Hard News by Russell Brown

Fascinating story. Sad to realize that 25 years has passed with relatively little change.

Fascinating story. Sad to realize that 25 years has passed with relatively little change.

Re-reading that whole issue, I had that "not much has changed" feeling more than once.

Fair bit of tosh in there which is unsurprising since I've yet to read any take on kiwi pot in the 70's that wasn't chocka with tosh.
EG I left aotearoa for a coupla decades in january '76, by that time large scale thai sticks (buy a kleensack full containing 1000 sticks for $1000 kick the kleensack for a coupla oz 'loose' sell sticks for $200 per hundred n loose for another $350) had ended about 18 months before everyone was bringin in #3 & #4 hammer instead - more portable and a lot more profitable.
NZ green had moved well past 'cabbage' by then and was competitive with sticks but there were still droughts - my farewell party everyone arrived with hammer or coke - no dope until march.
Sure there were still some sticks around but not in the quantity of yore I was gonna spin another yarn about the circs leading up to the drop in thai availability but those 70's drug yarns are boring predictable and vary little from country to country. Suffice to say we all had a lot of fun and the income rarely outstripped expenditure. eg a private sesh at antoines or clichy -everyone thought frog tucker n plonk were the bees knees which shows how naive we all were.

everyone thought frog tucker n plonk were the bees knees which shows how naive we all were.

Thinking about the alternatives at the time, not much comes up under top food...….
The hungry horse, Tony's steak house? Bonapartes for the Politicians and grandees.

Naïve?. possibly.

Back on track I can recall Thai sticks in the early eighties usually stripped of any seeds and trimmed down depending on how far down the chain you were. The days of sitting in a circle with 2 or 3 jays going round doing strong lung impressions are still with me.

Dope droughts, a bit like carless days really.

The past is a different country as they say.

What a great read & flash down 'memory lane'! - I found it largely correct but it all depended where & who you were n' knew - Buddah sticks are what changed NZ's pot quality - In 1973, 3 of us paid $17 for each of our first two sticks and there was my intro to Cannabis- It wasted us, just the first two shared joints, and we then got the mega-munchies & then I threw it all up half an hour later ! - ( if you vomit after having too much booze, it's your body saying that that amount is toxic to your system) - Pilgrim days but it changed my life, as I was in the Army at the time and couldn't handle their boozing, but pot was a secret world of fellow users and I also didn't know I was an hereditary alcoholic back then - It was years later that that surfaced - I chose to keep using pot gently because it was my way of being able to imbibe & relax and it was also the well of my creativity. - Once through this gateway there were all the other drugs and I eventually ended up doing the full "tour of duty", coming off hard stuff (smack & crank (P) ) by using booze, and then leaving that behind 21 years ago ( I am a recovering alcoholic), continuing all the way till now, just toking occasionally -

Cannabis Sativa was from Asia, via the Clarke Empire, & some of the buddah sticks were laced with the liquid residue from the opium harvest, as the Sativa were grown around the Opium fields up in the mountains of the Shan people in the tri-state Golden Triangle, (Thailand, Laos & Cambodia) - That's why Terry Clarke & Co moved into bringing Heroin down here, it was even more lucrative - I have a friend who spent time with Fulcher at Witako Prison in Trentham & he passed on his story -

Cannabis Indica is largely Middle Eastern, the "Golden Crescent" and is the main source of Hashish - ( I met many folk from there in Melbourne and the "Lebanese Blond" hash is really strong & tasty ) - That's where the "Red hash oil" mentioned came from, the Middle East, although I remember it as a very strong 'brown' oil, as opposed to our indigenous cannabis oil which was usually green - Indica is also grown in Mexico, the famous "telephone book" sized block of pressed pot which was used in the USA -
However, our domestic strain was beefed-up by buddah stick seeds and then what was bought in by travelers and then also by the mail-order seeds which makes our gear here in NZ very good generally - Tourist Quality, in fact -

As we saw with the greed that surrounds cannabis, I believe that it's irresponsible of this Govt. not to include "Decriminalization" as a preference next to Legalization - The latter is saying it's all okay to do cannabis for young & old - I don't think cannabis should be anywhere around kids or young folk, it should have an age limit of say 20 - I was 19 when I went into the Army to learn a trade but the drinking age was 21, and I couldn't handle alcohol then - Young folk need to get their education sorted and cannabis is not conducive to that - Then there are those who can suffer a undiagnosed mental health event using strong pot for the first time, especially with alcohol - Also, quantity of over an ounce should be a fine - And paying a licence fee to grow 6 plants say, would generate Govt. income, they sure as hell are going to bust us for drugged-driving soon ! - LEGALIZATION is not about health cares, hemp can cover that, it's all about MONEY FOR THE GOVT & licenced growers of the corporate variety - In other words, the GOVT. wants to be the DEALER -

Thank you, I offer food for thought, I hope we get a happy outcome for all ~

To add to the archive - an interview from 2011 with Peter Fulcher who was mentioned above

Peter Fulcher interview - the last days of Mr Asia