Posts by Zippy Gonzales
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Julie, the report into the expansion of criminal recovery began in March 2007. By July 2008, about two years ago, it was clear what was to become law. A year ago, the law was enacted. And here we are.
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Under the Proceeds of Crime Act, the police stand to reap quite a sum of money from the nationwide franchise. Beyond reasonable doubt might not work for the criminal charges, but a balance of probabilities threshold will allow the police to pillage land, plant, equipment, homes and bank accounts. Welcome to a new form of revenue plundering that makes speed cameras look good.
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Ouch. Succinctly put but ouch nonetheless.
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The best precedent for dealing with over-intrusive journalists was caught on camera but is sadly not on YouTube. Before Epic Beard Man, there was... Bob Jones.
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Simon Power is misinformed. Mike Sabin was complaining about a relaxation of drug enforcement in December 2009:
"Unfortunately, while the Police will be making the most of this new legislation, at the same time they are effectively waiving a white flag to the customers whose demand supports drug dealers, with a trial of a new policy of warnings for minor offences being widened across Auckland and likely to go nation-wide" said Mr. Sabin.
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I'm damned if I can see the point of musichy.pe
I've got a gut feeling on this one. It's looks as if they're trying to bring back greater demand for EPs. Back to what Flying Nun did best.
No-one sells concept albums any more since the maximum length of music went from 45 minutes on LP to 80 minutes on CD. People are also buying songs digitally not albums. Sitting down to compose an 80 minute classic is a lot more daunting than one song, but you can't expect every song to be bread and butter. An EP, a four song combo might allow artists to explore more spontaneously whilst trusting the listeners to up the sales.
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All this Ian Wishart in one day has given me retinal cancer. Must... have... brain... sorbet.
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cannawater on the supermarket shelf? marijuagum from the bottleshop? article in viva with the best cookie recipes?
I reckon marijuana honey might be worth researching. If it's half as good as manuka honey, you'd be quids in there.
As for the cannabis mass murder theme, its origins may be in the 1963 Bassett Road murders. Redmer Yska's excellent history of marijuana in this country, New Zealand Green, has this to say on the matter in Chapter 6:
"The presence of marijuana in Auckland's notorious Bassett Road machine-gun murders at the end of 1963 later resurrected all the Anslinger-era cautionary tales of reefer madness."
It goes on to describe how the murders came about, and how John Gilles shared a marijuana cigarette with a short order cook sometime around midnight. The chapter concludes:
"At the time it was a minor footnote to the sensational newspaper coverage, but within two years the Bassett Road reefer would assume murderous proportions."
And therein starts an urban legend. You'll probably find that all NZ mass murderers had eaten Marmite before their infamy. Trace elements of Bell Tea might have been discovered in their cupboards.
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Sorry. I was trying to find the right metaphor and that one kept waving its hands.
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Well said Stephen and thanks Russell for posting this up. I'm utterly unsurprised that the NZ Herald refused publication even during the silly season when they'll print almost anything else. Cannabis is a substitute good for many of their advertisers.
Many of the sources can be found in NORML's Medicinal Cannabis written submission in support of the recent petition. I posted many research links in a Public Address column a couple of years back, so I can vouch for their authenticity.
Off the top of my head, here's a blast at crowdsourcing one of the references:
it has been described by a US Drug Enforcement Administration Judge as "one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man".
That was Judge Francis Young, as mentioned in NORML's select committee hearing.
The Dunedin and Christchurch longitudinal studies have shown reasonably convincingly that the long-term risks of cannabis are much higher in users under 18, and the earlier the first use the greater the risk.
Cannabis should be R18. We used to have places where adults could congregate away from the kids. We called them pubs. Nowadays, even the NYE parties must be G rated (Deaf Lemon reference ;-)
That said, there are cases where cannabis might be prescribed for children in specific cases. I think people who accept a society which prescribes SSRIs to kids, with all their wonderful side effects, can't really go on about the evils of marijuana.
One of the more striking conclusions from the Auckland Uni School of Medicine survey on drug us is the major reason people give for stopping using cannabis: they didn't like it any more .
Yep. For the overwhelming majority, cannabis is just a phase they go though, a bit like Lesbians Until Graduation (LUGs). I heard 66 percent or more who try it, move on.