Posts by Alfie
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Hard News: Synthetic cannabis: it just…, in reply to Rosemary McDonald,
Rosemary. Your hollier-than-thou presumption that the only possible motivation for using cannabis is to escape from some undescribed horror in one's life is, frankly, insulting. I walked away from my computer last night rather than responding, hoping that someone calmer and more eloquent would pick up the mantle. Russell, Linger and Joe have done just that.
What they said.
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TV3 News hit a new low on Thursday with a lengthy news story about the Batchelor and how the supposed relationship was progressing. Naturally John Key was invited to comment, saying that he'd expected the woman (with long blonde hair) to win.
News? Nah! Julie Christie blatantly cross-promoting shows at the expense of their newsroom's credibility? Looks like it.
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Hard News: Synthetic cannabis: it just…, in reply to Katharine Moody,
It's complicated. The active ingredient in cannabis is THC, but urine tests measure THC-COOH -- a metabolite of THC. That's produced as the liver breaks down THC and it stays in the body for a much longer period. Long after the effect of the drug has worn off, measurable traces still remain in the system. This varies between a few days and two months, depending on the individual's metabolism and other factors.
So one big weekend out with the boys could result in a failed drug test a month later.
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Hard News: Synthetic cannabis: it just…, in reply to Katharine Moody,
My worry is – if we don’t legalise the plant soon – plant users who would prefer not to, might find themselves moving to synthetics because the present producers stop producing the plant (given cultivation is more difficult/higher cost than synthetic formulation).
That won't happen... for the same reason that vineyards won't stop producing bottled wine because cheap plonk in casks is easier to ship and more profitable. I don't accept BenWilson's suggestion that dope smokers would be happy with truckloads of of grade B cannabis. It simply doesn't work that way. There's a market for good wine -- and there's a market for good cannabis. Synthetics by comparison are the cheapest, nastiest cask wine you could imagine. Their effect is heavier and much less pleasant.
Over the years, anti-drug propaganda has portrayed dope smokers as evil fiends, hiding out in darkened rooms in some numbed state of nirvana. A good proportion of our society with no personal experience of cannabis readily accepts that image, even though it couldn't be further from the truth. Of course there will always be people who consume to excess -- the same is true of alcohol. In the same way that most of us (hopefully) don't knock down a dozen Woodys of an evening, most people who use cannabis recreationally actually enjoy their smoke in a more moderate manner. It's a gentle drug which engenders good conversation and quite a bit of laughter -- perfect for dinner parties, live music events and what have you.
And you can safely ignore the official scary line about today's varieties being x times stronger than dope from the 70s. Well pish and tush! Whisky is 10-20 times stronger than beer but nobody is trying to ban that. Common sense dictates that when it's stronger, you simply use less.
So, for someone that understands these substances better, my question is: would legalising the cannabis plant necessarily stem the continued interest/use of synthetics?
Almost certainly. Campbell Live ran numerous interviews with synthetic users, and all of them said they'd prefer to smoke the real thing, if not for the illegality and drug testing.
We continue to enforce an outdated law inherited from the US, ignoring the fact that American attitudes to soft drugs have changed markedly. Witness the Colorado experiment.
Cannabis is a simple plant which nobody has ever died from consuming. Our current law effectively hands control of the issue to criminal gangs and allows them to make huge profits.
It's time to revisit our drug laws.
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Well lookee... Tim Groser is inviting public submissions on New Zealand's post 2020 climate change target.
Russel Norman questions the government's approach to consultation.
"The Government's consultation document is seriously flawed. It treats action on climate change as a cost, whereas, in fact, failure to take action is actually the cost," said Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman.
"The New Zealand Treasury found that if New Zealand continues on its current trajectory of increasing emissions, the cost to taxpayers of even a modest 5% reduction target will be up to $52 billion. Reducing our emissions will lower this cost.
"But beyond the fiscal cost of inaction, report after report has found that moving to a low-carbon economy is a major economic opportunity, yet this Government continues with its twentieth century mindset of seeing emission reductions as a cost.
Submissions close on 3rd June.
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Hard News: Friday Music: What Alltracks…, in reply to Russell Brown,
What was the song?
Aha... found it! Go to the Alt+Indie section -- track 3: Unknown Mortal Orchestra. It's Vevo doing the banning.
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I had a play with AllTracks yesterday. I can't remember which song it was, but I got one of those annoying "not available in your territory" messages. Now I realise I can click away and view the video on YouTube, but surely with a curated playlist this sort of thing shouldn't happen?
I haven't worked out how often the playlists are updated. If I return every day am I going to receive exactly the same songs in the same order?
That aside, for those of us who don't listen to commercial radio, it's handy to have a playlist of kiwi music. It's something I'll dip into every now and then.
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Hard News: #GE2015: Proper Mad, in reply to Stella Duffy,
It feels like when I first came to live in London and Thatcher was in power and the press was so in her pocket...
Ditto Stella. In the 1980s we lived in London under a Thatcher government for years -- and the experience put me off tories for life. The `87 election was particularly disappointing when it looked like Labour would triumph, only for Thatcher to be given another chance to fuck up the country.
While the Murdoch papers are openly partisan, I can't help but feel that their heavy-handed rhetoric must be wearing a little thin. At least the newspapers are upfront in the UK, compared to some of the more subtle (read Dirty Politics) techniques employed over here.
Like Russell, I still feel an affinity for British politics and am watching the election avidly. I'm looking forward to Jeremy Paxman and David Mitchell hosting the Channel 4 coverage, along with a smattering of BBC of course. I just wish that Milliband hadn't written off any cooperation with the SNP so decisively. But let's see what eventuates after the votes are cast.
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Hard News: Synthetic cannabis: it just…, in reply to william blake,
I think taking the commerce out of ganja growing would take the criminality out of it as well.
Agreed. In retrospect, iheriting America's drug laws wasn't such a good idea. (But not quite as dumb as New Zealand signing a one-sided TPPA that's binding forever).
Allowing individuals to grow a few pets is unlikely to cause the downfall of society. Nobody benefits from current drug laws apart from criminal gangs. As a country we have to decide if we're 100% happy with that.
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Hard News: Synthetic cannabis: it just…, in reply to william blake,
People wanting to get high should be allowed to grow their own crops and straighten up out of season, if they want to smoke balefulls at a time.
As most crops are grown indoors these days, the concept of a "season" as such is a little outdated.
Dunne wouldn't know an underground market unless he stood on a trapdoor and fell into it. To me the whole process of the government selecting 'good' legal highs and allowing them to be sold in retail outlets is fundamentally flawed. The bottom line is that these are all chemicals designed to mimic the real thing -- and the latter is less harmful by a country mile.
The Colorado experiment has proved (so far) that the sky doesn't fall in when you legalise recreational hooter. Happy punters, happy sellers, happy taxman. It's a no-brainer.