Posts by Russell Brown
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And meanwhile, the police's unconscionable and hugely expensive fatwa on Switched On Gardener continues. Entrapping and then busting shop assistants isn't really solving anything.
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Hard News: Rough times in the trade, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
And, sadly. it's funny because it's true. Crap.
Exception: rocksteady reggae.
Granted, it's a relatively small body of work. But it's nearly all gorgeous.
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Hard News: Rough times in the trade, in reply to BenWilson,
Just picturing you tapping your foot. Do you bob your head too?
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Hard News: Perception and reality in the…, in reply to Hilary Stace,
Didn’t Garth McVicar go to Finland with an official delegation of the last Labour government, led by Phil Goff I think. But IIRC he wasn’t impressed.
Au contraire. He was very impressed:
New Zealand's prison system is being held up as an example of what not to do in Britain, says Sensible Sentencing Trust founder Garth McVicar, who arrived back in Hawke's Bay last week after an eight-day tour of Europe's prison systems.
Mr McVicar and Kim Workman, the liberal former deputy secretary of justice and current head of the Prison Fellowship, were invited to Europe at taxpayers' expense by Corrections Minister Damien O'Connor to look for ways of reducing New Zealand's fast-rising prison population, which is now proportionately higher than any other developed country, except the United States.
Mr McVicar said their first surprise came when they arrived at the International Centre for Prison Studies at King's College, London.
"They use New Zealand as an example of what not to do - how our prison population is escalating and our level of violent crime is increasing," he said.
"They educate other countries on what is working on a worldwide basis since New Zealand is an example of what not to do. That was possibly a bit of a shock to all of us," he said.
Sadly, it wore off. His recent commentary about Mt Eden prison is wholly at odds with what he said in 2006, after the study trip. This makes one doubt his actual commitment to effective solutions.
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Hard News: What the kids do, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
But I am in favour of drinking
12 year old alcohol.The older the better.
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Hard News: Perception and reality in the…, in reply to Kim Workman,
Thanks for dropping by, Kim.
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Hard News: What the kids do, in reply to nzlemming,
We know (and I use the word very circumspectly, given what I’ve already written today) that some of these drugs are produced from any ingredients that are legal by people who don’t give a shit about the user, only the dollar. Not all, I know, but how to tell which is which? More importantly, how to tell a teenager…
I've thought about this, and I hope that the government can keep its nerve long enough to make a start on a reasonable system that does actually offer a viable path to approval for some products. You're not going to stop people wanting to stay up late or get high -- you can take steps to make it safer for them and minimise the burden on the public health system and society in general.
As I said earlier, I’m not sure that the genie will go back in the bottle. Reversing a process may not always have the opposite effect.
But that's the relevance of the tobacco comparison. Governments around the world have, through a raft of common policies, actually put that one at least partly back in the bottle.
You could propose a counterfactual in which tobacco was still cheap, could still be sold without age restriction, still smoked anywhere and still freely advertised and promoted -- and people just stopped because they thought it was a silly thing to do. I just don't think that would be all that convincing.
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Also, Chris Fowlie has it right, I think:
Chris Fowlie, the co-owner of the Hemp Store, which has sold synthetic cannabis products for 10 years, said he was concerned about the substances' availability.
"It's gone too far, especially with its availability in dairies ... Dairies are often by schools, and they often put posters covering their front walls," he said.
"I think a lot of parents out there can tolerate these sorts of products if they're not in mainstream shops. You go in there for your bread and milk and you're confronted by what are drugs.
"It's crossed over so that people who don't even smoke cannabis are trying this stuff. And that's where it goes too far."
Mr Fowlie said a licence should be necessary to sell the R18 products.
Products such as Kronic were not advertised at the Hemp Store, and Mr Fowlie said that was important.
"It shouldn't be plastered all over the front of the shop. If you're not interested in these products you really shouldn't know about them."
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Anyway, to get this whole strange discussion back to base: am I happy with quite powerful psychoactive drugs being sold from behind big-ass point-of-sale displays in suburban dairies?
No, I am not.
Do I think these drugs should be available to adults who want them?
Yes, I do.
I suppose one useful point of comparison is salvia divinorum, a powerful, short-acting psychedelic which has been available in varying potencies from specialist stores for about a decade.
There's the odd media panic about salvia, but it goes away. People can still buy it from places where the person behind the counter will be able to size them up and offer advice. There's nothing to actually stop it behind sold in dairies -- but the day that happens is the day it starts being all over for salvia. Which would be a real shame.
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Hard News: What the kids do, in reply to giovanni tiso,
Which is not to say that New Zealand doesn’t need an age limit, just that the drinking culture would seem the bigger culprit by a very sizeable margin.
It seems things are different now, sadly:
Girls in Italy as young as 11 are using alcohol more and taking more risks with it, Italian health authorities said.
The country’s Higher Health Institute released a report Thursday saying at-risk drinkers of both sexes under the age of 16 are on the rise, with 18.5 percent of males and 15.5 percent of females in that age bracket showing worrying drink patterns, ANSA reported.
And another one:
With a cocktail in hand, 20-year-old Nicola said the culture was changing among young people.
“I think young people drink more,” she said. “It’s just a new generation of people.”
Beer, shots and spirits are quickly taking over from wine as the drinks of choice – and young Italians are moving away from the more restrained, Mediterranean style of drinking.
Figures show that while under-25s in Italy are drinking more than they used to, it is still nowhere near the levels seen in countries such as Finland, Denmark and the UK – but the change is still something even bar owners are noticing.
And one more:
When it approved the measure earlier this month, the Milan city council unveiled a study that showed that 34% of 11-year-olds have "problems with alcohol" (without specifying what those problems are). In June the Alcohol Observatory of the Italian National Health Institute found that 63% of youths under 18 get drunk on weekends, with boys consuming an average of four drinks per drinking session and girls consuming six.
Milan Mayor Letizia Moratti called the new law a "response to an emergency" rather than some newfound whiff of puritanism. "It is a message to young people and their families that alcohol is bad for you and that alcohol abuse and dependence lead to negative consequences," she told reporters.
I’m trying not to seem like a wowser on this – because I’m really no personal advertisement for that – but there are very sound scientific reasons to worry like hell about youth binge drinking.