Iemma government in cannabis crackdown

[Gush]

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

 

What was it about the bad tradesman blaming his tools

Not blaming hydro mate, I'm blaming prohibition that has forced the pot industry into inhumane and dangerous growing tactics. Prohibition is really turning Mj into a hard drug.

[WantDaChronic]

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

 

thats basically what i said to him about commercial growers and how their actions should not be reflected upon the personal grower....told him that commercial growers dont flush the nutes and chemicals out of the plants before harvest, nor do they cure their product to turn anything left over into simple sugars and starches...

 

also said alot of other things, but is too lengthy to mention + i didnt save a copy of the email

[Tom]

From ABC Radio.

 

NSW Govt introduces tough cannabis laws

 

Reporter: Helen Tzarimas

 

MARK COLVIN: The New South Wales Government played the law and order card today with a claim that it's bringing in the toughest cannabis laws in the country.

 

The effect is to make a big reduction in the number of plants that a grower can have without being considered a large-scale dealer.

 

The rationale for the move is that hydroponic cannabis is much stronger and poses a significantly higher risk of mental illness and crime.

 

But some regard the move as draconian and a re-election ploy.

 

Helen Tzarimas reports.

 

JOHN CURRIE: During the day you have often a large number of events which occur which trouble you. You have frightening thoughts, you have problems.

 

The natural cannabis substances in the brain help to get rid of those emotions and memories overnight and when you smoke cannabis it's often very difficult to get rid of them.

 

So you get persisting negative memories, frightening memories and frightening thoughts.

 

HELEN TZARIMAS: Doctor John Currie is the Clinical Director of Drug and Alcohol Services at Sydney's Westmead hospital.

 

He says there is growing evidence that the long term use of cannabis can cause mental illness, whether you're predisposed to it or not.

 

JOHN CURRIE: Equally as worrying for us is that just ordinary people who don't have a mental health problem can still get trouble when they do have long term use of cannabis.

 

HELEN TZARIMAS: The New South Wales Government says hydroponic cannabis is more lucrative for suppliers, because it grows faster, has a higher yield, and is up to seven times stronger than regular cannabis.

 

So, it's introducing new offences for the cultivation of indoor cannabis crops and decreasing the number of plants needed to attract serious penalties.

 

And people who expose children to the crops could see their jail sentence increased by up to 25 per cent.

 

The Premier Morris Iemma says he's seen evidence that the damage caused by cannabis can lead to serious criminal activity.

 

MORRIS IEMMA: Some of the most disturbing cases that we have, you trace them back, it started at an early age or they grew up in a family where cannabis was in constant use.

 

They developed an addiction to cannabis, from there the first contact with the criminal justice system and it graduated from there to constant systemic cannabis use, the development of severe psychosis, schizophrenia and then a very serious criminal act that made them an inpatient of our forensic institution.

 

HELEN TZARIMAS: But there's concern that the Government is taking the wrong approach.

 

The Law Society of New South Wales says such a plan won't fix the problem, instead it will clog the court system and fill up the jails.

 

And Doctor Alex Wodak from the Australia Drug Law Reform Association says the change to cannabis laws is more about perception than getting to the core of the problem.

 

ALEX WODAK: I think many people, not just me, see this as more motivated by concern about the March 2007 elections than any public health measure.

 

If governments were really serious about cannabis and in favour of draconian responses for a drug which after all, doesn't cause any deaths, then what would they do about a drug that causes 19,000 deaths in Australia a year - namely tobacco?

 

In total the two, two-and-a-half million Australians a year who smoke cannabis, very few of them experience serious side effects of cannabis. Some do, but not many. There are many more important public health and social policy issues in Australia than cannabis.

 

HELEN TZARIMAS: And Doctor Wodak says strategies dealing with cannabis are very different overseas.

 

ALEX WODAK: Most governments around the world are deciding to put less resources into enforcing cannabis prohibition.

