With 62 cannabis plants and seedlings found growing on her Golden Bay property, activist Victoria Davis could have felt the full weight of the law when she appeared in court. Instead, her discharge without conviction has given new hope to the medical cannabis lobby, writes Naomi Arnold

Between three and five minutes after his first puff, John "Buzz" Davis feels the sensations beginning to recede. Not entirely; the maddening itches and pains in his amputated lower legs and feet are still there, but they're duller, easier to cope with. Most importantly, he can sleep.

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There is nothing new in the human desire to seek euphoria, stimulation or relaxation through drugs. The ancient Egyptians did it, South American civilisations did it, and so do many cultures and peoples today. Plants are chewed, concoctions drunk, substances smoked, pills swallowed and drugs injected.

But while effects can be benign and addictions limited, drugs of many sorts have always had the potential to cause great harm. Add the advances of chemistry into the mix of the modern world and drugs, both legal and illicit, cause untold misery in myriad ways.

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Babies are swallowing cannabis left lying around by their parents, calls to the National Poisons Centre show.

Last year the centre received 166 calls from people about adverse reactions from recreational drugs. Among them were calls about children and babies as young as eight months who had swallowed cannabis in their homes. The centre says cannabis oil in particular has caused problems.

The children became drowsy and would sometimes vomit, toxicologist Leo Schep said. "Like everything that is loosely lying around, they will put it in their mouth and if it's a liquid, will drink it."

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Cannabis growers beware - you can't escape the long nose of the law.

The unmistakable smell of up to 100 cannabis plants being cultivated at a Hamilton house caught the attention of two passing police constables when it wafted into their car as they drove past on a routine patrol.

Police believe a 57-year-old man living at the house may have been discreetly flushing a ventilation system when the officers went past the Avalon Drive property at 5.45am yesterday.

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Chris Kennedy Lawford has had a life less ordinary: a nephew of John F. Kennedy, a famous actor for a father and a childhood that included dancing with Marilyn Monroe.

But the actor and author is not in New Zealand to discuss his movie career acting alongside Anthony Hopkins or his cousin's estranged husband, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The United Nations Goodwill Ambassador on drug dependence and treatment is a guest of the New Zealand Drug Foundation, spreading the word about the dangers of addiction.

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People who use marijuana before driving are nearly twice as likely to cause a car crash as those not under the influence of alcohol or drugs, according to a Canadian analysis of previous studies.

Experts at Dalhousie University in Canada reviewed nine studies of more than 49,000 people involved in accidents on public roads involving one or more motor vehicles, including cars, trucks, buses and motorcycles. Marijuana use was confirmed by blood tests or self-reporting.

Researchers found drivers who had used marijuana within three hours of beginning to drive had nearly double the risk of causing a collision, especially those that were fatal.

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Workers are using bleach in a bid to beat drug tests at Bay of Plenty businesses.

Latest figures from the New Zealand Drug Detection Agency reveal the number of workplace tests in the region has more than doubled in the last year.

There were 4458 in 2011, compared with 1711 in 2010, with 8.5 per cent positive.

The agency's Bay of Plenty general manager Leigh Sefton said the increase could be down to a rise in testing rather than offending.

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You don't have to smoke it to know cannabis is here to stay - so why not make a buck from it?

I go into the yard to hang out washing, and smell it. I walk my children to school through the leafy avenues of Mt Eden, and smell it. I walk past a group of guys operating highly dangerous construction equipment and, with some alarm, I smell it there too.

Now, either I'm walking around with a smouldering marijuana leaf about my person (unlikely, as my married-with-young-kids lifestyle is so lily-white it would make the Swiss Family Robinson vomit with disgust), or every second person in New Zealand is on the wacky-baccy. In fact, it's about 10 to 15 per cent of us, according to a recent study in the medical journal The Lancet. Kiwis and Aussies are among the world's highest users of cannabis.

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Regarding your thoughtful January 10 editorial, the police state approach to cannabis use is a proven failure. Consider the experience of the United States of America, former Land of the Free and current record holder in citizens incarcerated. The steady rise in drug-sniffing dogs in schools, warrantless police searches, and random drug testing have led to a loss of civil liberties in America, while failing miserably at preventing cannabis use.

Based on findings that criminal records are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents, a majority of European Union countries have decriminalised cannabis. Despite cannabis prohibition and perhaps because of forbidden fruit appeal, lifetime use of cannabis is higher in the United States than any European country.

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A Lancet survey that shows New Zealanders and Australians are the world's biggest pot smokers will come as no surprise, particularly in this district.

The survey shows that 15 percent of Australians and New Zealanders aged 15 to 64 have used the drug in the past year, compared with rates of 1.2 to 2.5 percent in Asia.

The use of methamphetamines and ecstasy is also the highest in the world, with 2.5 percent trying these more dangerous drugs.

