Iemma government in cannabis crackdown

[Tom]

Dope prohibition will fail: Greens

 

TOUGH new laws cracking down on hydroponic cannabis cultivation could force young people into using harder drugs, the Greens said.

 

The New South Wales Government will introduce cannabis legislation to create new offences for the cultivation of indoor crops and significantly decrease the number of plants required to attract serious penalties, including up to 20 years' jail.

 

Premier Morris Iemma said the laws, the first of their kind in Australia, were drafted in response to growing concerns of the drug's link to mental illness.

 

But Greens justice spokeswoman Lee Rhiannon said the crackdown could lead young people towards harder drugs.

 

"Cannabis prohibition has created a burgeoning hydroponics industry," Ms Rhiannon said.

 

"Many people grow their own cannabis because they can't afford to buy it, and they have been forced to grow it indoors to avoid detection.

 

"The new laws will either land those people in prison, or else push them towards using harder drugs that cannot be as easily detected."

 

She called for increased funding for mental health programs, early intervention and research, rather than increased criminal penalties, to deal with the problem.

 

Author: Herald and Weekly Times

Date: 03feb06

Source: Herald and Weekly Times

Copyright: © Herald and Weekly Times

 

[WantDaChronic]

and the greens have our backs again :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup

[ScroggyMcBongHit]

Theres some fundamental flaws in peoples understanding of plant biology re Hydro Vs Soil

Chemical ferts are used in hydro, these ferts have been broken down already to the exact same soluble form that a soil plant takes up, the reason soil takes longer than hydro to grow is that the microorganisms in the soil first have to break down the organic compounds into these "CHEMICAL FERTS" first(NPK), hence the delay in growth patterns.

 

Plants are like humans, put shitty foreign chemicals in and you will get stunted,shitty mutated growth, eventually death.

 

Potency relies on Genetics, not chemicals.

Edited February 3, 2006 by ScroggyMcBongHit

[Frazz]

Pretty simple when you explain it so well Scroggy

 

well that alone puts a hole in the pollies argument that hydro is "up to seven times as potent as soil grown" ::

 

:smoke

[ScroggyMcBongHit]

I reckon if you write to Morris Iemma , you are probably raleighing the wrong man, hes the Puppet to the Media and polls, who OWNS the Media and therefore holds alot of sway? Who is in the 30 something age group, who would be Sympathetic to our Cause?

 

Thats right you guessed it The "New" Mr Packer!

 

I say write letters to him, he would hold much sway!

Ive worked with people who have gone to school and worked with james packer and they are all tokers, Im not sure whether james is a toker or not but he might be of help.

 

anyone know how to get a word to him?

[dsyfer]

An extract from my email to the NSW Premier:

 

A few facts for you or your advisors to read and ingest.

 

Taken from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

http://www.aihw.gov.au/drugs/population/

 

· Over 80% of the population consumed alcohol in the previous 12 months

· 10% of males and 9% of females drank alcohol in a pattern that was risky or high risk

· In terms of short-term risk, 24% of males and 17% of females drank at least once a month in a manner that was risky or high risk for short-term harm

· In 1998, around 2,000 deaths among persons aged 0-64 years were attributable to the use of alcohol, accounting for 28% of all drug- or alcohol-related deaths in this age group.

· The Australian Burden of Disease study estimated that almost 4.9% of the total burden of disease in Australia in 1996 was attributable to alcohol consumption

· National Drug Strategy Household Survey indicate the national prevalence of daily smoking to be less than 20% of the population aged 14 years and over

· Tobacco use is the major cause of drug or alcohol-related deaths in Australia. In 1998, around 19,000 deaths were attributable to the use of tobacco, accounting for 80% of all drug- or alcohol-related deaths

· The Burden of Disease and Injury in Australia study estimated that almost 10% of the total burden of disease in Australia in 1996 was attributable to tobacco smoking

· Marijuana remains the most widely used illicit drug in Australia, with 37% of males and 29% of females reporting having used it at some time

· Death caused by marijuana ingestion 0.

· Illicit drug use is associated with around 1,000 deaths per year in Australia (opiate overdose 50%, suicide 28% rest made up from various chemical drug deaths (extasy etc)

· illicit drug use is estimated to have accounted for almost 2% of the total burden of disease in Australia in 1996.

 

 

So if we line up those stats it looks pretty impressive

 

Tobacco (legal) 19,000 deaths

Alcohol (legal) 2,000 deaths

Man made drugs 1,000 deaths

Cannabis 0 deaths

 

Yet this statement from the Australian Illicit Drug Report claims:

 

“…cannabis will continue to

require the greatest allocation of law enforcement

resources. Presently, cannabis offences represent

72 per cent of all drug-related offences in

Australia and it is anticipated this trend will

continue and possibly increase in the near future.”

 

 

So whilst the two most LETHAL drugs are quite legal and available, you have decided to make over 30% of the New South Wales voting public even worse criminals than they are now, real nice move there.

 

Can someone please explain the logic here?

 

 

If you would like some informed information regarding marijuana perhaps this may help http://www.jackherer.com/comparison.html

 

HOW DANGEROUS IS MARIJUANA COMPARED WITH OTHER SUBSTANCES? Number of American deaths per year that result directly or primarily from the following selected causes nationwide, according to World Almanacs, Life Insurance Actuarial (death) Rates, and the last 20 years of U.S. Surgeon Generals' reports.

