Posts by Russell Brown
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Sadly, the Hay-Haywood house is in the Red zone.
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Hard News: Perception and reality in the…, in reply to Rex Widerstrom,
A suggestion to TVNZ7 readers: a show which brings the Minister of Justice, the Attorney General and/or the Minister of Corrections into a prison to answer questions from prisoners, prison officers and others who actually know what they’re talking about.
Interesting idea. You might still enjoy the show we did record last night -- Chief Judge Russell Johnson was particularly good value. Very thoughtful man.
It's on at 9.05pm this evening and online shortly thereafter.
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Hard News: What the kids do, in reply to Sam F,
It’s there now: Garth George: I hope I’m dead and gone before drugs are legalised.
Includes the lines:
the unborn child (euphemistically called a fetus)
And:
The easier you make it to get at forbidden fruit, the more people will want a taste.
So awesome.
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Hard News: What the kids do, in reply to webweaver,
but otherwise no police presence on-site at all.
I recall my first Glastonbury, in the years before the police were allowed onsite, and getting through the gate to discover a kind of market lane for recreational drugs. The thing that still makes me laugh was the guy calling Git yer Afghani ’ash ’ere!
And yet it felt much safer than the Sweetwaters I’d been to in the years before. I can’t ever recall seeing violence of any kind at Glastonbury.
Although a few people did get themselves in a mess. I recall one year wandering around at dawn and seeing one poor guy sitting, shivering and bug-eyed, outside one of the medical tents. Bad acid that year, apparently.
As Elvis Costello signed off his Saturday headliner one year: “Good night, and don’t have too good a time out there …”
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Hard News: What the kids do, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
To be fair medical pot prescriptions in California must be the most abused prescriptions around
Fair enough – I don’t know enough about how it works there to make an informed comment. But I sure hope Kiwis can do a lot of worthwhile things better than our American friends.
Paul's right in that it's de facto decriminalisation -- anyone who can't find a doctor to write a medical marijuana script just isn't trying hard enough. But it actually works.
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Hard News: What the kids do, in reply to Damian Christie,
Anyone know what the Joy Division remix was at the end of the trailer? I wonder what those boys would think of their song being used in that piece of crap…
Apparently Hooky did the mix specially.
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Hard News: What the kids do, in reply to BenWilson,
Yes, some kids do get fucked up on Kronic, but also a lot of kids have had good fun on it. Really, really good fun. You can’t even begin to understand drug culture if you see it as a mental illness that people enjoy the fun that drugs bring.
Such an important point. The majority of drug users use drugs not because they're sick with anything, but because it's fun.
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Hard News: What the kids do, in reply to Russell Brown,
You know what a square I am
World's greatest collection of cardigans :-)
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Hard News: What the kids do, in reply to DexterX,
A ban on the advertising of the psychoactive substances particularly at the point of sale, the points of sale have to be licensed, with “community boards” controlling the licensing given a strict set of guidelines. The emphasis upon the licensing would be on not repeating the situation where liquor outlets spring up like mushrooms in mushroom season.
Before it was shut down, The Daktory was a reasonable model for a cannabis business -- a safe, comfortable place in a non-residential area, members only. That's basically how the medical pot places work in California too. It can be done.
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Hard News: What the kids do, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Well, with no due respect whatsoever, I’d suggest the Whangarei Police haven’t exactly enhanced their mana and effectively optimised their budget with this nonsense.
The thing is, this is now a three-year nationwide operation involving many undercover officers -- and they've come up with so little they're reduced to prosecuting poor bloody shop assistants who say the wrong thing. I can't imagine how much this is all costing.
In one of the South Island cases one cop even trotted out an elaborate story about needing to grow medical marijuana for a relative with cancer, in order to trap a wary shop assistant into giving advice. That's just insane.