Mid-North Coast NSW annual eradication program

[weedquotes]

"TUCKED away in the state's forests and national parks are millions of dollars worth of cannabis plants just waiting to be harvested by criminals" - Regarding this lines I would just like to quote Peter McWilliams who once said: "Marijuana is the finest anti-nausea medication known to science, and our leaders have lied about this consistently. Arresting people for medical marijuana is the most hideous example of government interference in the private lives of individuals. It's an outrage within an outrage within an outrage"

[MongyMan]

A bit of reading for you Nick.....

 

Organised crime costs nation $15b a year

 

Organised crime costs nation $15b a year

 

Updated: 05:32, Friday April 15, 2011

http://202.58.40.60/elements/img/article/638x359/skynews_601400.jpg

Organised crime costs the economy $15 billion a year because Australians are among the world's biggest users of illegal party drugs, a report says.

 

Underworld activity could fund a $1000 Christmas cheque for every adult, or annually pay for a brand new hospital in each Australian capital city.

 

The Australian Crime Commission estimates serious crime 'conservatively' costs $10 billion to $15 billion a year, making it a national security issue.

 

Its Organised Crime in Australia report, to be released on Friday, is regarded as the most comprehensive study to date into underworld activity.

 

Illicit drugs are the most profitable form of organised crime, with cocaine, ecstasy and ice, or crystal meth, among the most commonly traded chemicals.

 

Australia's illegal party drug market is a multi-billion-dollar enterprise with a large number of syndicates.

 

'Australians are among the world's highest per capita consumers of illicit stimulants, and drug prices in Australia far exceed prices overseas, making domestic drug production and importation highly profitable,' the report says.

 

Cocaine traffickers with links to South American crime groups are expected to maintain a competitive advantage in Australia.

 

'Mexican criminals have become more prevalent as principals in the importation and supply of cocaine and associated money laundering,' the report says.

 

'There is concern that they may also import the violent practices which have been reported overseas.'

 

Crystal meth is produced locally by Australian outlaw motorcycle gangs, along with Middle Eastern, eastern European, west African and Southeast Asian criminal groups.

 

Cannabis, Australia's most used illicit drug, is distributed through more decentralised groups while ecstasy is often imported from Europe, Southeast Asia and Canada in powder form by more sophisticated networks.

 

The role of ethnic crime is also examined, concluding that certain groups are more prone to use violence.

 

'The deliberate use of violence is a key feature of Middle Eastern organised crime groups,' it says.

 

'Persons, particularly of Lebanese background, have significantly escalated the level of violence within and between outlaw motorcycle gangs since they have become members over the past decade.'

 

Regardless of ethnicity, outlaw motorcycle gangs are prepared to use violence to protect their membership and areas of influence, the report says.

 

Still, it regards the fatal bikie brawl at Sydney airport in 2009 as a one-off, concluding that violence among organised crime groups had actually reverted to historically lower levels.

 

Tax evasion, money laundering, fraud, identity crime and high-tech crime are also high on the list of crimes, with internet-based crime tipped to increase in the short to medium term.

 

Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor, who will launch the report on Friday at Melbourne's Federation Square, said this report was the commission's most comprehensive profile of organised crime in Australia to date.

 

'Revealing these details for the first time is about being open with the Australian people and sharing what we've learned about organised crime operations in Australia,' he said.

 

Australian Crime Commission chief executive John Lawler said if there was a how-to manual for waging war against organised crime, this report would comprise the first chapter.

 

Do you still think your 'war on cannabis' is important?

Can you see yet it is YOU and others like you who have made these gangs rich Nick?

You cant win the war and all you achieve by trying is putting kids at risk from an unregulated drug market and leave sick people suffering because they cant get legal cannabis medications.

 

You really should hang your head in shame mate.

 

Peace MongyMan

 

 

ps... Do you know what LEAP is Nick? Are you involved in them in any way at all? Have you ever wondered what they stand for?

