Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Out of sight, out of mind:…, in reply to Katharine Moody,
I accept what you say about the ‘large majority’ (although I do wonder whether that is more true yesterday than it might be today and going forward)
In that the drugs baby-boomers took were generally safer and more reliable than the drugs their children and grandchildren are getting, yup.
And in many cases, the more dangerous drugs appeared because the safer ones were forced out of the market in one way or another.
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Hard News: Out of sight, out of mind:…, in reply to Katharine Moody,
Her distraught father when I spoke to him following his return from identifying her body, commented on Hone Harawira’s suggestion that we introduce the death penalty for importation and manufacture of this shit.
Can’t say I’d necessarily oppose it if it was considered by our legislators – and that’s an admission by me that I’m horrified by. I simply can’t face the fact that every primary school child of today will no doubt become prey at some stage in their lives to these heinous individuals.
Sorry, but no fucking way. That’s an unacceptable road to go down.
One thing that really struck me writing the story the post is about is that in the end, it’s not about this or that drug – or, rather, that there’s a group of drugs used by people, with some justification, to block out their lives. Sometimes it’s prescription drugs, sometimes street drugs. And poor people get the worst of them.
The fact is, every primary school child will not "become prey" to people dealing these particular drugs. Many will use illicit drugs and the very large majority will come to no harm through that.
There is a particular problem with the current generation of synthetic cannabinoids. One is the way they lock people in. The users I've talked to talk about doing a couple of cones, going unconscious (or dissociated) for an hour or two then waking up and immediately needing more. It's vicious.
The other is their sheer potency, which is a deadly problem when the product is dosed by idiots in suburban garages. That's why people are dying.
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Hard News: Out of sight, out of mind:…, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
And drug taking is a voluntary act. In many years of hanging out with dodgy people, nobody has ever “pushed” me to buy their drugs (and I think you’ll struggle to find a court case where this was proved as an aggravating circumstance against a dealer).
This recent synnies tragedy seems to meet that description:
Texts found on his phone revealed that in the three days before Jones died, a drug dealer had messaged him almost 100 times trying to entice him to buy synthetic cannabis.
Jones resisted, telling the dealer no, he was in rehab.
Furthermore he was sick at home with a cold and not interested.
That night, alerted to where Jones was and while his mother was out, the dealer showed up at the house and gave him a bag of synthetic cannabis.
On Friday September 1 he dropped his mother and sister off at work, went home and tried to get high again.
He was effectively dead in seconds.
There's a spectrum of drug supply – from people buying for friends to people who really don't care about causing harm – and the law does a really bad job of distinguishing different circumstances. And I think it's idle to to declare that all drug taking is voluntary. People get trapped.
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Hard News: Out of sight, out of mind:…, in reply to Katharine Moody,
Given that lives are being lost, I’d hope the importation/dealing in these should be treated as involuntary manslaughter/criminally negligent homicide as a minimum.
There would have to be a victim – and in this case there isn't, because the package was intercepted.
The PSA wasn't designed for this kind of thing, and importation penalties should be aligned with those for the most dangerous illicit drugs (which the Misuse of Drugs Act does a lousy job of ranking). I'm encouraged that no one's talking about cranking up penalties for use and possession though. There's no sense in re-victimising victims.
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Oh, and why Tony Podesta resigned:
The indictment on Monday did not name the Podesta Group or Mercury, instead referring to them as “two Washington, D.C., firms” that were recruited by Mr. Manafort and Mr. Gates “to lobby in the United States on behalf of Yanukovych, the Party of Regions, and the government of Ukraine.”
He is not, as Tucker Carlson told Fox News viewers, the "central figure" in Mueller's investigation. But it's an insight into how lobbyists are gonna lobby.
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Fox News journalists embarrassed by Fox News coverage of the indictments.
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Posted elsewhere, but what the heck. A slightly enhanced pic of the rainbow path at Waterview.
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Jonathan Maze seems to have found a little scoop on Papadopoulos: his LinkedIn three weeks ago.
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Hard News: And so it begins ..., in reply to Shaun Lott,
I personally feel that the constitutional crisis started with the Supreme Court vacancy stand-off.
Yeah, there's something in that.
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Wow, Jonathan got a result on his LGOIMA request quickly!
It appears that after contemplating 43 main breaches in less than four years, Watercare will be addressing the matter with urgency.