 

It's only a matter of weeks since the UK decided to keep cannabis classified as Class C, not upgrade it again to Class B. Most countries in the world are moving in the opposite direction.

 

HELEN TZARIMAS: There's never been a blanket strategy for dealing with cannabis in Australia. However one is being prepared.

 

The National Cannabis Strategy will be submitted to a Ministerial Council for consideration in May.

 

MARK COLVIN: Helen Tzarimas.

 

Author: Helen Tzarimas

Date: Friday, 3 February , 2006

Source: ABC

Copyright: © 2006 ABC

 

[Tom]

Cannabis targeted in mental health drive

 

ALL states will be urged to strengthen laws on cannabis use as part of a new national plan to tackle mental illness to be presented by the Prime Minister, John Howard, at his meeting with the premiers in Canberra next week.

 

Mr Howard will seek the agreement of the states at the meeting to a new mental health plan including measures to reduce cannabis use, senior Government sources said.

 

Mr Howard's push was pre-empted by the Premier, Morris Iemma, who yesterday announced tougher penalties for the indoor cultivation of cannabis.

 

The maximum penalty for the cultivation of five to 49 plants for individuals will be increased to a $220,000 fine and/or 10 years' jail.

 

The penalty for 50-199 plants will be a $385,000 fine and/or 15 years' jail. That penalty will rise to up to 20 years' jail for 200 or more plants.

 

Mr Iemma, who said he had never tried marijuana, said the Government would soon be completing an evaluation it was doing into the effectiveness of cannabis cautioning notices.

 

But he seemed to indicate he would be happy for first-time users to continue to be cautioned. "No one wants to see a young person who has made a genuine mistake, unfairly punished," Mr Iemma said.

 

Close to 18,000 cautions have been issued for first-time offenders since the cautions system was introduced in 2000.

 

Mr Iemma said his message to his children was that marijuana could "make you sick", a spokesman said.

 

The Opposition Leader, Peter Debnam, also said he had never tried marijuana, and did not rule out changing the cautioning system if elected premier.

 

The Federal Government wants the tougher laws to send a strong message to young people that cannabis is not a harmless drug as there is mounting evidence linking its use to serious mental problems such as schizophrenia.

 

The plan is to improve co-ordination of federal and state services in health and welfare agencies to improve treatment of mental health problems.

 

One focus will be how to provide suitable accommodation and support for the mentally ill who were once institutionalised and now sometimes end up homeless.

 

As well as the mental health initiative, the meeting will discuss a list of reforms following the Podger review of overlapping federal-state responsibilities in health.

 

This will involve measures to better co-ordinate services in preventive health, early intervention and primary care in rural areas.

 

It also aims to ensure young people with disabilities are not accommodated in nursing homes and that aged people are not kept in hospitals rather than nursing homes.

 

Another plan is for a national approach to apprenticeship training. Mr Howard will be seeking the agreement of the states to a new national training agreement to introduce a uniform system of apprenticeships with minimum standards.

 

This is seen as an important measure in trying to tackle the growing skills shortage.

 

Mr Howard told Channel Nine yesterday that he would "open the batting on mental health" at the premiers' meeting.

 

"We have a lot of other things on the agenda and I think we can make a lot of progress in some other health areas and also things relating to skills and recognition of qualifications.

 

"But I think we can, if there's goodwill, make a lot of progress in this area," he said.

 

Author: Louise Dodson and Andrew Clennell

Date: February 4, 2006

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald.

Copyright: © 2006. The Sydney Morning Herald.

 

[Gush]

The natural cannabis substances in the brain help to get rid of those emotions and memories overnight and when you smoke cannabis it's often very difficult to get rid of them.

 

So you get persisting negative memories, frightening memories and frightening thoughts

Ahhh doc, I get that when I dont smoke weed

[Brash]

The sensible voice of Alex Wodak is once again drowned out by the mass hysteria of others

[mj addict]

remier 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.

