Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: High Times

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  • Mikaere Curtis,

    I suspect Anderton may have been referring to that young guy who Darwined himself by taking NOS whilst driving in Nelson a couple of years back. He hit the Bridge St bridge, the car flipped and he drowned in the Maitai.

    Tamaki Makaurau • Since Nov 2006 • 528 posts Report Reply

  • InternationalObserver,

    Obligatory public health warning:

    Please note that the NOS in cars is not suitable for human consumption, it contains additives that make it very dangerous. It is also explosive in the wrong circumstances

    You're just saying that so you can keep all the good stuff for yerself, eh MikeE? I'm off to Repco right now to get some -- and if I die it's all PAS's fault (esp RB's).

    Since Jun 2007 • 909 posts Report Reply

  • MikeE,

    I suspect Anderton may have been referring to that young guy who Darwined himself by taking NOS whilst driving in Nelson a couple of years back. He hit the Bridge St bridge, the car flipped and he drowned in the Maitai.,

    One wonders how in the hell someone manages to first get a baloon over a cracker, then cracks thenos into it, manages to fill the baloon, inhales and then manages to hold the NOS in their lungs long enough for it to have any effect on their driving (apart from the fact that it would be bloody hard to concentrate while doing this and you'd need two hands).

    To be honest, I don't believe that NOS would have had any impact on his driving ability, as he wouldn't have been likely to have had nos while driving - and as mentioned, it is such a short term high that it wouldn't hav elasted long enough.

    I call bullshit on that one.

    Washington DC • Since Nov 2006 • 138 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Oh the humanity! Imagine knowing that some kids at your school had grown and smoked "the leaf".

    After reading the rest of this thread, I can only hope they'd *cough* ingested it in the traditional matter. Though, come to think of it, a body cavity full of dope would explain a thing or two...

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    __Please note that the NOS in cars is not suitable for human consumption, it contains additives that make it very dangerous. It is also explosive in the wrong circumstances.__

    Actually, The Lab, the NOS "lounge" in Christchurch, sources its gas by virtue of a drag racing licence (and then sells it for $6 a balloon), so I'm not sure if that's always true. But if in doubt ...

    You're just saying that so you can keep all the good stuff for yerself, eh MikeE? I'm off to Repco right now to get some -- and if I die it's all PAS's fault (esp RB's).

    Damn!

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • dyan campbell,

    Paul what's the prob being married to a Kennedy

    _

    I think what the original poster meant "what's wrong with that picture" so to speak, is that Arnold is not a Democrat - he's a Republican and the Kennedy family are famously Democrats.

    auckland • Since Dec 2006 • 595 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Oh the humanity! Imagine knowing that some kids at your school had grown and smoked "the leaf".

    That story's quite weird. It's hard to tell but there's no reference to them having had any pot bar the six little seedlings they got caught with. In which case, they were hardly in a position to supply themselves, let alone their schoolmates.

    Still, let's not let that stop the grown-ups having a full-blown fit over it ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • dyan campbell,

    Did they come up faster?


    The theory goes that that the bowl will absorb more of the MDMA and absorb it faster, leading to a more intense experience. Apparently, you pop the pill up your bum until you "hit the little shelf" which is where one deposits it. Those who the lack the shame and mkae it a regular practice apparently swear by it.

    It's not so much that it hits a shelf, but that the rectuml itself is very permeable (it's designed to absorb water, and why they administer drugs like anti-emetics PR) and has a high, efficient blood supply, so it can cross into your bloodstream without being delayed by digestive processes, which follow a process for good evolutionary reasons.

    It also make it waaay more dangerous! Who knows what the effects of this drug are on that very specific kind of tissue? I am always amazed at what some people are willing to do to their bodies. I've worked with junkies, rent boy, society's flotsam. The problem is not that they don't know what happens, it's that they don't really care.

    Mind you, I once ate a roast chicken at a Westie barbeque, and that chicken had attended a previous party that day, so who am I to talk? I forgot the Westie rule of food hygeine, never eat a chicken that has been to more parties than you that day.

    auckland • Since Dec 2006 • 595 posts Report Reply

  • dc_red,

    That story's quite weird. It's hard to tell but there's no reference to them having had any pot bar the six little seedlings they got caught with. In which case, they were hardly in a position to supply themselves, let alone their schoolmates.

