Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: People Take Drugs, in reply to Rich Lock,
‘Some lines for Labour’
I actually almost titled that post 'Anybody want a line?'
But I thought that would be an unhelpful distraction.
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Hard News: Still sounds good, in reply to Richard Wain,
So you’ve heard what Andre captured?
No, just his past work.
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Hard News: Still sounds good, in reply to Richard Wain,
Lucky you, and everyone who missed this show, then: Radio NZ's Andre Upston was at that Auckland show and recorded it for broadcast, I imagine it'll be archived online for at least a short time...
Andre's live recordings are excellent. I certainly hope something good can be done with it, because it was a fantastic evening.
I caught Shayno on Saturday at the KA and didn't disagree when one of my English immigrant football team-mates declared him (in an excellently stunned fashion) "a genius". On ya SPC.
Indeed. But you were there too? I can't believe how many people I know who I didn't see in that very full room.
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Hard News: People Take Drugs, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
It depends where you set the threshold. But if something was to be stamped as "approved" by the state, wouldn't that put the government under some sort of moral obligation to ensure safety?
Medicines are subject to a multi-phase clinical trial process that costs tens of millions for each substance. It's not clear to me whether such a process would even be ethical - is it acceptable in medical research to test a substance that isn't planned to be therapeutic on humans?
For sure. Ideally, there would be an "at your own reasonable risk" standard -- with a requirement that risks be made explicitly clear -- and a pretty tight rein on means of sale.
It's ambitious, but not crazily so. Methylone was basically cleared for sale by the Expert Advisory Committee until a consumer TV show got the MoH to look at it again, and the ruling was changed. I do grant that it's quite possible that the standard will be set so high that nothing will be approved.
I've thought about this quite a lot: the risks associated with MDMA are relatively low already, and there have been many efforts to develop a less-neurotoxic alternative. Granting that people might like an empathogen on a Saturday night, and trying to find the best one would be quite an amazing step.
I've been quite impressed with aspects of Stanz's approach. They actually recommended one of the chemicals that goes into the fake-pot products be banned, while two others be kept. The expert committee kept all three.
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Readers may also be interested in Angus Macqueen's very good three-part documentary for Channel 4, Our Drugs War. It's on YouTube, first part here:
You then can joining me in weeping that there are some places where an intelligent, provocative issues doco can screen in three parts on an actual television channel.
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Hard News: People Take Drugs, in reply to Rex Widerstrom,
His response amounted to “I’m a businessman, not a moral crusader” and “my business is about helping other businesses detect and deal appropriately with drug use by staff, not stake burning”. That’s the kind of pragmatic approach that, slightly altered to suit his new job, could be hugely positive.
I’d be cautious, but … proximity to evidence does tend to change people’s views. And to be fair, even as a campaigner, Sabin was genuinely about trying to help as well as make a buck. It’s just that most of his solutions were bonkers. Although even he professed to see drugs as a medical issue.
Actually, another facet of the LawComm review that’s good: they haven’t fallen into the well-meaning trap of thinking everyone who gets busted with a joint or a pill needs intervention or “treatment”. Compulsory drug treatment/education is sorta better than criminal punishment, but it’s a massive waste of resources.
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Hard News: People Take Drugs, in reply to Bart Janssen,
induces people to vocalise their inner monologue
You mean like blogging?
More like Twitter.
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Hard News: People Take Drugs, in reply to BenWilson,
Yes, the kind of jabbering you hear from P heads has a real fingerprint.
My theory is it induces people to vocalise their inner monologue. And in most cases, no one else really wants to hear that.
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Hard News: People Take Drugs, in reply to Ian Fish,
Any sensible political discourse relating to our drug laws has just become alot more unlikely with the selection of Mike Sabin as the National candidate for Northland. It is probable that he will be our next drug tzar / Minister of Police, and his ‘lock em up and throw away the key’ attitude to any (illegal) drug use doesn’t bode well.
You know, I'm actually not so sure. Sabin was conspicuous by his absence in discussion of the LawComm review -- and he really only needed to pick up the phone to get himself on Close Up. I'm not saying he's turning into Nandor Tanczos, but I do wonder if Sabin is toning it down a bit.
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Hard News: People Take Drugs, in reply to BenWilson,
But P does seem to have a higher attrition rate than anything else I’ve seen.
I’d say it’s more that it becomes extremely noticeable when someone is abusing it. Hard to ignore people having psychotic episodes.
It starts way before that, though. You know your friend has a P problem when you start having trouble bearing their company. They're not psychotic, just monumentally annoying, and have no perspective on their own behaviour.
A psych nurse friend of mine observed that if you had a chink in your armour, P would find it. Ironically, he later developed a raging P habit and became so paranoid he installed surveillance cameras at his house. He was an experienced -- if not always wise -- drug user who up till that point had always been able to manage his lifestyle choices. P just flattened him.