the Holy Smoke, to all meet there on the First Weekend in
May, in the Year Sixteen of our MardiGrass, to participate in
all the Sacred Ceremonies of the Holy Smoke, and smoke the Pipes
of Peace.
It is Thirty Nine Years since the Death of Hippie in
San Francisco; followed by the Resurrection of his Spirit in
a thousand smiling faces. That Smile spread through the Sandstone
Nations in a Decade of Optimism. Since then the Fog of Mammon
has spread. Still we perform the Ceremonies and remember the
Martyrs imprisoned for their private observances.
Make your way past the gathering Orcs. Come to the
Aquarian Shrine. Celebrate with Herb and Friends. Pay Homage
to the Bountiful Seed. Debate, Discuss, Learn and Socialise.
Compete in the Hemp Olympix or Nimbin Cannabis Cup. March in
the Anti Prohibition Procession. Be peacefully free. Make your
mark in the Book of MardiGrass.
Of course, we expect exhemplary behaviour
from our pilgrims. Good heart to you all.
We have built a demonstration
HEMP-LIME WALL in the Hemp Embassy, under the guidance of Klara
Marrosszeky. See Industrial Hemp
for the history of this building technique.
Andrew Katelaris - Hemp-cement Dome
2008 Nimbin Performance Poetry World
Cup
The sixth annual event in August is again
sponsored by the Nimbin community.
How It Works:
Performers have 8 minutes to perform one
or more original poems, not previously performed at the NPPWC.
HEATS are held within the village of Nimbin
from 11am on Saturday 2nd August 2008.
SEMI-FINALS are conducted on Sunday 3rd
August from 11am, at the OASIS Cafe.
GRAND FINAL & After Party are held
at the Nimbin School of Arts TOWN HALL on Sunday 3rd August
at 7.30pm.
Entries Close: Monday 28th July 2008
Judges will select, from the eight finalists,
ONE outright winner of the $2000 prize & the World Cup.
7 Runners Up: $300 each. Peoples Choice Award: $500.
Incentive Awards of $50 and $25 given
by judges during the heats.
Peace & Love for all from Nimbin
Nimbin is a small village, with a huge
heart, and the people who continually support and encourage
the Arts within the community are precious gems.
CHICAGO, Nov 5 (Reuters) - A study of more than 5,000 youngsters
in Switzerland has found those who smoked marijuana do as well
or better in some areas as those who don't, researchers said
on Monday.
But the same was not true for those who used both tobacco and
marijuana, who tended to be heavier users of the drug, said
the report from Dr. J.C. Suris and colleagues at the University
of Lausanne.
The study did not confirm the hypothesis that those who abstained
from marijuana and tobacco functioned better overall, the authors
said.
In fact, those who used only marijuana were "more socially
driven ... significantly more likely to practice sports and
they have a better relationship with their peers" than
abstainers, it said.
"Moreover, even though they are more likely to skip class,
they have the same level of good grades; and although they have
a worse relationship with their parents, they are not more likely
to be depressed" than abstainers, it added.
It did not explain the reasons behind the apparent effect.
The study, published in the November issue of the Archives
of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, was based on a 2002
survey of 5,263 Swiss students age 16 to 20, of whom 455 smoked
marijuana only, 1,703 who used both marijuana and tobacco and
3,105 who abstained from both.
The report said that while marijuana use has declined among
U.S. adolescents, it has increased in recent years among the
same age group in Switzerland and other European countries.
The study said that while one theory holds that using legal
drugs like nicotine and alcohol opens the door to marijuana
and other illegal drug use, recent research also has found marijuana
may come first and it "may reinforce cigarette smoking
or lead to nicotine addiction ..."
In the study, about half of the tobacco and marijuana group
had used the latter drug 10 times or more in the previous month.
That compared to 56 percent in the marijuana-only group who
had used the drug only once or twice in the same time period.
"These findings agree with previous research indicating
that (tobacco) smokers were significantly more likely to be
heavy cannabis users than nonsmokers," the study concluded.
In addition, those who use only marijuana were less likely
to have started using that drug before the age of 15 compared
to tobacco users, and the tobacco-marijuana group was more likely
to have abused alcohol, the study said.
(Reporting by Michael Conlon; Editing by Andrew Stern and Philip
Barbara)
Patients in California can now buy legal medical marijuana
through a vending machine at a herbal nutrition centre in Los
Angeles.
Starting this week, they will go through security, submit their
prescription, pay and pick up their drugs.
Store employees call it a safe, fast way to order prescriptions.
Vince Mehdizadeh, Owner of Herbal Nutrition Centre said, "They'll
slide a card to get into the store after hours. They'll be greeted
by a security guard right there.
"They'll slide card in and they'll fingerprint in to verify
that it's them. A camera takes a picture of them, verifying
that they're actually at the machine. And they get the medicine
and they move on."
The state will start with two prescription vending machines
offering medical marijuana.
Owners believe they could become as common as pop machines.
(Having checked the dictionary spelling I found I had spelt
this wrongly all my life. The above spelling is correct.)
Paraphernalia is a term of art from older law. Paraphernalia
was the separate property of a married woman, such as clothing
and jewelry "appropriate to her station", but excluding
the assets that may have been included in her dower. The term
originated in Roman law, but ultimately comes from Greek (parapherna),
"beyond (para) the dower (pherne)".
These sorts of property were considered the separate property
of a married woman under coverture. A husband could not sell,
appropriate, or convey good title to his wife's assets considered
paraphernalia without her separate consent. They did not become
a part of her husband's estate upon his death, and could be
conveyed by a married woman's will.
According to American Federal Drug Enforcement Administration,
Drug paraphernalia is any equipment, product, or material that
is modified for making, using, or concealing illegal drugs such
as cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine. Drug paraphernalia
generally fall into two categories:
User-specific products are marketed to drug users to assist
them in taking or concealing illegal drugs. These products include
certain pipes, smoking masks, bongs, cocaine freebase kits,
syringes, marijuana grow kits, roach clips, and items such as
hollowed out cosmetic cases or fake pagers used to conceal illegal
drugs.
Dealer-specific products are used by drug traffickers for preparing
illegal drugs for distribution at the street level. Items such
as scales, vials, and baggies fall into this category. Drug
paraphernalia does not include any items traditionally used
with tobacco, like pipes and rolling papers.
Born in Fremantle, Western Australia in 1941 as John Kenneth
Taylor, Chicken George was "a five foot warrior, a very
tough man in a very little body."
