Oooh. Good point. Without meaning to, I may indeed have nicked Mr Bollinger's nickname ...

I've also seen his wife Helen referred to as HelBol. Maybe this is just in the media, I don't know – I don't have any personal knowledge.

You can buy 1% alcohol content liquid or up to 40% alcohol content liquid, you can also be sure that the preparation of that liquid has been legally hygenic. You have to be a certain age and you can't get publicly wasted.

You can also legally make up to 100%…

Surely you wouldn't want to take Alun Bollinger's nickname and assign it to Alan Bollard without some sort of acknowledgement?

Oooh. Good point. Without meaning to, I may indeed have nicked Mr Bollinger's nickname ...

Surely you wouldn't want to take Alun Bollinger's nickname and assign it to Alan Bollard without some sort of acknowledgement?

"AlBol" (number of ells presumably negotiable), for those who missed the end of Media 7.

But for the legal drug alcohol all the study in the world hasn't really helped as much as society needs.

You can buy 1% alcohol content liquid or up to 40% alcohol content liquid, you can also be sure that the preparation of that liquid has been legally hygenic. You…

But for the legal drug alcohol all the study in the world hasn't really helped as much as society needs.

I guess that depends on how you define that need. If society generally decides that alcohol should be used more responsibly, many steps could be taken, both through rules and…

What makes me cry is when people spell "whisky" with an e.

that's right mixing e with alcohol is bad...

so now I undestand chch's problem :
we have souped up boy racers and congestion
and we have mixed up kids (& older) coingesting

And it isn't clear to me how to favour the decent dealers and put the scumbags in jail (assuming that's the best place to put them).

__But I wouldn’t want to stay here
It’s too old and cold and settled in it’s ways here
Oh, but california
California I’m coming…

The same is true of alcohol.

And my guess is the same is true for most drugs, although for some drugs there appears to be no safe consumption.…

The evidence, she be somewhat contradictory.

The MDMA-causes-Parkinson's paper was withdrawn by its author after it was discovered that the lab rats had not been administered MDMA at all, but large doses of methamphetamine. All-time-famous whoopsie, that one.

I'm not aware of the current research on MDMA as a treatment…

Matt Bowden's Stargate was the company behind the best NZ-packaged and most reliable information about BZP

alcohol was coingested on 39/80 hospital admissions

See my comment above about association with binge drinking. I really think that was a problem with BZP.

Four patients used multiple illicit coningestants which included MDMA, LSD, and ritalin

Ugh. Coingestion of BZP and LSD sounds unspeakably vile to me.

What makes me cry is when people spell "whisky" with an e.

Yeah, sorry about that, from January.

If it helps, I did fully realise that you weren't serving Jack Daniels.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw4jkvyox1U&feature=player_embedded

Actually, lovers of fine whisky are some of the most erudite and civilised folk you could hope to encounter :-)

I wish I had the ability to drink it , it sounds fun. :)

Personally I'm not down with the heavy liquid. Stereotypically a whisky drinker is a bad boy.

Actually, lovers of fine whisky are some of the most erudite and civilised folk you could hope to encounter :-)

But the disparity does illustrate that substance abuse is a problem with people, not a problem with…

Personally I'm not down with the heavy liquid. Stereotypically a whisky drinker is a bad boy.

But let's ban Whiskey for a while , then you'll see the abuse and tears roll up on these pages.

What makes me cry is when people spell "whisky" with an e.

I suspect they are similar social factors to those that lead Christchurch teenagers to spend a lot of time driving in circles.

Here's the paper from Dr Paul Gee of Christchurch Hospital ED.

A similar study at Auckland Hospital found nothing like the same degree of problems.

Some people felt…

But let's ban Whiskey for a while , then you'll see the abuse and tears roll up on these pages.

That's social factors, and maybe looking at how they work is an important part of harm reduction.

I suspect they are similar social factors to those that lead Christchurch teenagers to spend a lot of time driving in circles.

That isn't all that curious. The kids of Auckland (and Wellington) were obviously better able to regulate their drug use, take a safe dose, and not trouble A&E than those in Christchurch.

what are you saying precisely?
which social factors particularly?

perhaps delirium tremens
lead to deleterious tremors...

curiously, way more in Christchurch
than Auckland

That isn't all that curious. The kids of Auckland (and Wellington) were obviously better able to regulate their drug use, take a safe dose, and not trouble A&E than those in Christchurch. That's social factors, and maybe looking at how they work is an…

And apparently it gets worse.

He did some similar style writing for Critic in the early 1980s – equating manly physical thrusting with the target of feminism.

Apparently an arsehole for 30 years and counting.

I see M Laws wading into the whole whale saving thang in the SST at the weekend, with all his signature compassion and empathy. Apparently Pilot Whales are the "dumbest animals on the planet", Project Jonah are "feral"
and "god botherers" and so on...

I proposed on Twitter yesterday that…

Occasionally I'll have a whitebait fritter though. One bite, so many lives.

aah well, if it's quantity you are after may I suggest Probiotics...
so much easier to swallow than those dancing-angel-laden pinheads

absinthe makes the hurt grow fonder...

Laudanum with a touch of absinthe..good taste!!…

@Sophie

That's Sofie to you ;-)

.good taste!!

