Mal Brough says cannabis causes pedophile rings

[Pa-uul]

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g270/reecePhotophucket/r86302_253894.jpgKumanarra © ABC

 

16 May, 2006:

"Up to their ears in ganja", the Federal Minister for Indigenous affairs blames alcohol and ganja for wife bashing and child pedophile rings in central Australian Aboriginal communities. Following the shocking revelations on Lateline two nights ago (15/05/06) on the breakdown of law and order among males in Aboriginal communities across Australia involving petrol sniffing, alcohol and tobacco use Mal Brough decided twice to single out cannabis as a major contributing factor in tonight's follow up to the scandal saying:

Everybody in those communities knows who runs the pedophile rings. They know who brings in the petrol and they know who sells the ganja. They need to be taken out of the community and dealt with...They've got no chance if their parents are rolling drunk, up to their ears in ganja and not in any way looking at the welfare of their children.

I've got news for you Mal Brough, you sanctimonious scum, rampant child pedophile rings and breakdown of law and order in Aboriginal communities is the fitting outcome to the current selective drug prohibition as well as social neglect. Trying to rope cannabis into the list of real substances involved in this is criminally incompetent and/or deceitful. Cannabis is not a destroyer or a degrader of behaviour as you and your prohibitionist allies constantly claim. Fuck you and your fascist ways. The top four destructive substances on their, or anyone else's lives potentially, are legal. They are: alcohol, petrol sniffing, tobacco and solvent sniffing. Fuck you and the likes of The Australian editorship who equate cannabis with alcohol in so-called destructive effects on Aboriginal communities, you deserve this travesty as a consequence of keeping the most destructive substances legal and demonizing the rest as some sort of illegal copy of them.

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g270/reecePhotophucket/MalBrough.jpgMal Brough, Minister for Aboriginal and Indigenous Affairs © ABC.

Last night reporter Suzanne Smith told the sad story of "Kumanarra":

And there's no sense that they understand or care about the damage they might be doing to themselves. And this is the other face of the petrol addiction. Kumanarra, just 40 years old. His addiction started at the age of 15. By 25, he was in a wheelchair with Acquired Brain Injury syndrome. Kumanarra can understand some words, but has no real comprehension of life around him.

How does it make you feel, that petrol? Like when you're stoned from ganja or different?

I feel happy.

Well, heroin makes you feel happy too, but it doesn't give you brain damage. It's a walk in the park compared to petrol sniffing. To all the Australian journalists who refer to the non-toxic heroin as a "death drug" I hope the grim reaper visits you tonight, as you look at what your biased definition of what drug danger has caused.

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g270/reecePhotophucket/1605NT_wideweb__470x2640.jpg Crown prosecutor for central Australia Nannette Rogers © ABC.

 

Two nights ago ABC reporter Suzanne Smith opened the story which was to shock Australia with the comment:

Add to this great sense of emptiness violence, alcohol, cannabis and inhalants and you have the right ingredients for murder and sexual assault.

Who's fucking sick idea is it to include cannabis on the list of demonized substances? I tell you a concentration camp is too good for these propagandists. I hate them. Last night on Lateline Tony Jones conducted an interview with the crown prosecutor for central Australia Nannette Rogers who said that all of her cases are violence related. She detailed a stunning litany of child sexual assault cases, sodomy, wife bashing, child abduction, and violence involving knives. Aboriginal settlements in central Australia were portrayed as hellholes of chronic violence and child sexual assault.

 

Despite the biased opening comment about cannabis being among the list of culprits for this behaviour the pictures spoke for themselves: a man with a plastic container held to his face as he walked along. To the selective prohibition supporters of this world: this is your problem. The real culprits to fuel the violence are alcohol and petrol and solvent sniffing. Another source of violence is from the damage caused before birth by the abuse of alcohol and tobacco during pregnancy. Okay, it's also due to poor education, poor health, and poor job opportunities but cannabis is listed as a menace along side petrol and alcohol but it would be the type of thing that would be neutral or perhaps even helpful in a situation like this. This shows in dramatic terms the damage legal drugs can do and for those who care to notice, the stark contrast with the illegal drugs. Ecstasy can be useful in some behavioral therapy. LSD has been used to treat alcohol dependence. Marijuana can help release repressed memories. Etc. If the use of any of these illegal substances, even heroin, were preferred over alcohol, tobacco and petrol sniffing I would say it would be an improvement.

http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g270/reecePhotophucket/ps_small.jpgWhere's the legal alternative?

