Bongs to be banned in Victoria next year

[jonx]

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/moves-to-weed-out-retailers-and-make-bongs-a-pipe-dream-20101204-18kse.html

 

THE ''green'' movement in Victoria has been dealt another blow by Premier Ted Baillieu: his election promise to ban the bong wasn't just smoke and mirrors.

 

The newly-elected Coalition government will introduce legislation outlawing the sale and possession of bongs, the water pipes popular with some cannabis users and, until now, available legally in more than 100 outlets across Victoria.

 

Mental Health Minister Mary Wooldridge told The Sunday Age the required amendments to the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981 will be tabled next year in line with previous bans of ice pipes and cocaine kits. Consumer Affairs Victoria inspectors will police the ban.

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Ms Wooldridge said there would be an education period for retailers - essentially a transition period leading up to enforcement. ''This isn't about surprising retailers and penalising them for something they didn't know about. We will do our best that people are informed,'' Ms Wooldridge said.

 

She said the ban may take in other smoking paraphernalia, such as hash pipes, but would not include ''hubbly-bubbly pipes'', or hookahs, which are gaining popularity in Middle Eastern-themed cafes.

 

''This is about reducing access to cannabis-smoking, particularly for younger people … not targeting people who undertake certain cultural practices,'' she said.

 

Bong retailers were scornful of the move. Jim Kouts, managing director of the Off Ya Tree chain - which has 16 stores across Australia and has been in business for 33 years - said the ban made no sense. ''During the prohibition of alcohol, they did not also seek to prohibit drinking glasses. It is exactly the same thing,'' he said.

 

Mr Kouts said bongs were the safest way to smoke cannabis because the smoke was water cooled. Bongs would still be available online or might be made at home despite the ban, he said. The ban would have no impact on the level of cannabis use, he said.

 

In a street poll on Friday, The Sunday Age found little enthusiasm for the ban: six out of eight people gave the bong a thumbs up.

 

Australians rank among the world's top cannabis users, according to a 2009 paper published in British medical journal The Lancet.

 

The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of NSW this year reported the number of Australians seeking hospital treatment with cannabis-related problems had jumped 30 per cent since 2002.

 

 

Fucking ridiculous.

Edited December 4, 2010 by jonx

[The Hash Nibbler]

Better stock up now or start going Ol Skool Orchie Bottle bongs, ......... . Bet they can't ban Ice coffee and juice coming in plastic bottles...... Losers. Lmao. Gh72

[steebles]

you can take my freedomes but you can not stop me from building my own BONG at home

This is a joke Premier Ted Baillieu is a tool and he should know that this will do nothing to stop the use of cannabis

is he going to ban apples and tin foil next or maybe just stop giving us access to water so we can not fill our bongs.

 

Ted Baillieu can eat me

[The Stoned Jester]

yup the government and thier 'Harm Minimisation' crap

 

So now your gonna go have to get a nasty plastic bottle with a nasty plastic hose from the garden and some foil and make a cheap nasty bong that when you smoke it your inhaling burnt plastic and burnt aluminium smoke ... yeah real harm minimisation there

 

good one douchbags

[farmermatt]

Excuse me if I'm incorrect, is the bong not a harm minimisation device? I wouldn't exactly say the sale of bongs would 'promote' the use of cannabis, merely a safer usage. I loving taking tobacco out of the equation all together. Ted Baillieu, you are a full on wanker.

 

Farmermatt

[templedog]

just another bullshit law by a bullshit politician with his own agenda fillin his pockets with our tax dollars and tellin us how to live they should fuck the state government off altogether its a whole tier of bullshit we could do without.... oxygen thieves fuck em roll joints

[konflikt]

FFS this thread pisses me off.... ignorance and fuckin reefer madness is rife.. fuckin furious.... imposing bullshit laws on us... fuck em all.. hope they all burn in hell...

[Nooby]

The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of NSW this year reported the number of Australians seeking hospital treatment with cannabis-related problems had jumped 30 per cent since 2002.

 

Anyone got more info on this?

Is it like in the U.S. where peeps get the option of gaol or treatment?

[Sylar420]

Ted Baillieu is about as useful as a dildo covered in razor blades! I hope this also means he is gona ban garden hose, plastic bottles of all descriptions, tin foil and blutac, i mean come on you fucken idiot at what point did you think that bongs wont just get home made at home or ordered from the net?

 

Id love to see a group of ppl make hundreds if not thousands of orchie bottle bongs, springers and all other manor of home made bongs from everything from coke bottles to windex bottles just to show this stupid bees cock of a man that you can make a bong from ANYTHING and dump them on the steps of parliament house as a visual protest! Just like the do all those ducks in duck hunting season, ya cant stop ppl channeling Macgiver when it comes to bong building!

[Chronmasta]

ya cant stop ppl channeling Macgiver when it comes to bong building!

LMFAO