Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: The better place, in reply to BenWilson,
Good to hear it’s a skill he’s developed.
His local geography is still poor, but his flash-reading of the map was quite a helpful pointer as to how we fix that.
I’m resigned (and I thank you and your lad for helping me with gaining this insight) to the concept that teaching him how to be an adult is just going to be long process with a lot more hand holding than is usual.
Yeah, I've definitely learned about all the things that we take for granted that actually have to be learned skills for my boys.
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Hard News: The better place, in reply to Moz,
As a positive contrast to Australia (always, always that contrast and let it only stop when Australia catches up) it’s also nice. Diwali here is pretty heavily Hindu-only, not through exclusion so much as a lot of people just don’t go along. In other suburbs attendance is much more obviously diverse, though.
In Auckland, the main inner-city event has a relatively short history – it was launched by the Asia New Zealand Foundation and the old Auckland City Council in 2002 – and it's developed as a city festival. So it's very accessible.
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Hard News: The better place, in reply to Raymond A Francis,
It is worth knowing that almost all NZers had a weekend like this
I was especially pleased for my Christchurch friends who enjoyed FESTA. The festival itself sounded great, but it as clear that the big thing was simply having lots of people in the city. The CBD rebuild has delivered lots of new buildings, but not the people who make a city, so that's a big deal.
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Hard News: Shots Fired, in reply to william blake,
But I think he has a point about big marijuana, everything in this country has been moving away from small, local and sustainable for donkeys years. I think it’s going to be a bloody battle to see who controls the pot.
The Drug Foundation's model policy provides some good direction, oriented towards smaller, local businesses, completely separated from liquor and tobacco retailers and with a health structure built-in. The last thing we want to do is regulate like alcohol.
There are rich people already setting up shop and selling shares in the shop, on the legislative gamble that they can hold the license to dispense.
Yes. I'm quite sure the likes of Helius are getting into medicinal cannabis with an eye on a later recreational market.
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Hard News: Shots Fired, in reply to Peter Darlington,
He seemed to be missing the logic that anti-smoking campaigns only work because smoking is legal
An excellent point. In my defence, there were a lot of claims that needed addressing in 11 minutes.
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Hard News: Shots Fired, in reply to Bart Janssen,
I think that’s a really important part of this – we really need a system that allows for change as we figure out what works well in NZ and what doesn’t. Too often we establish a law and then leave no ability to modify it as we learn.
I agree strongly with this. I'd be happy enough with a fairly conservative change to allow us to see what happens – and with the potential for further reform clearly signalled.
This, to an extent, is what's happened in other jurisdictions. Colorado authorities realised they had a problem with the way edibles had hit the market, and the Canadian government has been frank about wanting to monitor the initial reforms before allowing commercial edibles, concentrates and vapes. (The vape ban does seem ill-advised and wouldn't make sense under NZ Smokefree regulations.)
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Hard News: Shots Fired, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
It would have been odd for the question to seek repeal. The question for the referendum and proceess for holding it started well before the law was passed.
Fair enough, I did puzzle over how to phrase it. Would "didn't seek a specific legislative outcome" be closer?
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Hard News: Shots Fired, in reply to Francisco Blaha,
Interestingly the Uruguay model, a country whose population and primary products based economy is very similar to NZ, does not get discussed. Since its implementation, it wiped out the black market, by offering lower prices and standardization in quality.
Good point. Although there are a few differences between there and here. Quality was much more of an issue in Uruguay as I understand it, with a lot of bad, adulterated weed coming in from Paraguay. The government was also the monopoly producer and supplier of hard liquor for most of last century, so there was a precedent for a state weed monopoly.
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Hard News: Shots Fired, in reply to Dennis Frank,
I'm waiting to see who will be driving the design of the referendum, how the parties in parliament will collaborate on that design (or not), how public input will be called for, etc.
Heh. You're not the only one waiting for that :-)
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Hard News: Friday Music: Indeed a good one, in reply to Mark Cubey,
Chris Bourke’s tribute is pitch perfect – what a terrific writer he is.
Yeah, I made a point today of emailing Chris to tell him how good it was.