You can’t ban alcohol as it is the last legally acceptable mind-altering substance they have. Then everything will be equally illegal. Come on prohibitionists why not legalise marijuana, LSD and mushrooms, and maybe peyote cactus, and ecstasy, and probably heroin as well, and give them an alternative for crying out loud? And, obviously they need a lot more. Give them dentists and health care and so on, import them from India if you have to. Whatever it is, legalise – they may as well enjoy their existence out there in the middle of the desert in this, the sixteenth most wealthy country in the world (2004 estimate).

 

I completely deplore the violence which has occurred but have to say that prohibitionists deserve this. You could hit these people over the head with a sledgehammer and they still wouldn't see the truth. That is why they need a concentration camp.

 

Author: Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Date: 15 & 16/05/2006.

Copyright: © 2006

[mr_moppet]

Having spent some time in a community that is primarily aboriginal(Fitzroy Crossing, WA) I agree with everything that pa-ul has said. I worked at the pub and saw how bad the problem can truly be. In the six weeks I worked there I saw numerous assaults and one person was killed accross the road. There was no real control on how much they drink other than to limit the amount of cask wine they can buy. But that was a financial reason rather than a safety one. At the time I worked there the pub was the largest seller of emu export in Australia. The company supplied kickbacks to the manager so we were encouraged to sell as many cartons as possible. To highlight the problem the first night I worked there was a friday and it was busy. So busy that I took nearly 12000 on my till alone all from alcohol sales. One of the problems here tohugh is that the aboriginal community owns half the pub and if the community stops spending there they also get less money to spend. In some ways their livlihoods depended on their destructive habits.

I beleive that boredom has alot to do with these problems as well. I found myself drinking stupidly while there out of boredom and ended up in hospital after a severe bashing by 2 white guys. I sate this because not once did I feel threatened by the indigenous community, in fact as I was their barman they enacted my revenge. What they really needed was an outlet for the community to keep occupied. A way for parents and children to interact with alcohol as a contributing factor.

Was there Cannabis use there? yep, but I don't remember seeing anyone who was stoned fighting or being abusive. I didnt see anyone get bashed for smoking the last cone or spilling the bong. To say that cannabis is a contributing factor is audacious at best.

It's not all doom and gloom however. In Fitzroy Crossing things have changed from my understanding. Drinking rates are falling and adults are starting to go to school to skill up in a determined effort to change the culture in the town. They are a lovely people in that region and I am glad that this is happening.

[Rhizo]

Blaming problems, that their deprartment has created and done nothing about, on drugs and substance abuse is a fucken cop out. It doesn't bother me that much, I got used to EVERY politician spitting out lies and propaganda. What angers me is the majority of the closed-minded media-worshipping right wing sheeple that will buy into this shit just because it was on TV. The same type of people that have never shared words, or even the same side of the street, with an Aboriginal person.

Spent a fare few years in areas with a high population of aboriginals. In this time I saw them do everything from paint-sniffing to injecting meth, with marijuana right inbetween, and out of all these things the one that made the houses the most peaceful was marijuana.

As with many things, drug dependence is not a problem by itself, but a social barometer that SHOULD alert people to other problems. Instead of trying to stop the use by stopping the drugs, how about trying to solve the problems that lead them (and some of us) to daily substance abuse, such as boredom (like moppet said) and shattered lives. The whole situation has become one vicious cycle.

I know it's a bit of a cop out is to blame all the problems on other things (government) and not themselves, but the simple fact remains, IT IS the governments fault, and that means it's there's to fix, without looking for scape-goats in the process. YOU FUCKED UP.

