Public Address | Cafe | Hard News: Media Take: We need to talk about cannabis

Rosemary McDonald

Mon, 11 Feb 2019 12:19:02 +1300

Congratulations....https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/110494981/green-fairy-rose-renton-discharged-without-conviction-over-cannabis-charges

Whew!

Russell Brown

Sat, 09 Dec 2017 19:16:44 +1300

Thanks Rosemary!

See also the news story I wrote on what I can glean of the new government's plans.

No joy for green fairies, but progress on several other fronts.

Rosemary McDonald

Sat, 09 Dec 2017 11:12:38 +1300

An truly excellent piece of journalism Russell.

I've been trying to follow what's been happening to Rose Renton over the past few months...comes under the heading of 'wees, bums, poohs and aresholes', quite frankly.

Someone, perhaps sensing that their grip on power was waning, obviously declared a fatwa.

I have been…

Ian Dalziel

Fri, 19 May 2017 14:01:03 +1200

Drug users are vilified and patronised everywhere else I go.
In Auckland they are all 'villa-fied'....
;- )

...where's my coat?

Katharine Moody

Fri, 19 May 2017 10:47:56 +1200

Would be very interested in your thoughts about TOP's policy proposal, Russell;

http://www.top.org.nz/top8

Worik Stanton

Mon, 08 May 2017 08:59:26 +1200

Congratulations Russell Brown for your good work around drugs. Drug users are vilified and patronised everywhere else I go.

Thankyou Russell

Rosemary McDonald

Sun, 07 May 2017 21:36:59 +1200

She cant seriously think said family would be a functional unit with no issues if all the Cannabis magically dissapeared?

My other half and I were listening to your story on the radio the other day as I was putting him to bed, and wondering how best to source a…

Sacha

Sun, 07 May 2017 21:29:30 +1200

agri-academic utopia in NZ where our best agrichemists and botanists were developing new strains of weed that targeted all kinds specific medical uses – instead of trying to develop GM grasses that reduce methane gas output from cows.

For sure. There's an obvious high-value industry waiting to take advantage of…

Shane Le Brun

Sun, 07 May 2017 20:53:23 +1200

It was a bit frustrating to hear Marama talk about the spaced out family scenario all thanks to Cannabis. She cant seriously think said family would be a functional unit with no issues if all the Cannabis magically dissapeared? Reminds me of a Chris Rock joke about the ghetto being…

mark taslov

Fri, 05 May 2017 18:45:43 +1200

2. The genuinely-held views of Andrew Little – who’s not exactly up with the research

Which raises alarm bells for those hoping to change the Government to a group whose policies – one hopes – are more evidence based (across the board) than the current lot.

william blake

Fri, 05 May 2017 16:15:21 +1200

I'm not buying the binary; legalise pot so we can concentrate criminal efforts on P.
So cannabis is everywhere but you can't buy it at a tinny house, eh? I suspect pot is a musohippy thing and P is a fuckitgenrent thing. I would be following the drug foundations approach…

BenWilson

Fri, 05 May 2017 00:27:38 +1200

There’s another reason we need to be talking about this more seriously. And that’s that cannabis is everywhere. It’s in the culture in a way it has not been before.

It's high time.

Russell Brown

Thu, 04 May 2017 16:25:57 +1200

Yes, I agree and that’s why I prefer the Colorado model over the California one.

Colorado’s robust medical system is one reason its broader legalisation has worked so well. The METRC “seed-to-sale” system came from its medical regime – it began with bar codes and now uses RFID tags.

On…

Rich of Observationz

Thu, 04 May 2017 15:30:51 +1200

the widespread use of alcohol [in the 19th century] ... for a whole host of ailments

They knew almost nothing about physiology or biochemistry, and nearly everything they did know was wrong.

Consequently, anything that produced an effect, any effect, was a drug candidate. Alcohol is an anaesthetic, an emetic,…

Katharine Moody

Thu, 04 May 2017 14:55:15 +1200

But mostly, it’s not really medical marijuana, it’s decriminalisation.