 

[The Hash Nibbler]

Hear, hear Mongy.

I find it funny (or sad depending how ya look at it) that bent cops and crooked politicians back in the day, set these crime bosses up to be a success. Worked hand in hand with them for nice fat wads of cash. It bloody still happens today, and to deny that , is complete BS. Big players getting away with all sorts of stuff, with the odd token bust in the papers.

I am increasingly annoyed that, because Police can smell a Joint or someones grow room or they get tipped off by some uninformed (cannabis) member of the public, they get an easy bust.

 

My local shopping centre is like a bloody Junky gathering point and I hate it Nick, all Meth heads , Crack dealers, and herion users. Dealers hanging around like they're friggin celebrities. Cops are at the shops every day dragging some disrespectful piece of work outta there. Yet, I am bundled up into the same catagory as this? That is not right, and it's not just. Iam respectful, help others and like to think have contributed to our society and I use Cannabis for Medical reasons.

 

You are making it easier for Harder drugs to get a hold in our society, by demonizing Cannabis. If a mine worker/ normal worker etc etc wants to party when they are on their week off, they have the choice of smoking a J and maybe not passing a drug test at work if their screen blocker doesnt work OR get some Meth, be a complete dick for 2 days and be clean of it in 48hrs. Kids are preferring these synthetic drugs too, as they're easier to hide and easier to get and as is becoming the norm round here, cheaper.

Your creating a bigger problem than Cannabis ever was or ever will be. Your also creating a bigger mental health problem.

 

See the latest in Legal Drugs, the Synthetic THC 'Cannabis', that stuff is untested Nick, It's dangerous. Yet in the infinate wisdom of the police force, allowed to be sold.

It is SOOOOO popular in WA the supplier cannot get enough of it into the Country. You want to know why? Because people smoke Cannabis Nick, but are sick of having to hide and be afraid of being Busted for something so harmless as Natural Cannabis. You turn people to Synthetic drugs, legal or otherwise.

 

You know something I would like to see.... A REAL effort to get on top of high level players at a national /international level. Actually put ya money where ya mouth is and go after the Kids that are the same size as you. Or is that too hard, step on too many high up toes??? Ineffective policing taking easy pickings is letting this country down. Sure it looks good on paper....100 busts. but if it's 95% average joes with no criminal connections , whats the point? Your penalising Citizens for the work of Criminals.

And Yes, I know in the eyes of the Law I am considered a criminal, but the laws need to change , not me, and you need to help us, you have better things to do than bust a heap of Medicinal Cannabis users and people who enjoy a Toke.

Local police forces got their hands full with REAL crimes without having to go round busting a few stoners for smoking pot or growing their own at home.

 

I remember a time when the police were here to serve the community, and it was OK to enjoy yourself as long as you did not hurt anyone else, and you were left alone.

I think it's High Time (pardon the pun) Cannabis was given a lower priority to police and get the dangerous, addictive substances of our street instead.

 

If you think your lil Eradication program is doing anything, your delusional, your mostly getting a few people who grow a few plants in the bush because they got a mortgage

and kids at home and are too scared to lose both because of our draconian out dated cannabis laws.

Your destroying more lives than your protecting and I, for one, are sick of it............ GH72

[returngrower]

hi Nick , thanks for posting here mate.. your view is as valid as anyone here.. I appreciate you're doing a conscientious work , I understand police work is at times , distasteful , routine & frustratingly limited. however it is valuable & I am glad there are folks who dedicate themselves to this community work, I don't think I could do what some of you do on a daily basis, I am peace loving , non confrontational human. live & let live. I feel the truth about cannabis should be discovered by each of us for ourselves. , for some it's a risky encounter with mind altering consciousness , for other it is a salve & a pleasant relaxation. for others is it a spiritual beginning , awakening.