George arrived in Nimbin 10 years ago after hearing about the
annual Mardigrass Festival on the radio.He started out as a
volunteer doing the cleaning at the Embassy and soon became
the public face of the HEMP Campaign (Help End Marijuana Prohibition)
by donning the green suit of The Plantem character, and becoming
the second Plantem.The Plantem, ghost who tokes and hero to
millions of Australian pot smokers, is based on the Lee Falk
comic book character, the Phantom.
2004
We had a very Nimbin funeral, featuring Ganja Faeries flitting
through the crowd, and the coffin painted with a goanna on top
by Gilbert, with a rainbow and the Plantem character by Elspeth
and Helen. Local police closed the street for the village funeral
procession; an action that was a stark contrast to the police
attitude to MardiGrass in recent years.
The procession stopped outside the Hemp Embassy where one pall
bearer said, "He did a lot to bring this community together.
The Plantem will never die." Then the bearers crossed the
road to pause before a large cannabis plant that had mysteriously
appeared in the "Blister" the night before, and after
that went on to the Oasis Cafe for another respectful pause.
The coffin was returned to the hearse for the journey to the
cemetery, and mourners then made their own way there.
At the cemetery George's friend Doctor Budd, aka Peter Hendrix,
led the tributes and read highlights from George's autobiography
called "Almost, Nearly, Never."
Growing up among scenes of incredible domestic violence, the
young John Taylor had shot his step-father in the arm after
he saw his mother with two black eyes and two broken arms. George
was totally opposed to violence against women. He spent much
of his youth in boys' homes and detention centres and graduated
to jail where he was known as "The Kid." Always the
gentleman, an inmate once observed: "If you ever shot someone,
you'd be the first to call the ambulance." Apart from his
time in and out of detention, Chicken George was married three
times and fathered fifteen children.He also had a love of travelling
and spent many years on the road working as a carnie with various
sideshows. He had a love of horses, racing and training them
in WA and Victoria, his son a jockey, Australian Rules football
and was the 1990 Coffs Harbour Racing Pigeon Champion. He came
to Nimbin after that, often said it was his salvation, and credited
his time there with turning his life around. Working at the
HEMP Embassy he connected with Cassie,who has been his other
half ever since. Many have met George and Cassie as they served
behind the Hemp Embassy counter, with George often donning the
Plantem outfit and geeing up the customers and passers-by.
His lived his live by the motto: "Never give up, never
give in and you might just be OK." He will be sorely missed.
He is called the ‘Ghost Who Tokes’ by those who
respect him.
For over fifteen years, the Plantem has lived in the Nimbin
area of the Rainbow Region, surrounded by the Nimbinites that
who have faithfully kept his the secret that the Plantem is
not really immortal, but a legacy handed down from anointed
one to anointed one. Calling the "Mull Cave" his home,
the current Plantem, and the Plantems before him, have taken
the oath that binds them to each other through time.
"I swear to devote my life to the destruction of corruption,
greed, cruelty and injustice!" they cried as they formally
took "The Oath of the Mull" by firelight. "And
may all follow that example!"
Great story on George, but I could not help noticing that the
"Northern Star" sidebar on the legend of the Phantom
accompanying George's story was almost entirely incorrect. (even
though the comic strip appears in that paper daily.)
The Phantom did not start in 1952 with DC Comics, but started
as a daily newspaper comic strip on February 17, 1936, with
the story "The Singh Brotherhood", written and initially
drawn by Lee Falk. DC Comics published a Phantom comic book
from 1988 to only 1990.
The comic is set in the jungles of the (fictional) African
country Bangalla, where there is a myth about "The Ghost
Who Walks", a powerful and indestructible guardian of the
innocent. His home base is the Skull Cave in the Deep Wood,
among the “pygmy poison people”, the Bandar, but
he frequently travels in his fight against evildoers. Because
he seems to have been around for generations, people believe
him to be immortal, and he is also called “the ghost who
walks”. In reality, the Phantom is descended from twenty
previous generations of crime-fighters who all adopt the same
costume and role. When a new Phantom takes up the role from
his dying father, he swears the Oath of the Skull: "I swear
to devote my life to the destruction of piracy, greed, cruelty,
and injustice, in all their forms, and my sons and their sons
shall follow me." Frequently the comic highlights the adventures
of past Phantoms.
Today's Phantom, ‘Kit’ Walker, is the twenty-first
Phantom in the line. Unlike most costumed heroes, he has no
superhuman powers, relying only on his wits, physical strength,
weapons skills and fearsome reputation to fight crime. His life
love is Dianna Palmer, an Olympic swimming champion.
Chicken George’s Plantem was not based on the Northern
Star's “fallen angel condemned to walk the Earth alone”,
but a champion of human justice.
Nimbin H*E*M*P Embassy
51 Cullen St.
Nimbin NSW 2480
Ph/Fax 6689 1842
Media Centre Ph: (02) 6689 0326
www.hempembassy.net
www.nimbinmardigrass.com
We await the emergence of a new Plantem from the Mull Cave.
Long live the Plantem!
Post Script:
The Northern Star printed the above letter without
editing it in any way on Wednesday 2nd January, 2008. Was it
the power of the Phantom, Plantem, or both?
Plant the seeds!
In Memoriam
Simon Cass, 53, Grandfather, friend, Nimbin resident
and past MardiGrass Organiser, accidentally fell down a cliff
mid-November and died instantly. He will be sorely missed.
We acknowledge his contributions over the years, extend
our condolences to family and the tribe, and grieve for him
ourselves.
Ok smokofolk, are you secular smokers, or do you find a bit
of mysticism in the bottom of your mull bowl? Is there life?
Is there an aftersmoke?
A new section has begun, so send in "The Word as We'ed
Seed It!"
Let it Grow!
The School Project.
Sometimes we get these letters, and we can't help wondering.
Is it really a student at the other end and not a fame-seeking
crazed anti, or security agency spook, or shock jock, looking
for something to misrepresent in the news, corridors of power
or worse? Even then, do you answer and what do you say?
Hi i am currently doing a year 12 assignment
on the legalisation of marijuana and i was just wondering if
i could just ask you a few questions about this.
Why do you want marijuana legalised?
How will legalising the drug be of benefit?
Do you see any problems in legalising marijuana?
What are the benefits of marijuana?
How do you think the law should be changed?
Thank you for your time, Jane
Jane (I assume)
One thing, this is my personal opinion, and not an authoritative
document. Parents always worry that their children will become
caught up in the diversionary before they have had a chance
to fully develop their identity or talents. I think young people
should avoid drugs until maturity, as they may affect development.
Many will try drugs though, despite official disapproval or
friendly advice, and the best thing to be done for those is
to provide the most accurate information possible, so that their
choices are as informed as possible.