Yes, I agree and that's why I prefer the Colorado model over the California one. Decriminalisation (largely for medicinal purposes) is a Clayton's form of reform. From what I can gather from the doco Druglawed it simply became the evil weed…

Ian Dalziel

Thu, 04 May 2017 11:04:05 +1200

a cultural aside:
(from The Secret Life of Books )
John Cooper Clarke explores Thomas de Quincey's autobiographical classic Confessions of an English Opium Eater
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNc3tP52lKI

Russell Brown

Thu, 04 May 2017 10:51:30 +1200

Oh, and here's A life of its own: The truth about medical marijuana, which screened on Choice on Sunday night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXnurWaDyEE

Russell Brown

Thu, 04 May 2017 10:21:18 +1200

The best case for medical marijuana that I’ve seen, is in California. It’s better to just allow people who want to use it, to use it, just as long as they know the side effects. And just like any medication, there are side effects.

I think there are problems with…

Russell Brown

Thu, 04 May 2017 10:13:24 +1200

That’s just magic thinking. These are completely different substances that do entirely different things to human beings.

Its just as good to argue that a shot of whisky would do the trick at a car accident.

No, it's real. People are doing it and there are promising studies.

Katharine Moody

Thu, 04 May 2017 09:36:25 +1200

That's where the doco on Choice…

Joe Wylie

Thu, 04 May 2017 08:44:22 +1200

These are completely different substances that do entirely different things to human beings. Its just as good to argue that a shot of whisky would do the trick at a car accident.
One of the striking things about accounts of 18th and 19th Century medicine is the widespread use of…

Katharine Moody

Thu, 04 May 2017 00:08:58 +1200

My argument completely. Let’s get rich on a sustainable, value-add crop. Lead the world. Point is – it won't happen in the US due to big pharma – we can get a serious jump on the int'l market by leading the way in R&D.

Katharine Moody

Thu, 04 May 2017 00:07:39 +1200

Life of Its Own: The Truth about Medical Marijuana on Choice TV on Sunday, converted my super-straight, conservative, pensioner partner :-). He became a conspiracy theorist at the same time, certain that US pharma was behind the suppression of all the product research and expertise on it in Israel.

Of…

dave stewart

Wed, 03 May 2017 22:03:05 +1200

Found it: http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/201839295/mps-asked-to-take-over-medicinal-cannabis-fight
At about 3.07, figure quoted $130M per year.

dave stewart

Wed, 03 May 2017 21:31:09 +1200

And what about the economic angle? I tuned into a RNZ Checkpoint discussion a few weeks ago where the view was expressed that substituting existing opiate-based pain relief medications prescribed for chronic/terminal patients for medicinal marijuana could save Pharmac in the order of hundreds of millions per year. Create new…

Sacha

Wed, 03 May 2017 20:18:40 +1200

Tis me, the deleter. Note that "AOD" is short for Alcohol and Other Drugs. If either alcohol or nicotine were presented for approval under current frameworks, they'd be met with laughter and disdain. Unlike a substance with therapeutic benefits and no lethal dose ..

andin

Wed, 03 May 2017 17:07:36 +1200

who are extremely anxious about being seen as the crazy druggie party.
HAHA
And those who aren't on drugs aren't crazy?
One look around the world would dispel that myth.

Russell Brown

Wed, 03 May 2017 16:52:03 +1200

What’s a hippy? Is that a Dad rock thing?

You got it. Man.

Labour seem very politically shy on this issue. It really is time to make the law match the populace view. So slow coming.

Two things behind it:

1. A conservative political strategy in election year. They’re happy…

andrew r

Wed, 03 May 2017 16:32:14 +1200

What's a hippy? Is that a Dad rock thing?
Labour seem very politically shy on this issue. It really is time to make the law match the populace view. So slow coming.

Rich of Observationz

Wed, 03 May 2017 15:50:44 +1200

Here come the hippies....

Public Address

Wed, 03 May 2017 15:50:44 +1200

Discussion from blog post.