I expect chicanery, corruption, hypocrisy and lust for money and power. Rarely am I disappointed, often my expectations are spectacularly exceeded.
I’ve just come across the gem below “Australian Drug Deaths”. It’s an oldie but a goody. Have a read about their suggestion, should you be busted, for court mandated detox and rehab. Turning ‘bad machines’ into gooduns’.
And so, dear reader I bring to you the facts on cannabis, as I see it, from here in the corner. But first:
Australian Drug Deaths
There were 941 drug induced deaths in Australia in 2003.
More than one third of deaths (338) were from heroin or opioids and more than one third of deaths (374) were from benzodiazepines or antidepressants.
Methadone contributed 70 deaths,
Cocaine, narcotics and cannabis contributed 92 deaths.
The drug-induced deaths by state were: New South Wales 307, Victoria 278, Queensland 151, South Australia 93, Western Australia 69, A.C.T. 23, Tasmania 17 and Northern Territory 3.
Deaths from accidental and long term drug use from using heroin, opioids, methadone, cocaine, narcotics and cannabis amounted to almost half (429) of all drug-induced deaths.
Suicide caused a quarter of the drug induced deaths (278).
(Source: Australia Bureau of Statistics, Deaths Collection, Table 1, Drug Induced Deaths by Type of Drug/State)
DRUG ADVISORY COUNCIL COMMENTS:
Deaths from using drugs is only a small part of the cost to our Australian community.
There are significant long term health impacts for the users and our community from using illicit drug like heroin, opioids, narcotics, cocaine and cannabis.
Deaths from using methadone prove that detoxification and rehabilitation are better options than drug maintenance programs.
Our Council supports the International Narcotics Control Board that advocates illicit drug users should not be jailed but given detoxification then rehabilitation to get them drug free.
THE DRUG ADVISORY COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA SUPPORTS:
More detoxification & rehabilitation that gets illicit drug users drug free.
Court ordered and supervised detoxification & rehabilitation.
Less illicit drug users, drug pushers and drug related crimes.
And so I sent them the following Email:
I just took a look at your website. Very sneaky and disingenuous of you.
You lump cannabis in with all sorts of nasties and then attribute 92 deaths to that group of ‘narcotics’.
Fact – there has never been an overdose death attributed to cannabis. There is no known lethal dose.
Fact – some younger folk can develop mental illness through over use of cannabis and with a still developing brain.
Fact – cannabis smokers are discriminated against and persecuted.
Fact – alcohol is the most damaging drug in our society and remains legal due to vested interests.
Fact – kids and any thinking person will regard your group with disdain and ridicule because you are disingenuous.
Fact – prohibition never worked anywhere. Fact – it had the opposite effect and created bigger societal problems.
Fact – cannabis can have a demotivating effect on regular heavy users.
Fact – the jury is still out with regard to the longer term health issues concerning cannabis use.
Fact – he who pays for the report or the science gets the result he paid for.
Fact – the reason that we have cannabis prohibition in Australia is because we are signatories to the UN Single Convention on Drugs (an American construct).
Fact – if it were not for the UN agreement and hypocrite politicians then cannabis use in Australia could be handled with virtually the same set of laws that apply to alcohol use. Home brewing = home growing, no smoking and driving/operating machinery, no public intoxication etc
Fact – we could have a thriving hemp industry (for fibre and seed) were it not for the USA, the UN and wowsers whipping up a frenzy about “marijuana, the weed with roots in hell”.
Fact – I can enjoy cannabis use responsibly just as you can use alcohol responsibly.
Fact – smoking cannabis does not lead to addiction or hard drugs just as drinking alcohol does not inevitably lead to alcoholism or harder poisons.
Fact – ‘ordinary’ citizens are convicted of criminal offences that impact negatively (seriously and permanently) upon their lives because they choose to temporarily alter their consciousness through cannabis use. The damage done by the legal system to folk’s reputation, career, future prospects etc, far outweighs any ‘damage’ done by cannabis.
Fact – cannabis growing and use at the individual level is a victimless ‘crime’ if it does not impact upon others in a negative way and beyond mere annoyance.
Fact – the state wastes enormous resources on catching and prosecuting individuals for cannabis use, and for what end?
Fact – if the state dries up the cannabis then kids will buy harder and potentially fatal drugs: if the state raises the price of alcohol then kids will buy the biggest bang for their buck. They will experiment regardless.
Fact – it is part of the human condition that a certain percentage of folk will experiment with their consciousness. Thus we have music, poetry, novels and new thinking much of which comes out of mind altering drugs and the talented individuals who dared to smoke.