The illegality of cannabis is not a huge injustice on the global
scale of injustices, and there are many other important issues
for young people to consider. If you are planning on "going
somewhere in life" you don't get caught up in cannabis,
that's just for us "bleeding hearts" that worry about
the effect of current laws on the less able, because they are
the ones who get targeted most. Otherwise cannabis just isn't
an "important" issue for most. That is my bias, in
plain view.
Why do you want marijuana legalised?
To quote Michael Duffy, mild mannered reporter for the Sydney
Morning Herald, a daily metropolitan newspaper (in his article
of September 7th)......:
"Three cheers for my fellow columnist Lisa Pryor, who
last week suggested we acknowledge the elephant in the room
where public debate about drugs occurs. It's time to stand up
and say illegal drug use is fun and - unless you get caught
- harmless.
Yes, there are exceptions to this. But far
fewer than if you tried to make the same claim about nicotine
or alcohol or junk food. The criminalisation of recreational
drugs will one day be looked back on with the incredulity we
now reserve for Prohibition.
The criminalisation of fun drugs is based
on claims about the harm they do, which fly in the face of the
experience of a large proportion of the population. The six-week
"drug holiday" for rugby league players announced
this week is surely an acknowledgment of just how common and
acceptable recreational drug-taking is among young people, including
very fit and healthy young people.
The persistence of drug criminalisation reflects
the self-interest of a loose coalition of politicians, moralists
and law enforcement officials, in search of headlines, bigger
budgets and more power. They've been winning the argument for
a long time now, at least in terms of public policy. What might
alter this situation?
The change will eventually come from a growing
awareness of the terrible and accelerating damage the illicit
drug economy is doing to peace and prosperity around the globe.
That trade is booming today because of the trade liberalisation
and globalisation we've experienced since the 1990s. These have
created enormous wealth, thereby expanding the markets for fun
drugs, and making it even easier for drug growers and manufacturers
in other countries to reach those markets.
This is the theory of Moises Naim, editor
of the magazine Foreign Policy. Recently Naim told me: "The
United Nations Office of Drug Control and Crime just released
a report estimating the value of the international drug trade
at $US660 billion ($800 billion) a year. It is great, it is
growing, it is diversifying, both geographically and in terms
of product lines. It's a vast industry that moves a lot of money
and has huge requirements in terms of infrastructure, transportation
and so on. All of that on a daily basis, on a systematic basis,
would be impossible without the active complicity of governments
around the world."
In many Third World countries (or "narcostates"),
governments and their agencies are now corrupted by drug traders
and their allies in politics and legitimate business activities.
This makes much of the international war against drugs - estimated
to cost $US100 million a year - an ineffectual farce.
The scale of the drug economy is only possible
because First World countries have been unable to stop the immense
craving for fun drugs among their own populations. As Naim puts
it: "The markets are massive and they're created by state
intervention [ie criminalisation]."
He believes the international drug trade is
now so big and corrosive of national sovereignty that it, along
with other cross-border crimes such as people smuggling and
money laundering, "are reconfiguring and transforming the
world's politics and economics today far more than terrorism".
Everywhere you look, the growing spread of
drugs is trashing public morality and everyday life. Naim has
written that the world is undergoing an unprecedented pandemic
of crime. In 2003 the UN reported that crime rates were increasing
almost everywhere. In cities such as Johannesburg and Milan
there have been large protest marches complaining about rising
crime. The World Bank says Latin America's economic growth could
be 8 per cent higher if its crime rates dropped.
What drives up crime? Poverty doesn't seem
to matter. Inequality and urbanisation play a part. But researchers
agree a big contributor is the combination of a high proportion
of young men, easy access to guns, and ample drugs.
The Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation leaders
this weekend ought to be talking seriously about drugs. But
of course they won't, because that would offend the United States,
whose expensive and long-running war on drugs is possibly the
greatest public policy failure of all time.
The latest issue of Foreign Policy has an
article on this by Ethan Nadelmann, founder of the Drug Policy
Alliance, which argues for decriminalisation. He notes that
the number of Americans incarcerated for US drug-law violations
has increased from 50,000 in 1980 to 500,000 today. The US,
with five per cent of the world's population, has 25 per cent
of its prisoners.
For a long time the US and its punitive-moral
agenda has dominated the international agencies set up to deal
with drugs. But Nadelmann says this hegemony is now under challenge
for the first time. "The European Union is demanding rigorous
assessment of drug-control strategies. Exhausted by decades
of service to the US-led war on drugs, Latin Americans are far
less inclined to collaborate closely with US drug enforcement
efforts. Finally waking up to the threat of HIV/AIDS, China,
Indonesia, Vietnam and even Malaysia are increasingly accepting
of syringe-exchange and other harm reduction programs [which
the US opposes]."
This is good news even if it is only a start.
The truth is that the West's war on drugs can never be won,
because too many people don't want it to be won. And while fun
drugs do some damage, it is only a tiny fraction of the destruction
caused around the globe by drug prohibition."
I feel Michael Duffy (the above quote) does not clearly say
which drugs he considers to be not-fun drugs. I would. Heroin,
amphetamines and cocaine all have ability to trigger obsessive
compulsive addictive behaviour. While they might begin as fun,
for too many they don't continue or end that way. Hallucinogens
have always carried the risk of unique reactions in the few,
so I would always urge caution in where one chooses to experience
the drug (setting and company) and to not be cavalier about
such a step. While I feel that extra elephant also needs to
be seen, I broadly agree.
I see cannabis as a benign drug when compared,
not only to the legal alcohol and nicotine, but to a large number
of prescription drugs that are far more "mind - altering",
and carelessly prescribed. I have seen police burst into people's
homes to arrest people for cannabis use in front of children,
and people at Tuntable Falls herded into a truck when there
were insufficient paddy-wagons. Is it really sane to imprison
people because they happen to enjoy smoking a particular herb?
Cannabis users should not be automatically classified as criminals
(or as hippies either). It is no guarantee of either.
"Conservative" people seem to fear that it would change
society, but cannabis has been prevalent in Australia since
1970, and civilisation hasn't crumbled yet, nor would it. I
feel that it would reduce crime and opportunities for official
corruption if cannabis were a legally available substance. "Vice"
crimes (Gaming, prostitution, drugs) have always been a source
of police corruption.
Alcohol prohibition in the US led to an enormous increase in
crime and corruption, and allowed organised crime to become
established and entrenched. Despite the high moral motives behind
it, it was a practical disaster. Has cannabis prohibition been
any different? You did not ask about decriminalisation, but
I would say decriminalisation is a trojan horse that would allow
the current associated crime and corruption to continue.
How will legalising the drug be of benefit?