Cannabis and pedophiles, what a fucken joke. I better leave it as is, or this will turn into one really angery political ramble. It is anyway I guess.

 

- Rhizo

 

Thanks for the news Pa-aul, and I much agree that a time for words has passed.

It is now time for action.

Edited May 17, 2006 by Rhizo

[WantDaChronic]

imo boredom is the main contributing factor for drug taking in australia wether its petrol sniffing, cannabis or meth....regardless of what drugs are going around at the time, people will try and end their boredom i have seen first hand the damage boredom causes and i know for a fact if the youth of australia wern't dealt the boredom card in life, drug taking and crime would decrease considerably.

 

its all good saying legalise all drugs and the crime level will go down as will the amount of users, but imo the best way to combat this bullshit is to give those communities a huge boost in public works funding for youth centres, sporting grounds, etc. basically if you give them something to do with their time other than taking drugs, less people will take drugs, less crimes would be committed + if you get a bunch of guys playing football with each other, it teaches team work and responsibility, everyone wins

[Pa-uul]

Thanks for those replies guys. . I am sorry to get so angry when I talk about them blaming weed for these things. It helps me to hear others be able to talk about it without being psychopathic like I feel right now. Wantda I agree with what you say, it's not all about this or that drug but about achievement and natural enjoyment and, hate to say it but, "being high on life". :peace:

[boomstix]

in a way, i think the internet is good for this

because aboriginal people are on the web

so at least they can see that we

don't all agree with the tv

[mr_moppet]

now they are saying that the kids should be removed permanantly. Is this gonna be another stolen generation?

[Pa-uul]

May 18, 2006:

Sniffer dog plan for Alice

© 2006 The Australian

 

I found it hard to believe that the crisis in Aboriginal communities would be turned into another avenue for the war on drugs but the madness is real. When I look at Mal Brough's photo above I think he looks like a bit of a punce but he can't be that bad can he? But this is no joke:

SNIFFER dogs would be brought to Alice Springs and police funding boosted to help crack down on drug use and domestic violence in Aboriginal communities, the Federal Government said today.

How do the dogs crack down on domestic violence? Mal Brough knows what's happening. He says:

"They are standing there drinking moselle at seven in the morning.

 

"I said, 'We've got to get rid of that – that's destroying you, it's taking your soul'.

 

"And she said, 'But it's my medicine'".

Sniffer dogs can be but are not trained in Australia to find legal drugs because....they're not illegal. This means that Mal Brough is determined to rub out illegal drugs like cannabis because of the government's beliefs towards them to make sure that only the legal group of alcohol, tobacco, petrol and paint vapours are left.

[WantDaChronic]

but thats not the end of it that same guy wants to take aboriginal children away from their families if the parents are taking drugs, drinking booze constantly, etc. but if you thought that was end of it, you were mistaken he also was quoted on sky news as saying he is determined to shut down "dysfunctional" indiginous outback communities

 

some people need to be shot in the face, that mal brough is one of them

[Pa-uul]

...some people need to be shot in the face, that mal brough is one of them...

That's how I feel too Wantda when I've been attacked as I perceive marijuana prohibition to be.

...but thats not the end of it that same guy wants to take aboriginal children away from their families...

That's a tempting solution at first glance but then you've got to look at yourself and ask some questions. The people in government must ask "What have I done to fail them?" and "Could I or should I have done more to help them?" And I suppose the proper enforcement of regular laws, unhindered by any kind of so-called "traditional laws", must be a positive too.

 

Kumanarra, the man mentioned in this thread, costs the taxpayer $200,000 a year in full-time care to keep up. Imagine how much smaller the investment would be if it could be spent on preventative measures like community centres, sports activities like you say Wantda, and employment opportunities. I'd be happy to see at least $20,000 extra per year be spent on each Aborigine in this situation, in addition to their regular dole money and so on, to help them get ahead. It's worth it. The govt shouldn't be spending upwards of $2 billion on things like aid to Indonesia without first taking care of our own!!