 

my gripe with the law is that it has not succeeded in wiping out drugs , instead there has been an escalation in violence & outpouring of money that should be spent on helping drug users. these are just regular people who fell out someway & got caught up in it. they really need help , not incarceration. some drugs users have had harsh lives , culminating in desperate action to numb the pain. locking them up is wrong , they need medical & psychological treatment aid. some people are just curious , that's the human condition. beyond all this storm in a tea cup stuff is a beautiful universe we are continually discovering.

 

unfortunately , people in power are often corrupted , "cannabis" as medicine has been blocked / demonized by pharmaceutical companies as serious competition to their enormous money making pills & chemicals , "hemp" a natural fibre of the most superior quality, given evil status by competing vested corporate industrial interests ( synthetic fibre manufacturers , have you ever seen the burns inflicted from a Rayon shirt catching fire. it may as well be napalm ) hemp is simply the best we have on this world. , & "marijuana" given as many racial slurs as they could invent.

 

we should really move on from this debate into whether humans have personal rights & freedoms threatened / diminished by idealists , who chant that "you can't do that because we think it's bad for you". we have all witnessed the lies & exaggeration , there is a pile of evidence & historical ( hysterical ) data to support this. past presidents admit to inhaling .& yet young black men are disproportionately incarcerated with no hope for the future , the issue of prohibition is a serious human rights violation when it all comes down to it. . but those mostly who are opposed have yet to actually try a smoke of marijuana for themselves.

 

the real problem drugs are the man made ones.. everything chemical , extracted , enhanced & increased in extreme potency are the REAL harmful drugs. that includes "white sugar" my friend , cigarettes enhanced with additives to make them more addictive etc etc all the others included.

 

cannabis is a flower , that you dry for a smoke or cook with , that's it. has never caused any deaths ever. 0

 

if there is a law to be enforced , it must the one where everyone tries it & makes up their own mind , rather than being lead by the nose & told what to believe , after all we're supposed to be intelligent humans aren't we. thanks for posting something here & reading up on the status quo .. I highly recommend this site to you especially. there is much good information & clear headed policy reform. www.leap.com.au they are regular cops who have seen the current drug war failed catastrophically. & want some commons sense. the human carnage is just incredible. prohibition has to stop.

 

please take cannabis off the BAD DRUGS list.. the BAD DRUGS are ALL MAN MADE ONES...

 

regards,

innocent bystander.

Edited June 14, 2011 by returngrower

[Dags Gone Wild]

Points to think about.

 

Making cannabis scarce will lead to some people drinking more alcohol, and others to using drugs they might not have otherwise used - there's prohibition opening the gateway and shoving people through it who would not otherwise do so.

 

If your self-fulfilling prophecy isn't working well enough on its own, why not give it a helping hand?

 

I started drinking alcohol when I was 13. I started smoking tobacco when I was 14. I sniffed petrol when I was 14. I started smoking cannabis when I was 15.

 

Ergo

 

Tobacco is a gateway drug to cannabis and should be illegal.

 

Alcohol is a gateway drug to cannabis and should be illegal.

 

Petrol is a gateway drug to cannabis and should be illegal.

 

In each instance, use of the gateway drug has led to subsequent experimentation with cannabis.

 

Three out of three is a consistent pattern.

 

So much for the idiocy of gateways - you can make just about anything cause anything else if you line your logical fallacies up just right.

 

Post hoc ergo propter hoc?

 

What if there is a prior hoc, which has caused both the first-mentioned hoc, and whatever it was that came after that first-mentioned hoc, that is being alleged to have caused it?

 

Oh yeah, chemotherapy drugs are notorious gateway drugs for cannabis use.

 

**************

If it were legal to grow your own, but illegal to buy or sell, then you would work some way to localising both supply and demand, instead of the way they have been corporatised by organised crime and prohibition-enforcement.

 

No-one would want to fork out top dollar for a product they have no knowledge of its provenance or likely contaminants, from inadequate flushing, insecticides, etc. - although the tales of ground glass being added to slash smokers' lungs and deliver a quicker hit is the stuff of adolescent horror movies - if they could grow their own for much less, and ensure there wasn't anything harmful being used on the crop.