It will no longer be a cash cow for organised crime and source
of "black money" for intelligence agencies as it currently
is. There will be fewer people to jail, less need for more and
more prisons, and less need to expand police departments and
budgets. The "rebel" aura associated with use will
be lost. Real criminals wont have to put up with "druggies"
crowding out their jails. Real criminals dont think "druggies"
are real criminals and "bring down the class of inmate".
I agree with them on that point.
Do you see any problems in legalising marijuana?
Only the same ones that exist for alcohol and nicotine: discouraging
use during formative years, identifying individuals for whom
the drug is medically or behaviourally inappropriate, the usual
control issues. The plastics, petroleum, and wood pulp industries
would probably continue to oppose a Hemp industry, but it would
be better for the environment if Hemp industries were re-established.
What are the benefits of marijuana?
In terms of personal use that is a personal thing. A number
of people find it relaxes them, some say it excites them, some
say "it puts them in touch with their spiritual side",
while others will say it makes them laugh a lot and eat too
many sweet treats. I have experienced all those characterised
responses. One good use of marijuana I have discovered that
may be of use to someone else somewhere is that if you give
a violent or nuisance drunk a joint they will usually go to
sleep soon after and stop bothering people. When people use
cannabis in groups they do not normally become boisterously
agressive or behave riotously.
Think of any drug that you know of, and compare it with cannabis.
Marijuana Overdose?
There is no existing evidence of anyone dying of a marijuana
overdose. Tests performed on mice have shown that the ratio
of cannabinoids (the chemicals in marijuana that make you high)
necessary for overdose to the amount necessary for intoxication
is 40,000:1.
For comparison's sake, that ratio for alcohol is generally between
4:1 and 10:1. Alcohol overdoses claim approximately 5,000 casualties
yearly, but marijuana overdoses kill no one as far as any official
reports.
No "overdose" risk.
Brain Damage Risk?
Marijuana is psychoactive because it stimulates certain brain
receptors, but it does not produce toxins that kill them (like
alcohol), and it does not wear them out as other drugs may.
There is no evidence that marijuana use causes brain damage.
Studies performed on actual human populations will confirm these
results, even for chronic marijuana users (up to 18 joints per
day) after many years of use.
In fact, following the publication of two 1977 JAMA studies,
the American Medical Association (AMA) officially announced
its support for the decriminalization of marijuana.
In reality, marijuana has the effect of slightly increasing
alpha-wave activity in your brain. Alpha waves are generally
associated with meditative and relaxed states, which are, in
turn, often associated with creativity.
Does not cause physical brain damage.
Memory Impairment?
Marijuana does impair short-term memory, but only during intoxication.
Although the authoritative studies on marijuana use seem to
agree that there is no residual impairment following intoxication,
persistent impairment of short-term memory has been noted in
chronic marijuana smokers, up to 6 and 12 weeks following abstinence.
If 6 to 12 weeks is not deemed "long term", no long
term memory damage. (Bad for exams though.)
So if you have legal drugs like the ones we do have, why is
cannabis classified legally as a narcotic? Tradition? It just
seems hopelessly inappropriate to me.
Medically, cannabis has been found to discourage the cancers
that tobacco encourages, and a few other cancers as well, under
laboratory conditions. It is an antiemetic (e.g., reduces nausea
with chemotherapy), decreases pain sensation, increases appetite
(e.g., in patients with cancer or AIDS), tremor reduction, relaxant,
antispasmodic, anticonvulsant, treatment of glaucoma (reduces
intra-ocular eyeball pressure), and "reduces spasticity".
How do you think the law should be changed?
I think cannabis should be legally available from tobacconists
and approved outlets; regulated, graded, packaged and taxed,
but an individual citizen should still be allowed to grow a
few plants for personal use and/or for personal gardening satisfaction.
Medically I could not deny the use of it to people
in certain situations. I think people undergoing treatments
that make them nauseous (e.g. AIDS and cancer) should be allowed
to use cannabis if they wish, anyone dying of an otherwise untreatable
disease, people with cerebral palsy or degenerative diseases
of the central nervous system, people with intractable pain
who do not like opiate derived painkillers, cases like those.
At the same time I think the uses of the low THC
industrial hemp plant should be re-explored and encouraged as
a way of reducing greenhouse gases. It was banned as a commercial
plant, supposedly because of its "narcotic" effect,
but some feel that Hemp was actively demonised by it's emerging
competitors, the wood pulp, petrochemical and synthetics industries,
seeking commercial advantage. In any event, it is an extremely
useful and versatile plant with a range of uses, and the industrial
variety has so little THC in it, its not worth smoking.
Another thing is that NSW state laws regarding cannabis and
driving are out of proportion to the effect of the drug. While
alcohol tends to make one incautious and overconfident, cannabis
tends to make users under confident and over cautious. The test
used finds metabolites no longer affecting the user, so the
use of such tests seems a bit premature, but in any event I
feel the penalties are not proportionate.
That's how I see it.
(In doing any project "Google"
is your best friend. Type in the thing you want to know about,
and you will be overwhelmed with information on that "thing"
to sort through. Hempembassy.net has a lot of information bearing
on cannabis. http://www.hempembassy.net/hempe/risks.html
The actual risks of cannabis use.
This page, http://www.hempembassy.net/hempe/totality.html,
has a list of all pages on the website with a short description
of each one.)
Too much?
A random Hemp Embassy member/volunteer.
"Just like the birds, humanity needs both wings
to fly: the left and the right wing. When they are beating in
unison, we soar."
Greens MP Lee Rhiannon - 30 August
2007
New crime stats show
dramatic drop in arrests of drug dealers and traffickers
Greens MP and health spokesperson Lee
Rhiannon says Premier Iemma should stop crowing about today’s
crime figures which show a disturbing drop in the number of
drug dealing and trafficking offences being reported to NSW
Police.
“The new figures show that the
‘Mr Bigs’ of the drug world are increasingly escaping
detection,” Ms Rhiannon said.
“The statistics suggest police
resources are concentrated on catching small time, drug users
not the commercial suppliers of illicit drugs.
“Premier Iemma should make the
first task of new Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione reviewing
why the force is having less success in catching suppliers.
“Today’s Bureau of Crime
Statistics figures show the number of incidents reported to
NSW Police for ‘dealing and trafficking’ in narcotics,
amphetamines and ecstasy has dropped by 44.5 percent over the
last 24 months.
“Dealing and trafficking in cocaine,
cannabis and ecstacy has remained stable.
“While it may be easier for police
to target small time drug users, catching the big suppliers
is the most effective way of minimising harm from illicit drugs.
