Posts by MikeE
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Heres what a real economist says about drugs:
http://www.druglibrary.org/special/friedman/prohibition_and_drugs.htm
http://www.druglibrary.org/special/friedman/war_we_are_losing.htm
http://www.druglibrary.org/special/friedman/stop_taxing_non.htm
http://www.druglibrary.org/special/friedman/an_open_letter_to_bill_bennett.htm
http://www.druglibrary.org/special/friedman/bennett_fears_.htm
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Misc/friedm1.htm
http://www.druglibrary.org/special/friedman/socialist.htm -
Also, one thing that isn't being mentioned, with all these calls to ban liquor outlets we are seing this morning.
If Supermarkets were allowed to sell liquor, we wouldn't see the proliferation of small dodgy liquor shops. They'd simply be killed by market forces.
Instead we feel the need to regulate and ban, causing more problems, rather than fixing the original one.
So is the political economy of regulation, politicians have to be seen to be doing something, especially in election year, even when doing nothing, is often better (in real terms) than doing something.
(Refer to Dog Microchipping, People who don't pay power bills etc)
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If the police weren't wasting time and resources on victimless crimes, they might actually be able to respond to serious crime like this.
But as said above, only one person is responsible for this death, and thats the cold hearted prick that pulled the trigger.
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Re: Ads,
Is it possible to get them so they are just served on the hard news page...
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Mederterrainian Coke? Carribean Coke?
IT all comes from south america dammit... the only difference is how many adulterants its been cut with.
sheesh.
Noob.
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"1 Heroin
2 Cocaine
3 Barbiturates
4 Methadone
5 Alcohol
6 Ketamine
7 Benzodiazepines
8 Amphetamine
9 Tobacco
10 Buprenorphine
11 Cannabis
12 Solvents
13 4-methylthioamphetamine
14 LSD
15 Methylphenidate (i.e. Ritalin®)
16 Anabolic steroids
17 Gamma 4-hydroxybutyric acid (depressant, "date-rape drug")
18 Ecstasy
19 Alkyl nitrites (nitrite inhalants, "poppers")
20 Khat"Theres a reason why conservatives hate harm reduction, as you can see from the above list ranking common drugs from most harmful to least harmful. You can see that Alcohol is ranked as one of the most harmful, and tobacco isn't far behind, with cannabis and MDMA relatively low (MDMA in its unadulterated form is a VERY safe drug).
The idea of a system based in harm would turn their industry on its head, and require a very big change in conservative thinking..
The thing is most of us can handle booze relatively maturely, andmany people I know can handle all manner of other substances maturely as well, why on earth should they have to risk prison to do so?
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Steve: I'd agree with you completely.
I'm not agruing "for" drug use.
I'm arguing for sensible drug policy, rather than the current situation where more harm is caused by the law than the drug itself.
The safest drug use is NO drug use, and that includes ALL drugs, legal and illicit.
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"Every mass murderer in NZ since Grey was a dope smoker, but statistically drink drivers are the real killers."
Every mass murderer also consumed water, pissed in a toilet and beathed oxygen.
Whats your point.
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"But the pro-cannabis lobby preffer to blame the victim."
I'm sorry... victim?
What.. the .. fuck.
If I *choose* to put somethign into my body, and know the risks associated, I'm no victim, whetehrit be fatty foods, booze or pot.
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What scares me is he is lobbying to end the policy of "Harm Reduction" and move towards "Harm Eradication"... I take it he doesn't cosnider prison sentances to be harmful, or at least least harmful than consuming cannabis.
The other thing that worries me about him is that he comes from Law Enforcement, and apart from the LEAP guys, I don't think I've met a cop who has a balanced view on substances.
They seem to be happy to get absolutely hammered drunk on their taxpayer subsidised police bars in the stations, but stink to high heavens of drug snobbery when it comes to other less harmful substances.
Sabin doesn't appear to make any distinction between different substances or between use and abuse..
And the inside word I've heard is that members of NZ First, National and Labour are very supportive of such moves, with one MP asking why this hasn't happened earlier.
These included a Drug Tzar reporting directly to the PM with no oversight or governance, compulsary "reeducation" and "detox" for any positive drug tests, a dobbing in system that reminds me of hitler youth or something in George Orwell's 1984 amongst other bits of drug hysteria fueled idiocy.
Not to mention the vast overstatement of the so called "P Epidemic" when alcohol and tobacco harm hardly warrents a finger being lifted... and the reefer madness we had with BZP.OF course in reality, even though we have a stated policy of "harm reduction" in NZ, its hardly the reality since Anderton started in his ban happy ways, with drug harm being increased due to heavy handed enforcement and prison sentances, rather than reduced by treating it as the health issue it is.
That said, I was impressed with the advertising by Montana Meth Project, but having spoken to those who have used P, most of them didn't think it would have any effect... it might scare soccer moms, but it don't actually stop consumption....
Perhaps if we had some safer alternatives... we might see a decrease in the harm caused by gutter drugs like P... but I can't see that happening in the current political climate... where all drug use (except for harmful alcohol and ciggarettes) is considered abuse, regardless of whether harm is caused or not.