Cannabis is a killer

[WantDaChronic]

THE father of an 11-year-old boy who hanged himself has blamed the "horrible" Aboriginal work-for-the-dole scheme for substance abuse problems engulfing his remote West Australian town.

 

Isaac Hale was giving evidence at an inquest in Fitzroy Crossing into the alcohol or cannabis related deaths of 17 men, women and children in the Kimberley region of WA.

 

Mr Hale told the inquest he still struggled to understand why his son hanged himself after an argument over a toy gun at the Buruwa community on October 7, 2005.

 

"We are still trying to figure that out for ourselves, why he done that to himself," Mr Hale said.

 

Mr Hale said there was a serious drink and drug problem in Fitzroy Crossing, where there was nothing for most people to do.

 

He criticised the "horrible" Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme, blaming it for problems in the town.

 

"The Government's really buggered things up," he said.

 

Under the scheme, people worked four hours a day, then most went to the pub, Mr Hale said.

 

Before CDEP concentrated people in the town, he used to spend months on a pastoral station which was now neglected and eaten by white ants, he said.

 

His partner, Selina Middleton, said no one would tell police about the community's drug problems for fear of retribution.

 

"People will go after you," she said.

 

Mr Hale said the community needed sport, jobs and activities for youths, while his partner said the town needed support workers, sobering up places and a rehabilitation centre.

 

"Why don't they put it here, or do we just have to live in a town that is a shithouse," Ms Middleton said.

 

Outside the courtroom, she said it had been very hard to talk about her son, describing him as a happy boy who had lots of friends.

 

"He was a beautiful boy, he lived for his country, he was a really good little hunter," she said.

 

"It was very hard as a mother, and yesterday was my son's (second) anniversary (of his death). In a way it made me strong to come here and talk about the lack of services."

 

Earlier today, John Hammond, a lawyer representing the bereaved families, called for a royal commission into the problems besetting the indigenous communities of WA.

 

Ms Middleton agreed with the proposal.

 

"I hope the whole of Australia is listening. We are just a forgotten town.

 

"John Howard should come here and live here in our community for a week and see what it is like."

 

The inquest continues.

Source: www.news.com.au

 

Im sorry for the families loss, but to say cannabis has killed people in a story about an 11yo boy who hanged himself is nothing short of spreading a bit of properganda

[bufo marinus]

Hmmm I worked in that backwards town in the 80's

Alcohol was out of control back then

About 50 white people in town and 300 Aboriginal people on the mission just out of town

I just seen an endless cycle of drinking and sitting around under trees, they had no idea what to do with themselves, and still don't.

Back then AIDS was big news, I remember a nurse I met there saying it will wipe out half the community as all the girls were being sexually abused by their brothers, fathers, uncles etc. Funny how the grog was the evil culprit then?

Looks like Cannabis is the blame this time for mans poor behaviour

[nugget]

Looks like Cannabis is the blame this time for mans poor behaviour

 

Well said, but only this time? happens nearly every time there's cannabis involved

 

 

[67Special]

I was there about 3yrs ago and alcohol is still the major problem in Fitzroy Crossing. Every payday 100's of locals write themselves off in the park opposite The Crossing Inn, but hey, the pub pays lots of tax so why would the gov consider alcohol as the problem

I swear that pub must have the highest beer sales in northern Australia

[Al B. Fuct]

Alcohol ban for Fitzroy Crossing

Issue 138 - 20 Sep 2007

 

PERTH

 

Issue 138, September 20, 2007: The strictest liquor licensing conditions in Western Australia could soon be slapped on the troubled Kimberley town of Fitzroy Crossing.

 

The Director of Liquor Licensing Barry Sargeant last week said he wanted to ban the sale of all packaged liquor with an alcohol content of more than 2.7 per cent for six months at the town's only pub, The Crossing Inn.

 

This would effectively ban all but light beer sales.

The Inn's licensee has been given two weeks to demonstrate why the ban should not be implemented.

 

Women from the area have been calling for a 12-month moratorium on takeaway alcohol sales in the remote community and the state coroner will be in the town next month as part of an investigation into Aboriginal alcohol and cannabis-related deaths in the region.

 

"The level of alcohol-related harm occurring in Fitzroy Crossing is such that it would be in the public interest if a ban on the sale of full and mid-strength packaged liquor was imposed," Mr Sargeant said in a statement.

 

WA Premier Alan Carpenter has rejected calls by 20 Fitzroy Crossing residents for a parliamentary inquiry into the town's social and economic problems, but he welcomed the decision.