“Cracking down on individual users
will never effectively remove drugs from our streets.
“These crime figures suggest the
Iemma government is losing the war on illicit drugs and that
police are being less successful in netting commercial suppliers.
“The Greens renew our call for
the government to purse the big drug dealers while investing
in drug treatment and rehabilitation programs,” Ms Rhiannon
said..
July 2007: We have had media and politicians
willfully distort Nimbin in the past, and now we have members
of the police force playing the same type of distortionist politics.
It was disappointing press this week, with a couple of articles
vilifying our village. I disagreed strongly with a number of
points. The mental health "problems" that live in
Nimbin were sent here by the local health services when Richmond
Clinic let most of their patients out under the guise of policy
reform. There are no "gangs". There is no rising tide
of violence. These are falsehoods. One only has to look at the
crime statistics for the region, and in particular, Nimbin compared
to other locations to see for oneself. Certainly "the town"
has not broken the law. What an insulting and careless assertion,
condemning a whole village for the alleged actions of a few
individuals. One also has to wonder precisely what is meant
by "a New York-style 'broken windows' approach is the
only way to smash a culture he said is destroying social order
in Nimbin". Destroying social order? This is alarming
nonsense from someone in authority. The release is a very "political"
and if the Northern Star report and Ackerman's vilification
in the Telegraph were just a ploy to increase police allocations
for this region, it might not be that much of a matter of concern,
but in the serial government witch hunts of the last decade
there is a disturbing trend. Vilification followed by interventionist
crackdowns of little benefit.
How far will neo-conservatives go to promote and affirm their
own prejudices?
It's a worry for anyone who values individual freedom.
**********************
ZERO TOLERANCE ON CHOICE IN NIMBIN. - Our answer to
Supt.Lyon’s ‘Roar‘.
Report from Northern Star Echo with our comments:
It (Nimbin) is the town that has continued to break the law
with its laissez-faire attitude to drugs.
Not quite. It’s actually the town that has continued
to resist drug apartheid policy and war waged against ordinary
Australians in the name of ‘drug supremacy’ - the
drugs with the buzzword ‘legal’ attached, that is.
But after years of open drug dealing on the streets as well
as a rising tide of violence, police have had enough.”
After years of open drug of choice dealing on the streets,
and in drug dealing establishments (whether the drug is buzzword
‘legal’ or ‘illegal’- it makes no never-mind,
drugs are drugs), while not giving a damn that ABUSE is the
rising tide and violence is only a part of it, Police have had
enough of any drug and drug dealer that comes into direct or
indirect competition with the Drug cartels/ Drug Lords of the
drugs Ethanol, Nicotine and caffeine (never mind the drug flood
from Big Pharma, that they tell us are essential medications
when anyone with a clue know would know that they’re drugs).
Local Area Commander Bruce Lyons, the man in charge of policing
the far North Coast town, is now taking a zero tolerance policy
to drugs.
Local Area Commander Bruce Lyons, the man in charge of eradicating
use and choice in the far North Coast town (under the guise
of the Corporate Organised Protection Squad - C.O.P.S) - is
now taking a zero tolerance policy to selective, individual
drugs of choice, while allowing, advocating and standing side
by side with some of the biggest drug dealers/drug cartels/drug
lords (albeit calling them Licensees and ‘drink’/’beverage’
manufacturers).
He is fed up with the decades-old drug culture, which has brought
with it a series of social problems including high rates of
mental health and homelessness.
He is fed up with the decades-old Cannabis race culture, as
this herbal race is the standard of Nimbin. However, when it
comes to the ethanol drug culture which has brought with it
a series, nay - a FLOOD - of social problems, including 60 medical
conditions, thousands dead per year, tens of thousands hospitalised
per year, 84% of street and pub assaults, 74% of domestic violence,
45% of reported child abuse, countless man hours lost per year
through neuro-toxic acetaldehyde poisoning (lovingly called
a ‘hangover’) etc. Etc. And so forth.
Remembering, of course, that ethanol contributes to high rates
of negative forms of mental, psychological, neuro-logical, and
physical health problems as well as homelessness. So…why
is he only targeting selective drugs of choice and not the abuse
that manifests and constantly jumps back and forth between the
buzzword ‘legal’ and buzzword ‘illegal’
drugs, as if it doesn’t even recognise them? That’s
because - ABUSE DOES NOT recognise them. The Criteria of Harm
does not recognise them, in fact the only thing that recognises
social segregation against use and choice when it comes to a
policy, is APARTHEID. (A policy of social segregation upon individual
and collective coverings defined by differential and/or preferential
treatment. The ‘our drugs all good, your drugs all bad’
policy that Mr. Lyons is trying to push, that Mr. Pyne is flogging
through sport, and that is eating through not only Australian
respect, but through all of our resources. Ethanol is the drug
of choice for problems in this country. Even Police Commissioner
Ken Moroney personally stated, “I believe that alcohol
is a greater problem, an even greater menace, than the illicit
drug problem”.
Now considering that ethanol is only one drug of choice, and
there are hundreds of so-called ‘illicit drugs’,
one would have thought that the main onus of drug targeting
would be the drug consumed by 84% of the population and abused
by 64% of it!
After petitioning the Government for more resources………”
Meanwhile, Police have been stating for quite a while now that
their resources are constantly being depleted, thanks to the
abuse of the drug ethanol, also called ethyl alcohol, street
names ‘grog’, ‘booze’, ‘piss’,
‘plonk’ etc.
….Superintendent Lyons will be boosting the police station's
staff from four to nine officers in the coming months in a push
to drive the drugs out of town.”
Rather, in a push to drive selective drugs of choice out of
town, and replace them with as many attractive forms of ethanol,
nicotine and caffeine that now target all ages through sport,
fashion, celebrity, politics, family events, mascots, slogans,
toys and other drug propaganda and paraphernalia, which includes
the FLOOD of ethanol drug ads in my letterbox every week telling
me to ‘Double Up’ on (under the Criteria of harm)
a ‘neurotoxic Class A drug on par with heroin!’
The crackdown has earned the ire of some residents - who claim
the bigger force is overkill for a town with a population of
500.
Of course it is. When one can’t even call out a local
policeman in a small city of 10,000 (like ours) for domestic
violence or street brawls (all ethanol related) because “Sorry,
we don’t have enough resources” ( ‘…….because
we’re wasting them targeting individual Australians for
their individual belief when it comes to their drug of choice
and the human right of use……’).
But Supt Lyons was adamant a New York-style "broken windows"
approach is the only way to smash a culture he said is destroying
social order in Nimbin.
