Posts by Russell Brown
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Hard News: Cabinet and the Reeferendum, in reply to Sacha,
I imagine Russell will be writing something more detailed but in the meantime, here’s the actual Cabinet paper (pdf, 30 pages).
Yep, just writing something for the dirty old Spinoff right now. There is a lot of detail in that Cabinet paper. It's fascinating.
-
And here’s the reveal, such as it is:
7 May 2019
New Zealanders to make the decision in cannabis referendum
The Government has announced details of how New Zealanders will choose whether or not to legalise and regulate cannabis, said Justice Minister Andrew Little.
The Coalition Government is committed to a health-based approach to drugs, to minimise harm and take control away from criminals. The referendum is a commitment in the Labour-Green Confidence and Supply Agreement, as well as a longstanding commitment from New Zealand First to hold a referendum on the issue.
“There will be a clear choice for New Zealanders in a referendum at the 2020 General Election. Cabinet has agreed there will be a simple Yes/No question on the basis of a draft piece of legislation.
“That draft legislation will include:
· A minimum age of 20 to use and purchase recreational cannabis,
· Regulations and commercial supply controls,
· Limited home-growing options,
· A public education programme,
· Stakeholder engagement.
“Officials are now empowered to draft the legislation with stakeholder input, and the Electoral Commission will draft the referendum question to appear on the ballot.
“The voters’ choice will be binding because all of the parties that make up the current Government have committed to abide by the outcome.
“We hope and expect the National Party will also commit to respecting the voters’ decision.
“I have today released the actual paper considered by Cabinet,” said Andrew Little.
The Justice Minister also confirmed there will be no other government initiated referendums at the next election.
-
Hard News: Cabinet and the Reeferendum, in reply to Andre,
Oh no. They don’t currently have access to weed, apparently. My kids are surrounded by teenagers as young as 14 who buy, sell and smoke the stuff. Don’t tell Paula. They act as if anyone will be able to buy marijuana when legislation is brought in, when in reality that is the case now. So all these 14 year-olds hang out with all these gang members who sell dope. Fantastic.
Yep. It's precisely why Canada opted for legalisation: because prohibition deprived them of any tools for curbing youth use.
-
Nice work by Dan Satherly on Newshub's story, in which Simon Bridges dismisses Chloe Swarbrick's statement that what National has isn't the Cabinet paper:
"What would she know? She's not part of the Government," said Bridges, who is also not part of the Government.
-
Hard News: What does the wastewater…, in reply to Craig Young,
Reminds me, what’s the status of therapeutic MDMA as an option for treatment of trauma? I seem to recall clinical trials on the subject.
In New Zealand? Researchers at Auckland and Otago Universities announced they would be expanding a study of the use of MDMA to treat tinnitus a couple of years ago, but I'm not sure where they're at now.
The interesting thing is that the idea came from patients – clubbers who told Audiology staff that their tinnitus symptoms eased when they were on one.
-
Speaker: The economics of shit speech, in reply to Bart Janssen,
If they could show the $5 a week was ring fenced for those journalists behind the paywall I’d be happy to pay.
It's more that if this doesn't work they may not have jobs soon.
-
Hard News: What does the wastewater…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
What percentage traces of Viagra© and other prescription drugs and hormones were also present?
They can only report what they test for ...
-
Oh. Dear. From Martin van Beynen's report in The Press. Apparently 80% of New Zealanders are using meth.
-
Shame that alcohol is metabolised into sugar and in turn stored as stomach fat, they'll have to rely on the official sales figures to work out how much is drunk, instead of sniffing about in people's poo.
Shame it was deliberately left out of the Drug Harm Index, along with tobacco.
Almost like if we just regulated everything, we'd know how much was used. Hmm.
Indeed.
-
Feedback from Know Your Stuff ...
As suspected, no, Alpha-PVP is not a big issue. It was found in one of 445 samples in the 2017-18 season and was one of 29 cathinones detected. They found n-ethyl pentylone far more often.
Their guess is that Alpha-PVP was the scary and newsworthy cathinone at the time the programme was set up. Things move fast in that world.