Fact – most cannabis users (and by your own admission it’s VERY popular) have found that the drug is fairly harmless and permits them a ‘normal’ life so long as the law does not get involved. Cannabis provides for them a short mental holiday if you like.
Fact – among our doctors, lawyers, politicians, clergy, scientists, accountants there exists a percentage of cannabis users. They cannot speak up for their tipple of choice because they will be ostracised by their peers, some of whom are drunkards, prescription drug addicts and users of serious poisons.
Fact – 300 years ago we burned witches alive because it was the ‘right thing to do’.
Fact – it’s a funny old world, run by the rich, powerful, well connected and hypocrites.
Really, do yourself a favour and read “Cannabis a history” by Martin Booth a Bantam book 9780553814187 The Random House Group Ltd. Doubleday edition published 2003 Bantam edition published 2004.
Fact – cannabis is a member of the hop family.
Fact – cannabis has been used medicinally and recreationally for thousands of years. You really have to ask why it has been demonised in these 20th and 21st centuries.
Fact – some women, following the use of cannabis, find relief from menstrual cramps and the need to wage war on their partners. Others use hot water bottles, worn not thrown.
Fact – some cancer (chemotherapy) patients find that cannabis use restores their appetite and relieves the nausea often associated with that treatment. It’s not called the munchies for no good reason! I believe that Stout Beer was once upon a time used to restore the appetite and vigour of hospital patients. How civilised was that?
Fact – some folk experience unpleasant side-effects associated with cannabis use. Most frequently reported ‘bad’ effects include (temporary) paranoia, heart palpations, and excessive thirst.
Fact – most cannabis users will overcome the temporary side effects and recognise them for what they are ie transient and acceptable (not to be feared).
Fact – for cannabis users who have very real concerns about lung damage, ingestion of carcinogenic agents etc there exists the vaporiser. The cannabis is not burnt (producing harmful tars etc)
Fact – many legal, prescribed drugs in current use have severe and sometimes permanent side-effects, yet we tolerate that.
Fact – right now there are multinational drug companies trialling synthesised cannabis which they hope to patent and sell to governments (for approval and placement on the PBS). They will claim little side effects for their product.
Fact – governments will as usual accept, at enormous cost, these drugs because they are ‘tested’ and respectable and APPROVED!
Fact- in the ‘old days’ the peasants used the limited, natural remedies at hand, that’s all they had. Now- days, governments tie you to the multinational pharmaceutical companies and deny you a personal freedom, self medication.
Fact – governments cannot stand the fact that you are, at low cost, sustainably, and within your own backyard growing and smoking/vaporising your own medicine and with the benefit of being quietly and peacefully ‘stoned’ IN YOUR HOUSE!
Fact – if citizens could legally grow and smoke/vaporise their own medicine then government would not be able to claim excise (home brewing is OK in this regard, apparently), control dosage, control retail outlets (we must protect our chemists, apparently), and ‘force’ you to submit further to their control.
Fact – if you permit cannabis growing, control, supply to government then they will bugger it up – tell me that I’m wrong on that one!
Fact – pharmecutical companies influence government. The cannabis lobby is too underfunded, by its nature fighting from a point of illegality, facing a wall of ignorance, is too stoned perhaps.
Fact – Police on the street would rather deal with stoners than drunks.
Fact- once you remove the supply and distribution of drugs from criminals (I include governments in that category) you automatically lower the price, you disassociate ‘ordinary’ citizens from criminals, you empower individuals to make their own considered choices, you allow the flow of that capital that would have been expended on drugs into legitimate businesses. Eg $250 for an ounce of ‘grass’ or the deposit on a new fridge, weekend away with the missus and kids, case of wine, take your pick.
Fact- cannabis users are labelled as cannabis users. When was an alcohol user, coffee user, tobacco user similarly described? It’s a put-down, pure and simple.
Fact- the popular printed media never reports, following a police bust, that firearms and drugs were found; if that drug happens to be alcohol.
Fact- religion has no part in the debate on cannabis. But, for anyone of the Christian faith, then The Bible has something to say about the herbs (and use thereof) that your God put on this earth. For Muslims, I respect your observance of the instructions that you’ve been given with regard to alcohol. In return please respect my belief in the The Great Spirit and my use of ‘erbs. OK.
Fact – someone with a terminal illness does not need anyone or anything telling them that their cannabis use is criminal and unacceptable.
Now let me make this clear. I do not seek to promote, nor do I advocate cannabis use to anyone. I’m calling for the decriminalisation of cannabis growing, possession and use under similar laws and regulations applying to the drug alcohol.
Just decriminalise it and stop the persecution, that’s all.