The Cannabis Race Culture is not destroying the social order
in Nimbin. ABUSE combined with disrespect, combined with apartheid
law/prohibition of use and choice, is destroying not only the
social order in Nimbin, but Australia and worldwide. And what
is Supt. Lyon’s answer to it? “A ‘New York
style “broken windows” approach’ with the
mandate of smashing cannabis culture, which WILL be replaced
with Australia’s/Ethanolia’s Ethanol drug culture,
complete with mascots. Eradicate the Plantem and relace him
with Bundy Bear riding a Bottle of Bundy through the main street
as he and his bottle has ‘now’ replaced Nimbin’s
Big joint. “Etho! Etho! Etho! Oy! Oy! Oy!”
Abuse is being wielded by the Police to try and smash a culture
(’broken windows approach“)………!
But I guess they don’t see it like that. Abuse is legal,
as long as it has the ‘buzzword’ ‘legal’
and ‘by law’ attached.
“I'm passionate about fixing the problem because, unless
we deal with all the social problems, the town will continue
to see the consequences of drug addiction.” Supt Lyons,
who has been in charge of the far North Coast for three years,
said.
Supt Lyons says he is passionate about fixing the problem,
but he doesn’t know what the problem is. The problem is
ABUSE and it doesn’t care if the drug is legal or illegal.
ABUSE causes all the social problems, not the drug, and the
consequences of abusive drug addiction are dire indeed. But
for him to target use and choice is the same as Hitler targeting
the Jews because he believed they were the problem. If Supt
Lyons has been in charge of the Far North Coast Police for 3
years, then he’d have to know that ABUSE is rife in ALL
sectors of drugs and lifestyles and he’s targeting only
use and choice on selective drugs. No wonder he’s been
getting a lot of criticism. But we personally prefer constructive
criticism and Zero Tolerance is not an answer to any choice,
save for abuse.
"I have been getting a lot of criticism about this approach
but there is a silent majority in Nimbin talking to me saying
they want change and change is what needs to happen."
And what do they want to change? Well, that would be the culture
of ABUSE and not drugs per se, as the silent majority are also
drug takers (albeit hiding behind the buzzword ‘legal’
to excuse their drug consumption….sometimes in abuse and
addiction)
For years gangs have intimidated and assaulted those police
who have been shutting down the drug dealing.
This is a two part issue. 1) The greatest gift ever given to
criminals on both sides of the licit/illicit Great Australian/
World Divide was the gift of Prohibition on selective use and
choice. Government’s basically gave anyone who wanted
to be a criminal on both sides of the law, carte blanche. On
one side, “we can deal to anyone we like and we can advocate
our drugs even to children as young as two through the mediums
of media, sport, celebrity, fashion, music, politics and fun
family events etc - i.e. Monday Night Football is now called
Bundy Night Football with all the advertising they can muster
to target all ages equally.” Legal Drug Lords love apartheid,
it means THEY can do what they like. It even means that they
can call the drugs they deal nothing but a drink or a beverage
and they can call their own drug dealers, licensees.
While…..on the other side, it’s “thanks to
prohibition, drugs are now one hell of a commodity and can earn
us lots of money. So, if we enslave people, abuse people, target,
intimidate and assault people, who cares? We’ve already
been segregated and called criminals whether we use or abuse,
so who gives a damn. “In for a penny, in for a pound”.
Five security cameras were installed along Nimbin's main street
in 2005 at a cost of about $40,000.
$40,000 worth of cameras. We hope for that price that they
actually filmed real crime like assault, rape, wanton destruction,
burglary, etc, instead of just targeting drug dealers that should
be dealing inside a respectable drug dealership, just like ethanol
drug dealers, caffeine drug dealers, nicotine drug dealers and
pharmaceutical drug dealers are supposed to be doing, even though
they (buzzword ‘legals’) show blatant disrespect
and abuse when it comes to their drug dealing and pushing practices.
However, we can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater,
as there are SOME who are respectful and responsible ‘legal’
drug dealers.
But that only pushed drug pushers into the back alleys where
they use friends as police lookouts while they continue to peddle
drugs.
Qstn: Seeing as Australia is supposed to believe in a ‘fair
go’ for all, and Johnny is constantly touting the right
of competition, why would people want any other drug than Govvy’s
Big 3 (ethanol, nicotine and caffeine). Could it be that the
above 3 are not the only drugs of choice in Australia anymore?
(Remembering, of course, that Cannabis and ethanol came to Australia
at the same time). Could it be that some Australians would like
a different drug of choice than the one that is constantly touted
as ‘all good’ or “the best start to the morning’
etc?…or the latest ‘joke’ “therapeutic
nicotine” - a neurotoxic, highly addictive drug! Which
is why, when it comes to the two newest Drug Lords for nicotine
(Nicorette and Nicabate) our statement is simple, “Nicorette,
Nicorette, it’s still a drug, don’t forget”
and “Nicabate, Nicabate. Realize it’s a drug before
it’s too late”.
Undercover police have conducted many operations in Nimbin
over the years but Supt Lyons wants to let drug dealers know
police will now be on the streets.
Supt. Lyons now wants to let drug dealers know Police will
now be on the streets. So, ‘Achtung, any drug dealer,
except the 4 biggest Drug dealing Collectives/Cartels in Australia
(Big Nico, Big Etho, Big Pharma and Big Caff/TMX).
Note: Caffeine’s true name is tri-methyl-xanthine, so
why is our Government and its vested interests trying constantly
to get kids hooked on this legal ‘meth’ i.e. “Don’t
take meth, except tri-meth of the xanthine chemical stimulant
group”?
During the Mardi Grass festival in May 109 people were arrested
for drugs and bad behaviour.
During the Mardi Grass Cannabis Race Festival, a festival dedicated
to the Race Cannabis and its 4 pheno-types (sativa, indica,
ruderalis and henep) 109 people were arrested (some for their
individual drug of choice and others for abusive behaviour).
Of those, 57 were cautioned while the rest faced court and
criminal charges.
Of those, 57 Australians were cautioned about not taking their
drug of choice and getting on Govvy’s big 3 instead…or
else! While, the rest faced court and criminal charges. Most
probably for drug dealing. Meanwhile, ethanol, caffeine and
nicotine drug dealers got away scott free and if anyone watches
the local news report, that shows the police looking down on
the Mardi Grass marchers from the local Ethanol Drug dealing
and consumption establishment. Why didn’t they target
them? Why didn’t they also target the Ethanol drug dealers
for allowing the consumers to get drugged off their tree on
the drug ethanol, then tell them they can’t sell them
anymore and to get out! It would be interesting to see which
drug consumers (regardless of the drugs) were part of the abusive
anti-social behaviour. Every time we see the word ‘anti-social’
behaviour being touted in any of our news reports, it’s
to do with the abuse of the drug ethanol, which is why for the
last 3 years we have called this form of abuse - ethanol social
behaviour, as ethanol drug abuse is now classed as a social
‘norm’ while people are denied their human right
of selective individual use and choice when it comes to drug
taking, whether recreational, medicinal or spiritual.