    Still, let's not let that stop the grown-ups having a full-blown fit over it ...

    Ahh, but a full-blown fit is what we do best! But yeah, the story makes no reference whatsoever to the number or state of preparedness of the "plants". Presumably if the kids had a source for seeds, they had a potential source for "leaves" as well. But it's still a leap.

    Anyway, like the billboard says in Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, "Don't gamble with marijuana! In Nevada: Possession - 20 years. Sale - life!"

    Life imprisonment (and not just in a boarding school) would teach the little blighters. I will email Mssrs Peters, Dunne and Anderton with this suggestion forthwith.

    Oil Patch, Alberta • Since Nov 2006 • 706 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Mind you, I once ate a roast chicken at a Westie barbeque, and that chicken had attended a previous party that day, so who am I to talk? I forgot the Westie rule of food hygeine, never eat a chicken that has been to more parties than you that day.

    I just hope James Griffin's reading. There's the germ of an Outrageous Fortune storyline in that, for sure.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • paulalambert,

    Ho hum, Gary the Hawaiian expert 'drug educator' sounds similar to NZ's 'expert' Trevor Grice. Last evening he was at my son's Chch intermediate school talking to parents. First he softened them up with humour esp non pc, then bamboozled them with science, and when talking about pot - which he spent way more time on than alcohol or p - provoked a huge gasp from the audience when he assured them pot today is up to 35%THC instead of the 2-4% it was 30 years ago . . . and answered first question from frightened parent 'how we can protect the kids from all this out in the community' with 'we are short 2000 police' . . how reassuring for her, I wonder whether she bought his book, he mentioned it enough times. What a guy.
    Anyone wanting to know where to get 35% THC pot read this http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-842X.2000.tb00500.x

    chch • Since Dec 2006 • 107 posts Report Reply

  • dyan campbell,

    I just hope James Griffin's reading. There's the germ of an Outrageous Fortune storyline in that, for sure.

    My god, I have a have a lot of Westie stories. Amd one liners:

    "Have you seen Glen's mole?"
    "What, has he got a new girlfriend?"

    A real conversation.

    And I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure I, a foreigner from Canada, invented the concept of stupid dangerous Westie games. Feet and Dead Animals are both my own inventions.

    auckland • Since Dec 2006 • 595 posts Report Reply

  • dc_red,

    If the THC content in weed had increased 10 or 20 fold (and clearly the 'educators' are just plucking the number off the shelf in their asses for the occasion) wouldn't that be a good thing from the perspective of harm reduction?

    You'd only have to smoke (or otherwise consume) a 10th, or a 20th, as much weed to get baked as was once the case.

    And as a general rule I imagine the less smoke you draw into your lungs, the better?

    Oil Patch, Alberta • Since Nov 2006 • 706 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson,

    You'd only have to smoke (or otherwise consume) a 10th, or a 20th, as much weed to get baked as was once the case.

    My memory of what kids could get in the 80s (when I was a kid) was that you needed a joint each to get a buzz on. Now you can happily share one with a few people. Depends though, on how tolerant you have become from habitual use. Everyone I know who uses pot doesn't smoke joints, they have it in small nuggets in some sort of pipe.

    And yes, that does mean less total smoke passing through you, which is mostly better. It does also mean that overindulgence is easier. But the most likely outcome from that is sleep. Unless it's been laced with P that has miraculously escaped tamponized incarceration in someone's dirtpipe.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    My memory of what kids could get in the 80s (when I was a kid) was that you needed a joint each to get a buzz on.

    I came of age between buddha sticks and the good local sativa, so we started on what was euphemistically called "leaf and tips". The arrival of the stronger pot in our lives was fairly momentous.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • paulalambert,

    When did budda sticks finish, I went halves with a friend, it was $11. Not long after that there was a big musical festival at Ngaruawahia, 1974 or 5 ?
    I think I liked it and chose to continue because it generally felt safer to be amongst other stoners. Compared to the gits at the sports clubs and pubs.

    chch • Since Dec 2006 • 107 posts Report Reply

  • paulalambert,

    Adjustment; some pubs.

    chch • Since Dec 2006 • 107 posts Report Reply

  • Stephen Judd,

    I don't understand how pot could possibly be 34% THC.

