Posts by Neil
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Hard News: Cannabis reform is a serious…, in reply to BenWilson,
It’s too fraught for it to be practical to make the resolution of it any kind of blocker to how the vast majority of people who are of sound (enough) mind are allowed to access cannabis.
I’m not presenting this as an objection to legalisation or decriminalisation rather as an issue of harm to the most vulnerable that should be addressed given that the motivation for reform is harm reduction.
Drugs in acute inpatient units is a big harm issue now. Along with legal reform the government should also formulate a plan deal with it since that reform might just make the problem worse.
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Hard News: Cannabis reform is a serious…, in reply to BenWilson,
But I don’t see this highly exceptional case as really putting much more pressure on our general will to legalize or decriminalize…
No, but there’s been a tendency to say – marijuana is for the large majority mostly innocuous but for the very few for which it isn’t the mental health service is there for them.
What I have a problem with is that last bit – it assumes this is relatively straight forward. But it’s not and I can’t see anyone bringing this up.
(I’d say it’s mostly a resourcing and policy issue but some legislative tweaks could be of help).
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Hard News: Cannabis reform is a serious…, in reply to andin,
Thats quite a specific problem. I dont think this legislation is intended to address this kind of thing.
No it doesn’t. But I think it’s an issue that needs to be urgently addressed along with the legislation. If this is about harm reduction then attention should be paid to those most at risk of harm.
A small percentage of people who have major mental illnesses react very badly to marijuana. Assuming legalisation can occur and the mental health services can just deal with the fallout without proper resourcing isn’t going to work out very well.
At present under current legislation mental health units do not have the ability to deal with this. Any change should include change for the most vulnerable.
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Hard News: Cannabis reform is a serious…, in reply to andin,
If a person has an addiction they will usually seek it out themselves, and they will go to criminals if that is the only place to get it.
I was thinking more specifically of people in acute mental health inpatient settings. People bringing drugs onto those units is a very real problem. Drugs are being supplied to the vulnerable causing mental and physical harm. It also soaks up staff resources that could be better spent on therapeutic interventions.
It’s a form major harm to the most vulnerable which isn’t being addressed in a process that is supposed to prioritise harm reduction.
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Hard News: Cannabis reform is a serious…, in reply to andin,
Marijuana can amplify paranoia, if you are that why inclined dont use it.
If someone is already mentally unwell then they may lack the insight and judgement to make the best choice. And there will be the parasites pushing drugs at them for money.
I haven’t seen the government address this as yet.
There could be new penalties re supply to the vulnerable and perhaps automatic discharge and prosecution for anyone in an inpatient unit providing drugs to others.
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I’m for legalisation and harm reduction but one area of harm the government seems to be overlooking is the illicit use of marijuana and other drugs in acute mental health units.
This already causes a great deal of harm. The naive and unscrupulous often traffic drugs into mental health units causing mental and physical harm through relapse of psychotic symptoms and physical aggression.
Peoples’ recovery is set back, many people suffer physical injury from violence and some become vulnerable to the financial and sexual predation of others.
If drugs are more widely available then the likelyhood is that this will just get worse.
The government needs to recognise this as an issue and resource mental health units to deal with it. Should there be increased security? Should there be special authorisation of medications such as paramedics have now when dealing with aggressive people?
Sadly some people with psychosis and mood disorders react very badly to drugs such as marijuana and meth. If the government wants to do away with seclusion and restraint then resourcing mental health units to stop illicit drug use must be a priority. Otherwise the harm reduction in the community won’t carry through to mental health units.
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Hard News: Lost Men, in reply to mark taslov,
You’ve made quite a range of points. To address just one.
Male/female brain differences certainly don’t explain all types of violence. However they do contribute to some such as described in the original post on male gun violence in the US.
I believe an understanding of this phenomenon is helpful to undertake social intervention to prevent it.
There are other less direct differences such as male risk taking in adolescence leading to a larger proportion of traumatic brain injury which can often predispose people to aggression.
I think evidence from brain imaging on male/female differences also offers valuable insight into current debates surrounding transgender rights:
Although the number of studies examining the brain of people with GI [gender incongruence] is still low, they have taught us that brain phenotypes for FtM [Female to Male] and MtF [Male to Female] seem to exist, and provided evidence for the role of prenatal organization of the brain in the development of gender incongruence.
In other words in terms of gender a person’s brain may not match their natal body.
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It feels like there has been a new, sharper, more polarised kind of argument abroad in recent years...
That’s my impression as well. Hard to quantasize but it seems to keep growing. A lot of it appears designed to just destroy debate and promote bitterness which works in favour of authoritarians. A bit like drones at an airport, there doesn’t need to be many to cause huge disruption.
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Hard News: WOTY: The Kindness Scandal, in reply to ,
Thats reassuring.
My colleagues do a lot of good in difficult circumstances and we often argue about what is actually the situation.
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Hard News: WOTY: The Kindness Scandal, in reply to ,
So maybe, is it reasonable to say that excluding trans women from say womens prisons under the feminist banner might be a little bit sick?
I would agree with that. I work in a hospital setting where there is from time to time trans women and they are considered as women including risk from men.
None of the staff though would have any idea of all this argument over TERF and would just go fuck off with that nonsense.
People can be good to others or bad to others and it doesn’t have much to do with what a small number of activists get worked up about.