"In the past, undercover drug units have turned (Nimbin's
drug culture) upside down and left, then its reverted back to
normal," he said.
“In the past, undercover competition eradication drug
units have turned Nimbin’s Cannabis culture (and other
drug culture) upside down and left, then it’s reverted
back to normal”. Damn…you would have thought this
would actually have given Supt. Lyons a clue that people want
different drugs of choice, not just the ones that Supt. Lyons
and others say are ‘okay for you’.
"I want local police to deal with the problem and become
part of the community because if they do that they will get
the respect.
“I want local police to deal with the problem”….so
do we. The problem is ABUSE and the other problem is P.O.L.I.C.E.
(which is Protecting Ordinary Liberated Individual Citizens
Equally) being eradicated and replaced with C.O.P.S. (Corporate
Organised Protection Squads/ Competition Eradicators). If they
(the Police) truly show respect, which means ‘to look
again at your actions in regards to yourself and others’,
then they will get the respect they deserve. But, at the moment,
the police care more about the buzzwords ‘legal’
and ‘illegal’ than the Criteria that governs all
drugs….the CRITERIA OF HARM. That Criteria is mortality,
morbidity, toxicity, addictiveness and relationship with crime.
This Criteria does not segregate between drugs of choice, but
it does help us gain an understanding of drugs of choice and
exposes the difference between the principles of use vs abuse.
Our Government seems to think that we are kindergarteners and
have not reached the age of individual decision making and reason
even once we get to 18. This is partially why the Criteria of
Harm has been either suppressed or eradicated in favour of the
‘our drugs all good, your drugs all bad’ drug apartheid
policy we have in Australia today. The other part is as follows:
“When Governments and Political parties, who are bought
and sponsored by Drug Lords/Cartels, write drug policy…it’s
a safe bet that the policy is written in favour of that particular
Drug Lord/Cartel and the Drug/s that they create, advocate and
deal”. Can anyone prove us wrong in this regard?
We have taken the time to go through all drug policies in Australia
and they seem to mimic a lot of facist, apartheid, truly Nazi-onal,
socialist policies. On the illicit side they start off with
as much discrimination, prejudice, bias and hatred as possible
i.e. ‘The Dickhead and Loser Campaign”, while on
the legal side, they start off with not only praising the drug
and its drug lords, but stating how wonderful a thing it is
to have this drug and its culture in every aspect of Australian
culture. Then they go on to talking about excessive ’drinking,’
binge ’drinking’, ‘drinking’ to excess
etc.etc. as if they’re not even talking about Australia’s
favourite Class A drug of choice. W.A.G.A.S.I.L. has been our
statement when it comes to the legal drug cartels getting away
with murder (literally) in this country and worldwide. W.A.G.A.S.I.L.
stands for, “Who Actually Gives A Shit, It’s Legal”.
"It's not about police continuing to use the law to fix
the problems of Nimbin, its going to take a lot more than that
(to end the drug culture)."
First of all, Police wield and manipulate the law, just like
Politicians do, with no true benefit which is what ‘use’
means. The law must be changed if we are ever to fix the problem
of abuse in Australia….never mind Nimbin! And, if Supt..
Bruce Lyons believes that he has the right to end particular
cultures he doesn’t like, he is sadly mistaken. Culture
eradication is cultural genocide and that is a crime against
humanity. What we need to target in this country is the cultivated
culture of ABUSE that freely grows in this country on both sides
of the licit/illicit divide.
Now allow us to demonstrate exactly the difference between
USE and ABUSE.
USE is the beneficial application and/or action of something.
Respectful use is to look again at your actions, to make doubly
sure that what you are doing is truly beneficial to you and
others.
ABUSE, on the other hand, is the destroyer. It is the perversion
of action and application. Abuse does not care what drug you
take, what breed, nationality or tribe you come from, whether
you’re rich or poor, whether you have good standing in
the community or living on the streets - Abuse can, so it does.
And the only thing that can stop abuse is the individual decision
of respectful use.
If you put your drug of choice before your family - you are
an abuser. Family comes first.
If you put your drug of choice before your own safety - you
are an abuser. Safety comes first.
If you put your drug of choice before your work - you are an
abuser. Work comes first.
If you put your drug of choice before your friends - you are
an abuser. Friendship comes first.
If you put your drug of choice before your relationship/marriage
- you are an abuser. Relationships/Marriage comes first.
If you put your drug of choice before your rent, mortgage,
and bills - you are an abuser. These things come first.
If you put your drug of choice before your nutrition, you are
an abuser. Nutrients for the body come fist, as all drugs (regardless
of buzzwords) burn nutrients and devour your nutrients. “Drugs
- if you don’t eat, they eat you”.
People take illicit drugs for the same reasons they take so-called
‘legals’. For recreation, medicine, spirituality/meditation
and escape. People like the social aspect. People like the cultural
aspect. These things are not bad/abusive aspects when it comes
to drugs of choice. The only thing that is, is ABUSE. So, ‘Whatever
your drug of choice, please, for your sake and others, respect
what you use and choose not to abuse. Use is your right - abuse
is not!” Yet, they are both choices.
April, 2006 Michael Balderston quoted in the Lismore Northern
Star….
Mr Balderstone said the prosecution of easy-to-bust cannabis
users had helped the rapid expansion in the use of pills and
chemical powders like ice.
"Even at Mardi Grass, the more they pursue the smell of
cannabis the more people will pop an odourless pill and drink
more legal alcohol“
Every time a drug of choice is targeted and removed, another
(usually more dangerous one) takes its place. Cannabis and caffeine
are Class C drugs for a reason. But pills, ‘ice’,
ethanol, nicotine etc. are all Class A and B for a reason and
that reason can be judged under the Criteria of Harm involved
instead of just what we have at the moment with Government and
vested interests prejudicing themselves against selective, individual
drugs of choice. By the way, every time a member of the Cannabis
race gets hunted down and eradicated/genocided, another legal
drug gets its wings as well as, of course, the chemicalised
clones of the Cannabis race - Hydro. We personally don’t
even want these chemicals in our food, but nearly all food nowadays
is grown with the same stuff we are supposed to be horrified
about when we see it being applied in a Hydro House or some
other drug lab. Meanwhile, when it comes to Hydro House vs Your
House in chemicals, there’s not much difference and the
only difference between a Supermarket aisle and a hydro house/drug
lab is that there are more toxic chemicals in the Supermarket
aisle and all these toxic chemicals are being pushed, advertised
and advocated to all ages 7 days a week, 365 days a year in
every medium.