    I mean, that would mean more than 1/3 of your pot was nothing but THC. And given that some of it has to be cellulose, some it has to be water, and that the sap must have other stuff in as well, I find that quite unlikely, except perhaps for the stickiest sticky bud ever.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 3122 posts Report Reply

  • paulalambert,

    Neither can I but I didn't want to stand up and argue with him, it was my fabulous only son's school. Thats what he said though, I gather he'd heard it at some recent US police conference, seems they're all still dead keen on the war on drugs.

    http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/drugs-alcohol/mg15721220.200 I just came across this again tonight, had forgotten about it.

    chch • Since Dec 2006 • 107 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson,

    Doesn't seem 10-20 times stronger to me. But it is a lot stronger. If I had to guess I'd say maybe 2-5 times stronger per volume than it was when I was a kid, and as a kid I was at the bottom end of the ripoff food chain. By the early 90s I'd say there's not much difference to now. I think the difference is mainly down to indoor cultivation of clones.

    The statistics are clearly aimed at the older middle aged people who may think dope smoking is OK because they did it in the 60s. The idea is to make them think something different is happening now. But in practice, stoners from the 60s just smoked more to get the same high, and any damage to their brains and psychology is the same as today. Their lungs and their wallets may have suffered more.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson,

    so we started on what was euphemistically called "leaf and tips"

    Was it euphemism or the sad truth?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • InternationalObserver,

    http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/drugs-alcohol/mg15721220.200 I just came across this again tonight, had forgotten about it.

    Nice link Paula but I think you're not seeing the big picture. Take a look again, and see if you can spot what you missed:

    21 February 1998
    HEALTH officials in Geneva have suppressed the publication of a politically sensitive analysis that confirms what ageing hippies have known for decades: cannabis is safer than alcohol or tobacco.

    Do you see it now? That report was dated 1998. That's pre-9/11. The world's a different place now. I think we all now recognise that evil forces are at work and the global drug trade is directly funding global terrorism. Which makes the Liquor and Tobacco Companies look positively benign - they pay huge taxes, which alleviates the burden on the rest of us.
    Think about that next time you catch little Johnny smoking behind the bike sheds at school. Would you rather he was smoking Tuhoe Thunder, and funding the Seperatists? Or would you rather he was smoking B&H, which means more Hip Replacement Surgery for those that need it without draining the public purse.
    I think maybe some of us owe 'Big Bad' Tobacco an apology ...?

    Since Jun 2007 • 909 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson,

    Yes, post 9/11, even ageing hippies are terrorists. It hasn't gone quite as far as the War on Drugs yet though, at least our children aren't enemies of the state just yet.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • Michael Fitzgerald,

    The war on drugs is real (or at least aspect of it are) .
    Britain already waged the war of drugs.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_wars

    Since May 2007 • 631 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    I don't understand how pot could possibly be 34% THC.

    It isn't, not by a long shot. As you suggest, it's probably not biologically possible.

    The British Medical Journal published an article in 2005:

    Overall, European cannabis potency averaged between 2 percent and 8 percent THC, authors wrote. By contrast, the average potency of cannabis available in the US is between 4 and 5 percent THC.

    Which sounds about right. New cultivation and breeding techniques have pushed up the potency a bit, but there are fairly obvious limits.

    I once knew someone who had participated in a trial involving pure THC in Dunedin, years ago. He said it got boring: it was exactly the same every time.

    There's widespread anecdotal agreement that the modern indica strains suited to indoor growing these days have a qualitatively different effect: a more narcotic, physical stone compared to the more trippy effect of the sativa strains (by legend, introduced as seeds from Hawaii stashed inside a surfboard in the early 70s) that became known as "New Zealand green" in the 1970s and 80s.

    A friend of mine still gets old-school Coromandel hippie pot. I had some with him a couple of years ago. It made me giggle.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

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