Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: The Death of Evidence

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  • Simon Grigg,

    Marijuana was often a stepping stone to more aggressive drugs such as P or cocaine, he said.

    I wonder if this is on DVD yet, y'know for the schools and all

    Mr Key said young people should get involved in sports, culture or drama and not dabble in drugs

    Damn, there goes the friggin' record collection

    Or is John Key the cultural vacuum on two legs he seems to be from afar?

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report Reply

  • stephen clover,

    Ooooooo-ooooooh, blue lady....

    wgtn • Since Sep 2007 • 355 posts Report Reply

  • nz native,

    When I hear a politician like S powers speak it reinforces to me just how bad and sick they are ( politicians )

    The Natianals, like labor are actually PRO drug ……………………. Its just that the drug has to be piss.

    This should be as plain to everyone as Doug Myers knighthood but incase some people have been living their lives with their eyes closed here’s some examples of how our governments in recent times have helped and been the piss pushers friends .

    They have LOWERED the drinking age so younger people can get stuck into it.

    They have Liberalized where it can be sold so now piss addicts ( alcoholics) cant even buy their grocerys without having the shit shoved in their faces.

    They have lifted restrictions on advertising the stuff so even children who are too young to drink can see that the booze ‘exports’ you to a better fun place.

    So the evidence would seem to quite clear that our governments have been quite strong in their support of the drug booze …………………. And stuff the consequences.

    There is also what I would call a ‘mindfuck’ which goes on around the drug alcohol where even quite educated and normal people do not think of it as a drug.

    This cleaver little ‘mindfuck’ has been repeated so often it has taken on a truth of its own and even some sensible people will refer to ‘alcohol AND drugs ‘ , this little trick seems to soothe people into believing that alcohol is not a drug and that it is not as bad as ‘drugs’.

    Because of all the truth minimization which goes on around the drug booze a lot of people seem ignorant on the real issues of ‘drug abuse’ in this country.

    There is a drug in this country which is involved in approximately 65,000 assaults per year.

    There is a drug which is aggressnogenic and leads to a large surge in crimes of violence and disorder every weekend.

    There is a drug which is addictive and toxic and which can ruin its users health

    There is a drug which because it is 'legal' society tries to pretend is not as bad as other ‘drugs’

    The drug is piss and our country is drowning in it.

    Could someone perhaps remind me of how Simon Powers voted on the law which would have required warning labels to be placed on alcohol containers????????????????.

    I believe Powers and his natianal chums voted against this public health measure.

    They are Pro drugs I tell you …………………………. As long as the drugs is piss .................. and we have to pretend it is not a drug.

    Since May 2007 • 60 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    "No one is probably arguing necessarily that if someone uses a small amount of marijuana that that is necessarily of itself the end of the world," Mr Key said

    Decisive chap, isn't he?

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • 3410,

    Marijuana was often a stepping stone to more aggressive drugs such as P or cocaine, [Key] said.

    I think I'm starting to get this. Part of being 'against drugs' is being 'against knowing anything about drugs'.

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report Reply

  • Steve Barnes,

    Yup, Drugs are baad mmmk!
    You could end up like this drug addled loser thinking you can move things around on a screen with just your fingers.
    Wooo spooky.

    Peria • Since Dec 2006 • 5521 posts Report Reply

  • stephen clover,

    aggressnogenic

    Word Of The Day!

    wgtn • Since Sep 2007 • 355 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    Do you want to make something of it?

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • nz native,

    aggressnogenic .............. I cant take credit for this very apt word.

    I first across it in a press release from these health proffesionals http://www.alcoholaction.co.nz/pdfs/Alcohol%20Action%20Pamphlet.pdf

    I've done a quick hunt through their site but cant find the actual quote.

    Never mind ............ the shoe fits for the drug piss

    Since May 2007 • 60 posts Report Reply

  • Islander,

    I've spent well over half my adult life wondering why the original settlers didnt use drugs of any kind: it's true - we didnt even use kava-type stimulants.

    But round about 40ish, I suddenly realised: the great drug was adrenalin. War & other forms of aggression were what drove the olds...

    Interesting that - as soon as other kinds of drugs were available, especially alcohol and nicotine -we were over them like the introduced flies.

    Sad fsct: humans NEED drugs of one kind or another.

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Peter Ashby,

    @Islander

    If what you say is true, its interesting since we humans have a seemingly endless ability to test everything in the world for its capacity to get us high*. I suppose its possible that the multi generational passage through small islands out into the Pacific drove the idea out of the culture due to insufficient possibilities. The same way Polynesian society was stone aged despite the originators having left the vicinity of Taiwan well into the Bronze age. But when your small island doesn't have any copper, let alone lead your blacksmith has to find something else to do.

    But now I think of it, all the ways of getting high in NZ are non indigenous, including magic mushrooms.

    *Did you know for eg that the skin of a good Stilton cheese is hallucinogenic? Apparently you have to eat a goodly amount of it and I'm told it is not a nice high but still. Oh and that is not the basis of my cheese addiction ;-) Though I do like a nice piece of Stilton, even here in the UK it is getting harder to find. In its place is ersatz stilton with most of the flavour removed, no detectable saltiness either. It enables the supermarkets to sell it to people who don't like real Stilton you see, the most that can be said of it is that it is creamy. Tesco's top range stuff is good but Sainsbury's is pants, you are better off going for an independent deli place. I bet you couldn't get high on the fungus they use on it either.

    Dundee, Scotland • Since May 2007 • 425 posts Report Reply

  • Just thinking,

    What of Wensleydale?

    I'll be putting the plums to good use in my first batch of Slivovitz. All stones will be removed, we don't want to make cyanide.

    Islander, I was told there was a seasonal brew down in Bluff, but I can't remeber where I got that.