Quote: Dr. A.C. Germann - Prof. emeritus of the Dept. of Criminal
Justice, California.
“It is a national embarrassment that many of our approaches
to drug use and drug abuses (at least he knows there’s
a difference between use and abuse) remain so puerile, ignorant
and vindictive. We need truthful information about responsible
drug use, and irresponsible drug abuse, of both licit and illicit
drugs, so called. We need alternatives to the repressive and
demonising application of Police, Prosecution and Prison, and
to consider reasoned and compassionate uses (benefit) of education,
treatment and rehabilitation. Such alternatives would clearly
demonstrate that policies of Zero Tolerance are counter productive,
worsen a horrible situation, waste public monies, corrupt agencies,
and serve only the interests of the Drug Conglomerates, the
Prison/Criminal Justice Industrial Complex and unfair Agency
Forfeiture Acquisitions .
The repetitive refrain (and one that our politicians wield
on a constant basis) “We need to hire more police, pass
tougher laws, get tougher judges, pass longer sentences and
build more jails and prisons” is a popular and Addictive
ditty, but unrealistic and self-defeating, and a politically
mandated loyalty oath.
We seem unable to learn from the painful history of Alcohol
Prohibition”.
The Hemparty is on the road again. We are looking for people
who can keep their electoral details up to date, and who are
unafraid to answer the AEC letters that will be sent to a random
20 HEMP Party members to verify our membership.
Using their well honed Truth Overboard tactics, the
conservative pollies are trying to convince an experienced public
that today's cannabis isn’t the same drug that has so
consistently failed to hurt anyone. Our own Thomas George tried
to label potheads as rioters in Parliament in 2006. Now we are
getting a Howard Bong Ban?
"The early models of the Drugwipe screening test have
also been evaluated in several
studies conducted in the late 1990’s. While very few false
positives or negatives were
found when testing for cocaine and amphetamines, a high rate
of false positives was found
for opiates (35%). The results for cannabinoids were the poorest
with high proportions of
false negatives (40%) and a false positive rate as high as 28%
in one study (see Mura et al.,
2000). The detection limits of the device for THC were however
not specified. Again using
an early model Drugwipe device, a study by Samyn and van Haeren
(2000) sampled 27
participants who displayed signs of intoxication, of whom 15
reported recent use of
cannabis. The stated surface sensitivity of the device was 50
ng/ml for THC. Samyn and
van Haeren (2000) reported three false positives and nine false
negatives from the 15 who
reported recent cannabis use. It was suggested at that time
that new antibodies with a
higher sensitivity for THC were required to improve the Drugwipe
test for cannabis (Mura
et al., 2000; Samyn & van Haeren, 2000)."
This quote from P39 of
Cannabis and road rafety: A review of recent epidemiological,
driver impairment, and drug screening literature
Monash University Accident Research Centre - Report
#231 [2004]
Also contains studies on the
effect of cannabis on driving skills.
Victimless Crimes
The sex industry, the drugs industry,
and the gambling industry: Governments have always struggled
with how to regulate certain pleasure seeking behaviors, especially
when they clash with religious concepts of sin, which sex, drugs
and gambling usually do. In law they they tend to come under
the general description of 'Vice', which addresses the big three
'morality crimes'.
The problem for governments is that
these activities are not always harmful (even though they can
be), and in one form or another, they are as old as civilization
and haven't shown much sign of disappearing. People, it seems,
like pleasure and seek it out regardless of whether it is frowned
upon, or even specifically prohibited and criminalised, as gambling
drugs and sex work have been and remain to varying degrees in
different places around the world.
"Prohibition will work great injury to the
cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within
itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts
to control a man's appetite by legislation, and makes a crime
out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes
a blow at the very principles upon which our government was
founded."
This
didn’t sit easy with the current Australian government. The Age
suggests the sensationalised climate that politicians have to work
within makes them fearful of entering a rational debate on drugs. A
problem we’ve hit on time and time again.
However,
there is a glimmer of hope. There is a train bound for a world based on
reality and a growing number of politicians from across the political
spectrum are happily taking luncheon in the dining carriage.
This is good news because coming soon is a major new document
produced by Transform with the sole aim to aid rational debate
on drug policy. ‘Tools for Debate’ will be a groundbreaking
point-of-reference for anyone wishing to challenge non-rational
policy positions, no matter how emotionally persuasive the rhetoric.
20th February '007: Peter Till,
a.k.a. Rock, the fellow who takes potted plants to court to
show how harmless they are, just got thirty days imprisonment.
Our hearts are with you Peter. Marc Emery admires your guts,
and says you're in the next Cannabis Culture magazine anyway,
due out mid March. Congrats. See you at MardiGrass!
OK, we run a shop too. Our volunteer staff have shop meetings
on Thursdays, and usually, thats when any new products are looked
at, to see if we think they are appropriate for the Embassy.
We have been meeting the team from Arianrhod
Aromatics for awhile now, and members have been testing
their products, providing feedback. Their enthusiasm and commitment
is infectious, so we now have their products available at the
HEMP Embassy.
Drug laws 'need major overhaul'
Current drug campaigns are failing,
the report says
Drug laws in Britain have been criticised
as being "not fit for purpose" in a major report. An investigation
by the RSA says illicit substances can be "harmless", while
drinking and smoking can cause as many problems. It says the
law has been "driven by moral panic", and suggests policy-making
should be left to drug teams and local authorities. The Home
Office says it does not accept all of the report's recommendations.
Anthony King, professor of government at Essex University, who
chaired the Commission on Illegal Drugs, said the "great majority"
of drug users did not harm themselves or others. "Current policy
is broke and needs to be fixed," he added. The RSA's panel recommends
scrapping the Misuse of Drugs Act and replacing it with a broader
Misuse of Substances Act, and replacing the existing ABC classification
system with an "index of harms". Panel members included Deputy
Assistant Commissioner John Yates of the Metropolitan Police.
This would extend the definition of drugs to include alcohol
and tobacco - as well as illegal substances, which the report
says have been "demonised". The report, entitled Illegal Drugs,
Communities and Public Policy, also calls for so-called "shooting
galleries" to be introduced where users can inject drugs as
well as wider access to prescription heroin. It says policy
should be about reducing harm and pursuing the criminal gangs
behind the drugs trade rather than the level of crime. If drug
taking does not harm anyone, then criminal sanction