I like to think so.;-)

I'm…

But the truth is Tom has shown he is an arsehole with his attitude towards cannabis users.

Lets not pretend otherwise.

The hat fits in this instance.

I can lend you a shovel if you'd like.

In fact its a negative sterotype smear against pigs which probably helps us ( humans ) gloss over our terrible treatment towards them .......they get tortured for greed.

But the truth is…

To allow the whales that die, to sink, is to replenish other species, part of a cycle that is being depleted and desperately needs sustainable practise. Surely we should send these whales back to be recycled.

In a perfect world: yes. In a world where we'd have to tow them…

Dear delicious entities that they are...in short supply at the moment because of sea & weather conditions, but there's a while to go yet...

I think I started the pig-dissing. Point taken

I have been known to call people a cow also.

.

That said, I DON'T eat pigs. Or cows. Or any mammals.
Occasionally I'll have a whitebait fritter though. One bite, so many lives.

Yes I don't either,but I do eat the little…

Occasionally I'll have a whitebait fritter though. One bite, so many lives

Can you look them in their little eyes?

I don't have much time for pot smokers – far to many of them are tediously addled losers from abusing the stuff and/or tend to make it the topic of their conversation at every opportunity.

As everyone else has pointed out, that's an absurd generalisation.

But ...

I have always…

I took offense at his use of a stereotype smear.
Racism, bigotry and persecution are all based on them.
Imagine if Tom had said "I don't have much time for Blacks – far to many of them are losers " ........

instead of…

The truth is that alcohol is the most neurotoxic and carcinogenic of the 50 most commonest recreational drugs.

Alcohol is more likely to give you cancer than cigarettes? Cite please...

As a very occasional poster to PAS,you do need to know that we treat each other with a bit more courtesy around here.

Oh yeah? I don't see that Peter grower has been any less courteous than one or two of the long-term posters have been in the past.

The…

BUT I took offense at his use of a stereotype smear.

Racism, bigotry and persecution are all based on them.

Imagine if Tom had said "I don't have much time for Blacks – far to many of…

@Peter Grower. As a very occasional poster to P AS,you do need to know that we treat each other with a bit more courtesy around here.

Yes, most here are quite pleasant when giving Tom Semmens a bollocking. ;)

And, what Islander said upthread, on the button.

I have a theory about about the brains of the…

If you were living back in the day, a good brew would be to take your fungi, dry it, then put it in your jar of honey. Your fungi reconstitutes in the honey, it will last forever, and you have…

The thing I've always found fascinating is -we (elephants,us& other primates) actually love and NEED…

@Tom, you need to meet more potheads :) My friends who still use regularly *never* rant on about legalisation.

I took Tom to be referring to the tendency of some potheads to talk about it a lot in general, not necessarily just about legalisation.

I've spent decades amongst all socio-economic levels, all types of substance use and abuse. Its not the lower levels who are murdering the rational debate, its the others who think they will be some…

There are a lot of high functioning pot smokers out there who do not advertise their presence, just as with the great mass of highly functioning alcoholic professionals we have in New Zealand.

In terms of abuse, equating functioning pot smokers with alcoholics isn't such a good idea! Of course,…

As for the profit motive, you do know cannabis is a plant, and that it's really easy to grow, right?

Home brewing is easy to and New Zealand is one of the few places where owning a still isn't illegal, but drinkers hardly lay seige to DIY home brewing suppliers…

I don't have much time for pot smokers – far to many of them are tediously addled losers from abusing the stuff and/or tend to make it the topic of their conversation at every opportunity

I suggest Tom that the group you identify are a small proportion of…

Maybe Big Booze and Big Pharma can't stand competition?

I don't have much time for pot smokers – far to many of them are tediously addled losers from abusing the stuff and/or tend to make it the topic of their conversation at every opportunity.

But I consider keeping the stuff…

Do they have further earthshattering discoveries to import.

Major taxpayer funded study to reveal that marijuana is linked to sitting around and getting high?

I think the original source for that article may have been theonion.com

He's not the most modest person but he did challenge some very entrenched, ruthless and irrational powers in Academia when there wasn't a lot of support.

Dutton is not the most modest person in the same way that ACT are not the most socialist politicians.

And they keep awfully quiet in regards to the drug that actually causes a crime wave every weekend in NZ…

Anyone wanting a copy of it as 5 pg pdf: paula @norml.org.nz

...but they're also plainly socially mediated too.

I'm sure Dutton would agree.

He's not the most modest person but he did challenge some very entrenched, ruthless and irrational powers in Academia when there wasn't a lot of support.

Brian Boyd might be a better bet for a chat over a…

Mark Easton's current BBC blog also talks about the obvious need "for a sophisticated crime harm matrix" and concludes:

__So the idea…

I'm now facing the dilemma of being all fired up…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJA69C6SlRk

Congratulations.

And whoever it was that tweeted that @nzben is "full of shit"…

Yes it is. How can we help you?'

'I'm calling to report my neighbour, Rangi. He's hiding
cocaine inside his firewood!'

'Thank you very much for the call.'

Early next morning, police officers descend on Rangi's
house in great numbers.

They search the house and…

Policeman (bends at knees): 'ello 'ello 'ello what's all this then
Culprit #1: nothin offica…