    Putaringamotu • Since Apr 2009 • 1158 posts Report Reply

  • Steve Barnes,

    But round about 40ish, I suddenly realised: the great drug was adrenalin. War & other forms of aggression were what drove the olds...

    So. Pot's a good thing then?. And I don't mean Pol Pot.
    Shotguns, iirc, are illegal under the Geneva convention but apparently the good ol' USandA thought the use they got in Vietnam (for smoking Maryjane) was worse.

    Peria • Since Dec 2006 • 5521 posts Report Reply

  • Jeremy Andrew,

    IIRC reputable anthropologists have hypothesised that brewing beer was one of the main reasons humanity developed agriculture and moved from hunter/gathering to more settled communities. Its tricky to gather enough grain for a good mash and brew it up while you're wandering after a herd of dinner. Breadmaking, while made easier by cultivating the crops, can still be acheived by grabbing grain while passing by.
    And various other mind/mood altering substances have had a long association with organised and dis-organised religion.

    Hamiltron - City of the F… • Since Nov 2006 • 900 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    Alcohol was crucial for disinfecting water, wasn't it?

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Islander,

    Just thinking...cant say I've ever heard of that (and one side of the whakapapa is Bluff/Colac Bay for well over 300 years.) Though there is a tiny bit of evidence that the carefully extracted tutu juice was sometimes mixed with wellsteamed kareko and left for a while...maybe long enough for some fermentation?

    Pot is waaay better than war Steve B - though probably lacking the nutritional advantages that followed a good (the one you won) fight...

    And agreed Peter - certain kinds of knowledge like brewing vanish in areas where the technology (even pottery) has been lost and the raw materials (grains, fruit, honey) dont exist. And most of the known hallucinogenic fungi*, from magic mushrooms to the anciently used Amanita muscaria have been brought into the country over the past 170 years...

    Jeremy Andrew - they've also wondered whether honey/mead was the first intoxicant. Certainly one of the oldest depictions in cave art of a human is of a honey-collector (complete with unhappy bees.)

    * I didnt know about Stilton rind mould! I have an aged Stilton in a glazed pottery jar that I bought over a decade & a half ago. I've always been afraid to open it...the way the jar rocks occaisionally, and mumbles to itself-

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Rich Lock,

    is John Key the cultural vacuum on two legs he seems to be from afar?

    Oh, he likes a bit of painting.

    I'll leave it up to you to insert your own jokes about not being able to think outside the box(es).....

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report Reply

  • Danielle,

    one side of the whakapapa is Bluff/Colac Bay for well over 300 years

    I know I've said this before, Islander, but we are so totally related.

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • Islander,

    One of these days, Danielle, one of these days south, with relaxants (the view at the Bay etc.) & the whakapapa book....

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Peter Ashby,

    @Islander

    Re your idea about mead from honey. Honey needs extensive boiling to get it to ferment. It's packed with preservatives quite apart from the high sugar content and some of them are heat labile. After all the bees don't want the honey to go off in the hive. Any decent book on making meads, metheglins etc will spend time talking about worts that don't start fermenting or that get stuck before they are finished.

    In West Auckland in the summer it is common to see drunk tui and wood pigeon wobbling around and even unable to fly after over imbibing nectar (from flax, kowhai etc) that had sat too long. However it would be hard work getting enough for a human and NZ does not have native trees that produce large crops of sufficiently sweet fruit. So you could perhaps do a very small scale, highly seasonal brew for a very few people it is hardly a Bacchanal.

    I'll second Jeremy Andrew's point as well, as techniques for testing residues in pot shards gets better we are finding evidence of beer right back in the earliest fertile crescent settlements, including those that were not fully agrarian. When you add in that human propensity for finding anything fermentable and/or mind altering and that drive cannot be discounted as a motivator. Considering also that alcoholics will give up food for the booze and you have a slightly less noble motivation for settling down on the farm than being able to feed more offspring. They get trapped by those children and we all know what happens under the influence of booze . . .

    Dundee, Scotland • Since May 2007 • 425 posts Report Reply

  • Sofie Bribiesca,

    National Geographic has a doco on marijuana now.

    here and there. • Since Nov 2007 • 6796 posts Report Reply

  • Islander,

    Peter A - ur, not my idea: mead anciently was made with whatever came to hand = honey + grain bits/flowerstuff/throw-it-in & lessee wha' happen-

    -I've had kereru literally fall out of one my nectar trees and squat on the ground, looking stupid. Tui - not so much: it's also noticeable that they dont sing when nectar-besotted -

    the first settlers knew about nectar (and sugar - from tirakau-root) but never - to my knowledge - brewed anything (with the tiny possibility - and that would'nt've been deliberate- of tutu-juice.)

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Islander,

    Oh - and Sacha is right: alcohol does act a bacteriacide - 'small beer' for kids & servants was actually A Good Idea - in England anyway-

    totally on & OT - we are not the only animals that like to get wasted. Elephants are a classic example.

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie,

    totally on & OT - we are not the only animals that like to get wasted. Elephants are a classic example.

    And also, from personal observation, ducks, Hanuman langurs, and guinea pigs. All from fermented fruit. With their ultrafast metabolisms guinea pigs get sloshed very rapidly, and sober up just as fast. Being somewhat stumpy-limbed, their leglessness appears almost literal. They're also unable to vomit. As a number of the so-called "lower" animals possess functional opposable thumbs, the ability to vomit might be a better defining characteristic of what sets us, along with cats, at the crown of creation.

    Excuse me while I dump a hairball.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Islander,

    Joe W - heh!

    But actually chimpanzees can & do vomit....I was told by a keeper at San Francisco Zoo that some are especially prone to motion sickness. Took her word for it.

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

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