TOBACCO 340,000 to 450,000

ALCOHOL (Not including 50% of all highway deaths and 65% of all murders) 150,000+

ASPIRIN (Including deliberate overdose) 180 to 1,000+

CAFFEINE (From stress, ulcers, and triggering irregular heartbeats, etc.) 1,000 to 10,000

"LEGAL" DRUG OVERDOSE (Deliberate or accidental) from legal, prescribed or patent medicines and/or mixing with alcohol - e.g. Valium/alcohol 14,000 to 27,000

ILLICIT DRUG OVERDOSE (Deliberate or accidental) from all illegal drugs. 3,800 to 5,200

MARIJUANA 0

(Marijuana users also have the same or lower incidence of murders and highway deaths and accidents than the general non-marijuana using population as a whole. Crancer Study, UCLA; U.S. Funded ($6 million), First & Second Jamaican Studies, 1968 to 1974; Costa Rican Studies, 1980 to 1982; et al. LOWEST TOXICITY 100% of the studies done at dozens of American universities and research facilities show pot toxicity does not exist. Medical history does not record anyone dying from an overdose of marijuana (UCLA, Harvard, Temple, etc.).

 

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Drug Enforcement Administration

In The Matter Of MARIJUANA RESCHEDULING PETITION

Docket No. 86-22

OPINION AND RECOMMENDED RULING, FINDINGS OF FACT, CONCLUSIONS OF LAW AND DECISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE LAW JUDGE FRANCIS L. YOUNG, Administrative Law Judge

DATED: SEPTEMBER 6, 1988

Section 8 of Judge Young's "Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Decision."

Page 56 & 57 http://mojo.calyx.net/~olsen/MEDICAL/YOUNG/young

3. The most obvious concern when dealing with drug safety is the possibility of lethal effects. Can the drug cause death?

4. Nearly all medicines have toxic, potentially lethal effects. But marijuana is not such a substance. There is no record in the extensive medical literature describing a proven, documented cannabis-induced fatality.

This is a remarkable statement. First, the record on marijuana encompasses 5,000 years of human experience. Second, marijuana is now used daily by enormous numbers of people throughout the world. Estimates suggest that from twenty million to fifty million Americans routinely, albeit illegally, smoke marijuana without the benefit of direct medical supervision. Yet, despite this long history of use and the extraordinarily high numbers of social smokers, there are simply no credible medical reports to suggest that consuming marijuana has caused a single death.

6. By contrast aspirin, a commonly used, over-the-counter medicine, causes hundreds of deaths each year.

7. Drugs used in medicine are routinely given what is called an LD-50. The LD-50 rating indicates at what dosage fifty percent of test animals receiving a drug will die as a result of drug induced toxicity. A number of researchers have attempted to determine marijuana's LD-50 rating in test animals, without success. Simply stated, researchers have been unable to give animals enough marijuana to induce death.

8. At present it is estimated that marijuana's LD-50 is around 1:20,000 or 1:40,000. In layman terms this means that in order to induce death a marijuana smoker would have to consume 20,000 to 40,000 times as much marijuana as is contained in one marijuana cigarette. NIDA-supplied marijuana cigarettes weigh approximately .9 grams. A smoker would theoretically have to consume nearly 1,500 pounds of marijuana within about fifteen minutes to induce a lethal response.

9. In practical terms, marijuana cannot induce a lethal response as a result of drug-related toxicity.

[Frazz]

An extract from my email to the NSW Premier:

 

 

Good on you mate. ive sent a couple off too....needs everyone who is serious about smoking to do the same, if you dont speak up you may be one of the unfortunate victims of these proposed new laws :signthis

 

United we Stand - Divided we Fall

 

Edit: NSW Premier's Email: thepremier@www.nsw.gov.au

lakemba@parliament.nsw.gov.au

 

takes two minutes but may save you being imprisoned

Edited February 3, 2006 by Frazzle

[Pa-uul]

An extract from my email to the NSW Premier:

Wow, you guys are nice! To actually take the time to write to this premier as if he's a human being worth talking to. Actually educating the man by email! That’s got to earn brownie points in anyone’s view, surely. You got guts, though.

 

Me: I get more inverted, reticent. I'm thinking of a plan for him: and it's jail! You see: he is the criminal. His crime is Prohibition and all the prohibitionists will have their day of reckoning. For, it's none of his business ultimately, if other people want to use drugs. The more time he advocates for small time users to go to jail maybe he should get for himself*.

 

He can claim that "gives you schizophrenia" but if this turns out to be a lie then there's another reason for punishment of the Premier: by the law of fraud.

 

*Divided by a multiple of 1. That should do, that's equal. What do you think, what multiple would you use? What's the law, two years for personal possession?

[Gush]

People have been consuming hydroponic vegetables and fruit for decades

Yep, but the Industry has been tightly regulated so the farmers are not allowed to use what ever growth stimulants they want......unlike illegal hydro growers.

 

 

Chemical ferts are used in hydro, these ferts have been broken down already to the exact same soluble form that a soil plant takes up, the reason soil takes longer than hydro to grow is that the microorganisms in the soil first have to break down the organic compounds into these "CHEMICAL FERTS" first(NPK), hence the delay in growth patterns.

You can tell yourself that, although the sad fact is most commercial growers dont just use a standard NPK. They use large amounts of hormones and growth stimulants, and usually do very little (if any) flushing.

The result is leftover chemicals stored in the tissue of the plant......ever have a cone that tasted like sunscreen?

Edited February 3, 2006 by Gush

[dsyfer]

You can tell yourself that, although the sad fact is most commercial growers dont just use a standard NPK. They use large amounts of hormones and growth stimulants, and usually do very little (if any) flushing.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

OK, but bad growing habits are no reason to blame hydroponics.

 

What was it about the bad tradesman blaming his tools