 

Even if they believe cannabis causes mental illness, how can they believe the solution is throwing people in jail????

 

Before our politicians goosestep behind the USA into this police state mentality why don't we look at the results the "war on drugs" has had...

 

Has the war on drugs coincided with the increased use of harder, more addictive and dangerous drugs than cannabis? - Yes

 

Has the war on drugs decreased drug activity? - No

 

Has the war on drugs resulted in decreased crime - No

 

Has the war on drugs resulted in reduced mental illnesses - No

 

The bottom line is its irrelavent whether or not you believe drugs are a serious social problem that need to be controlled under criminal law. If the net result is negative, ie the law causes more harm than the crime, then the law must be changed, or at least controlled.

 

Do our politicians really believe filling jails with drug offenders benefits our society? Or do they simply not care?

 

I am not asking for drug law reform. I am realistic enough to know thats not going to happen. But lets not let them make things worse than they already are.

[Guest niall]

Is anyone aware of any research documenting what impact hydroponic cultivation has on cannabis potency? This keeps coming up again and again, without any evidence. The figures cited over the years vary in the extreme, but there are consistent patterns and seasonal hysteria which clearly originate with US authorities.

 

What evidence shows us that hydro = 5-7 times the potency, let alone any increase in potency whatsoever?

 

Secondly, is an increase in potency bad for the user, or good? There is a lot of research showing that users titrate their dosage subconciously, so you automatically smoke less of high potency pot than when you're smoking low potency. This results in less carcinogens and tars being inhaled. Does it always result in the user consuming more cannabis, let alone experiencing more serious harm?

 

They can't really document much in the way of harm, and they're not even trying to document the difference in harm with low vs. high potency cannabis. They're not backing up their hydro/potency hysteria with any research or facts. They're not even looking into the most obvious problem with hydroponic cannabis - nutrient and additive saturation, lack of flushing, and non-organic/carcinogenic chemicals that are not used in the food industry, let alone meant to be used with inhaled medicines. Not to mention the root cause of hydro's popularity - prohibition itself.

 

What is the goal of these laws? Will it result in less cannabis being used? Less cannabis being available on the black market? Less harm for the user and society? Just what is their goal here, and how do they propose to achieve it?

 

We have all the ammunition we need to oppose such nonsense - the very statements being made by these ignorant Politicians and Doctors. They have virtually nothing to back themselves up, and they're tripping over their own words and lying (knowingly or otherwise) through their teeth!

 

If you're in NSW, now is PRECISELY the time that you should get involved in the Greens NSW. Also you guys should contact all of your MPs, particularly the independents and minor parties, and point out all of the flaws in the proposed legislation. You don't need to advocate legalisation or anything, just point out all of their mistakes in reasoning and get your MP to question the validity of this legislation on its own lack of merit.

 

Get involved in your local Greens regional group and help support Lee Rhiannon and provide her with as many cannabis facts and insights as you can.

[dsyfer]

ok, just to clarify things, only the Maximum penalties have been increased, it

is still up to a judge or magistrate to what penalties are issued, now I can't see

a genuine personal home grower (who can't be linked with selling or profit)

getting any harsher penalty than they would currently anyway,

 

The maximum penalty for the cultivation of five to 49 plants for individuals will be increased to a $220,000 fine and/or 10 years' jail.

 

The penalty for 50-199 plants will be a $385,000 fine and/or 15 years' jail. That penalty will rise to up to 20 years' jail for 200 or more plants.

Sounds very nasty, but shock tactics normally do.

 

Just grow 4 fucking giant plants, no mention under 5 plants penalties have changed.

[Infinitee]

Still, the fact that they want the Potential to jail someone for 10 years for 5 plants is what worries me. (Greatly )

 

We all know terrible injustices of this sort (too severe penalties, for not very severe crimes) have happened in the past, and nothing has been done to reverse the penalties. Stand up now and be cunted, before they become worse, I say.