 

Say someone smokes, vaporises or eats an ounce a week (some use more some less), and they want to grow their own. Without an ideal spot in the garden, maybe they only get eight ounces per plant, so they need to grow seven plants.

 

But if growing from seed, half the plants might be male, so you'd need fourteen, plus six more in case of a statistical anomaly, so twenty.

 

Now maybe you want to supply your adult offspring with cannabis that has been properly flushed, had benign pest control, has been harvested late enough that there's some CBD in there to ward of black thoughts, paranoia or self-destructive thinking reported by some users of early-harvested cannabis with no CBD in it.

 

Half as much for each of them, and there you have one person, with 40 plants for personal use. My kids don't have any ancestors with schizophrenia that anyone has ever heard of, but there are other mental illnesses and dysfunctions.

 

Rather than telling my kids to just say no, and guarantee they will carry on but leave me out of the loop from then on, Id rather guarantee that they had access to cannabis that has been produced specifically to avoid psychological distress.

 

That could save the taxpayer a lot of money in fixing things that might not have gone wrong if they had had access to cannabis produced with user well-being in mind rather than profit.

 

So any time the government wants to start paying this hypothetical person to grow forty plants at a time because it will ultimately save the taxpayer, (s)he's hypothetically going to be happy for the extra income, and for recognition of having done one's bit for the community.

[Dags Gone Wild]

 

 

regards,

innocent bystander.

 

You should give up being innocent as soon as it is safe and practicable to do so. When was the last time you heard of a complicit bystander coming to harm?

 

Never is when you last heard it, so get with the smart money and get yourself Guilty As Sin^® today!

 

Easy installment plans available, at prices you'd sell your soul for. In fact just did.

[buzz lighthead]

Hi Nick if you've decided to revisit this forum!

I have a few beefs with your arguments but Mongyman has addressed most of them.

The main one that erks me is the gateway drug argument. It occurs again and again and it is cheap and unproven. In fact the black market is a very large contributing factor towards this gateway theory. Consider a cannabis user purchasing his usual supply to be told by his dealer he's sold out but hey heres some (insert other drug here) instead. Now if you could legally purchase the stuff at the bottlo with some I.D or heaven forbid grow yourself this kind of situation wouldn't occur now would it? Also a large proportion of illicit drug users drink and smoke cigarettes, so could legal drugs not be held to the same argument?

I understand though, you don't legislate, you just enforce the law. Just another slant on your gateway justification.

 

I'd also like to take the opportunity to inquire, is it a coincidence that most crop busts seem to occur around harvest season? How many officers are "sampling" the produce? I don't like to think it's many but I'm sure theres a small proportion of rotten eggs everywhere.

I say this beacause I have actually purchased from a person who was a junior police officer at the time. (obviously not anymore)

 

Anyhoo Thanks for being a sport.

Just some food for thought when you sleep well at night.

[Cerberus]

Hi Nick if you've decided to revisit this forum!

I have a few beefs with your arguments but Mongyman has addressed most of them.

The main one that erks me is the gateway drug argument. It occurs again and again and it is cheap and unproven. In fact the black market is a very large contributing factor towards this gateway theory. Consider a cannabis user purchasing his usual supply to be told by his dealer he's sold out but hey heres some (insert other drug here) instead. Now if you could legally purchase the stuff at the bottlo with some I.D or heaven forbid grow yourself this kind of situation wouldn't occur now would it? Also a large proportion of illicit drug users drink and smoke cigarettes, so could legal drugs not be held to the same argument?

I understand though, you don't legislate, you just enforce the law. Just another slant on your gateway justification.

 

http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=34582

[Frank Reynolds]

http://www.dana.org/...l.aspx?id=34582

 

Awseome article mate!

[Cerberus]

I am in the late stages of quitting a 15 year nicotine addiction. smokes taste bad, I like it like that

 

Weed still tastes gooooooood