 

"I think this is a good outcome," he said.

 

"I accept that there is a very significant issue in Fitzroy Crossing related to the consumption of alcohol, and reducing takeaway sales to light beer only for a period of six months will give that community an opportunity to address those problems."

 

The Crossing Inn, which is partly

owned by the Leedal Corporation and Indigenous Business Australia

, was contacted for comment but did not do so at the time of press. - AAP

 

Ain't it curious that aboriginal community corporations often own the very grog selling businesses claimed to be the problem.

 

Back in early 2003 when I was up in the NT, I had a chat with John Ah Kit, then assistant NT Indigenous Affairs Minister, shortly after he made these comments:

 

Monday, November 25, 2002. Posted: 13:39:10 (AEDT)

NT Minister disturbed by marijuana and suicide link

 

The Northern Territory's assistant Indigenous Affairs Minister John Ah Kit says he is disturbed by the increasing link between heavy marijuana use and suicides in Aboriginal communities.

 

He says he knows of one community of 650 people where there were about 30 suicide attempts within a month last year.

 

He says that has been followed by two suicides in Nhulunbuy and five suicides on the Tiwi Islands in five weeks.

 

Mr Ah Kit says all of the suicide incidents have been linked to marijuana use.

 

"Marijuana is sweeping across our communities in... major proportions and it is a real concern," he said.

 

"People are buying this marijuana and where they have an opportunity to mix that with alcohol, there's some sort of fusion and people are becoming paranoid and people are committing suicide."

 

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission's Northern Zone commissioner, Kim Hill, says he knows of some dealers selling marijuana in Aboriginal communities and is willing to report them.

 

Mr Hill says it is time other community members began to take responsibility.

 

"I know that some families and... {I} don't want to dob in their brothers or sisters or whatever but enough's enough with the youth suicides happening in the communities, the dysfunctions of families in the communities," he said.

 

"And I think... we can throw money, we can support families but at the end of the day people like myself, we need to take a bit more responsibility and start dobbing these people in."

 

I suggested to Ah Kit that the only way cannabis was going to kill you is if you dropped 100kg of it on your head. His response was that he didn't actually know what was causing suicides but that it had to be stopped (well, duh). I then asked him if he thought that lack of jobs, healthcare and policing in remote communities had anything to do with it. Ah Kit agreed that those would be a major factor but that it was impossible to get the govt to pay attention unless he was playing their game, publicly damning illicit drugs- and not complaining about lack of jobs and healthcare.

 

Ah Kit clearly just wanted to help his own people but in the process made silly, unsupportable statements that totally undermined his credibility... but he apparently didn't see that little bit of blowback coming. He's since wised up a bit, but not a whole lot.

 

Despite being intelligent and well respected, aboriginal leader Noel Pearson is also guilty of so strongly wanting things to change for aboriginal people that he's made some pretty bad judgments himself, notably approving of the govt's recent, election-motivated and very draconian 'intervention' in remote communities. Sounds a bit of Stockholm Syndrome, if you ask me. Bev Manton has a better grip on the deal.

 

I think it's just fine that Fitzy is going to limit alcohol sales, but it won't actually prove anything. If they want to test the 'cannabis causes suicide' theory, they need total grog prohibition... and will need extraconstitutional powers to enforce such, seeing as it's so bloody easy to make your own booze. Yarndie should concurrently be tolerated. Let 'em smoke all they want- better yet, let each community have a little patch o' green. The bottom would drop out of the booze bootlegging and pot dealing markets, solving another problem- the wastage of benefit payments on grog and pot.

 

The biggest problem is the level of services provided in aboriginal communities vs what we do for the rest of Aus. If the same level of healthcare and social support available in the NT & the Kimberley were on offer in Sydney & Melbourne, there'd be riots in the streets.

 

Banning drugs and grog to stop social problems is like banning water to stop drownings instead of teaching people how to swim.

[DownUnderDoper]

dangerously close to common sense there al

 

just thought I'd warn you before you slipped totally into reason

[Al B. Fuct]

DuD, I'm real sorry about that. I'll try to be a bit more airy-fairy. Maybe I could work in some astrology or aromatherapy in there somewhere.

[PGHGreek420]

It looks liek the people that wrote the original article are using a page out of hitler's playbook, create fear so that they can control the people and trick them into believeing that marijaun is an evil drug not a wonderful gift from god... articles like that one make me just wanna burn a spliff for the lost ouls that dont understand how great reefer is....