Posts by Ross Bell
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Check out 6 spades and Queen of diamonds:
http://www.release.org.uk/nicepeopletakedrugs/deck-of-cards/ -
BREAKING NEWS: In a shock move, the Government has this evening taken Parliament into extraordinary urgency to pass a bill to increase the tobacco excise tax. http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/3634098/Tobacco-excise-tax-increased-by-Government#share
Let's remind ourselves what the the Prime Minister said yesterday about the same recommendation for liquor.
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A timely piece of research being discussed at the International [Drug] Harm Reduction Conference right now...
A review of 20 years of research into drug enforcement has found that attempts to snuff out the trade in illegal substances have the opposite effect to that intended, by creating a power vacuum when drugs barons are imprisoned which is rapidly filled by competitors eager to fight each other for the newly-vacated territory.
Crackdowns on drug dealers led to rise in violent crime, study finds
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I don't think you can show that French drinking culture is bad by pointing to studies of Finns
Agreed. In our article we covered French drinking:
Alcohol is involved in half of the deaths from road accidents in France (31 percent in New Zealand), half of all homicides and one-quarter of all suicides. Rates of cirrhosis of the liver are more than double our own...youth drinking is on the rise in France, with beer and alcopops driving the increase.And then also looked at the 'let's teach kids to handle their piss' issue too.
That said, we can learn things from the French: they have quite a nice system of regulation over alcohol marketing. Sir Geoffrey was equally attracted to that system and has build in something similar in his report.
Finally, a prediction - Parliament won't put the purchase age to 20...they might do the split as Russell suggests.
p.s. would love to continue to chat, but have to pop out for a minute to take my damn Citroen to the fix-it shop.
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As Zippy says under the Proceeds of Crime Act, the police stand to reap quite a sum of money.
Under the PM's "Methamphetamine plan", proceeds from such busts will go to offset enforcement costs and drug treatment - but I think via the consolidated fund (some smoke and mirrors and PR).
This won't be the last of the large busts. I predict you'll see some more of these in the not-so-distant future. The next will likely be a huge load of meth and meth ingredients - Govt agencies are due to report to the PM on their activities under his new meth plan by the end of this month.
BTW - for those readers who have commented on our silly and obsolete Misuse of Drugs Act, submission's on the Law Commission drug law review close this Friday. For more info: www.drugfoundation.org.nz. Have your say!
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While the French make awesome cars ("nothing moves you like a Citroen"), I'm not convinced we should import their drinking patterns.
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I think Simon Power will soon realise he shot his mouth off too early. From both his written press release and his comments on telly tonight show he probably hasn't been well briefed on the report.
Thankfully tomorrow (Breakfast, Sunrise & Morning Report) I'm being given the opportunity to clarify some of his "misunderstandings".
And I'd recommend you all tune into 9 to Noon - as it currently stands Kathryn will be interviewing Law Commission Deputy President Warren Young - unless Robin Brooke gets in first.
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Cripes, maybe Wishart's right...
"Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor"
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As I was saying to mate George the other day, fisking Wishart's article isn't worth the time. Wishart has done some very poor fact checking relating to the event hosted by me - when he called me up, I said I could send him everything and anything he wanted - I said I had nothing to hide, but surprisingly he wasn't interested.
(for the record, everything about the "Soros-funded" event is published on our website http://www.drugfoundation.org.nz/healthy-drug-law/international-drug-policy-symposium)
Instead, he seemed to have a thing for my mate Soros, and facts weren't going to get in the way of that story.
Public consultation begins on the drug law review this month - I think those who read the Law Commission's discussion document will be hard pressed to see where Mr Soros' alleged influence lies.
Again, for the record, Soros' Open Society Institute gave us a grant of $20,000 - if George hadn't f***ed around with the money markets that would have exchanged as NZ$40,000 instead of $35,000!
In the words of PM Key:
Mr Key said he did not mind that Mr Soros' money was being used, because the Government "just simply does not support the decriminalisation of marijuana".
"I don't really care whether its George Soros or Mickey Mouse that supports the conference, I'm not going to be changing my position on that," Mr Key said.
Ross Bell
Executive Director
NZ Drug Foundation -
...completely ignores the very large category of people who get high/get drunk/get wasted because it's fun...
Concur. And pretty much all research into drug use confirms the Number 1 reason for using legal and illegal drugs is because they're fun.
Pretty hard to legislate for that.