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A teachers' representative supports random testing to battle drugs. Nicola Brennan-Tupara reports.

Waikato schools suspended over 100 students for taking or dealing drugs at school last year.

And with the new school year fast approaching, education leaders are proposing measures "" such as random drug testing and police involvement "" to tackle the issue head-on.

Hamilton's Fairfield College hit the headlines in November after a student took a class C drug to school and gave it to up to 11 of her friends, leading to six of them being hospitalised .

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LONG waits for offenders to have court-appointed drug and alcohol counselling in Gisborne have highlighted a national problem.

Two national spokesmen on the issue say a lack of community-based drug treatment programmes could lead judges to sentence offenders to prison just to get help.

About 20,000 people are sentenced to prison every year in New Zealand and up to 80 percent of those crimes have a drug or alcohol component.

That might not be anything new but the lack of funding to help offenders conquer their addictions outside prison means a long wait - resulting in a constant stream of recidivist behaviour through the courts.

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Calls to the National Poisons Centre concerning fake cannabis have stopped, but one last puff is expected over Christmas, a toxicologist says.

Dr Leo Schep, of the Dunedin-based National Poisons Centre, said he was "gobsmacked" the centre was no longer fielding calls concerning synthetic cannabinoids, such as Kronic.

In the 12 months from October 2010, the centre received 72 calls concerning the products, which were sold as a legal substitute for cannabis and readily available from many dairies.

"When I did the update a month ago on the statistics I was shocked how they dropped away so quickly.

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Farmers fearing retaliation for dobbing in dope growers are being assured total anonymity when giving information to the Crimestoppers phoneline.

Police want rural Northlanders to dob in dope growers and break the chain of illegal cannabis growing and dealing.

In the last annual bust, Northland yielded more than a third of the country's haul of illegal plants.

During the month-long Northland phase of the operation during summer, 34,917 cannabis plants were seized or destroyed, out of the national total of 97,000 plants.

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New research about the effects of women using methamphetamine while they are pregnant is horrifying, but more because of the minor detail than the headline results.

The research by Auckland University of 120 women shows the first generation of New Zealand babies exposed to methamphetamine (also known as P or meth) in the womb are reaching school age, and are more affected than babies in the United States, where the drug is usually less pure than the form available here. The result is worrying.

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Six schoolgirls, the youngest only 13, were taken to hospital after taking tainted Ecstasy pills at school yesterday.

They were so aggressive that the hospital had to call security guards to control them.

The six students from Fairfield College in Hamilton, aged between 13 and 15, were taken to Waikato Hospital by their parents and school staff about 1.30pm after displaying symptoms of drug use.

A female student took the pink tablets to school and gave them to fellow pupils, who reacted badly after swallowing them.

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Police say a criminal syndicate allegedly making thousands of Ecstasy pills every week sold the "Red Rocket" tablets that led to people being taken to hospital with violent seizures and hallucinations.

And it was revealed the 12-month-long inquiry hit a snag when detectives were forced to switch off covert cameras after the Supreme Court in September ruled such surveillance illegal, until a new law was urgently passed by the Government.

Detective Inspector Bruce Good, the head of Operation Ark, spoke about the potential dangers posed by the hundreds of thousands of pills on display with bundles of cash and firearms at a press conference yesterday.

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Drug users have welcomed a massive Ecstasy bust, saying the pills on the streets were dangerous.

In a press conference this week, police displayed bags of thousands of pills which are known on the street as red rockets, yellow rockets, blue choppers, green rolling stones and pink lips.

Officer in charge of the 12-month Operation Ark, Detective Inspector Bruce Good, said the "sophisticated" syndicate was producing red rockets that caused users to suffer seizures and hallucinations.

Good said some of the pills were being produced at a factory which also manufactured rat poison.

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Intelligent children are more likely than their less intelligent peers to use illegal drugs in later life, according to a study which has found a link between high IQ scores and drug use.

Children who were in the top third in terms of IQ when aged 5 and 10 were found to be at significantly increased risk of taking illegal drugs such as cannabis and cocaine when they became older.

The study was based on interviews with nearly 8000 people who were part of the 1970 British Cohort Study, which involved measuring IQ scores when each child was 5 and 10, and asking them about their drug habits when they were 16 and 30.

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The politicians' traditional "walkabouts" are painted as a chance to come face to face with "real New Zealand".

The problem is that "real New Zealand" succumbs to an attack of manners and tells porky pies when they are confronted with a politician, especially when that politician is the Prime Minister.

Politicians leave such encounters - rambles through shopping malls, or factory floors - thinking they are loved and admired. Only when they are out of earshot does the truth out.

Exhibit A: The Ethans. Ethan, 16, and Ethan, 17, mates who met Prime Minister John Key on a balmy day in Tauranga yesterday. Key had gone to the Waimarie Training Centre as a form of stocktake on his Government's policies to address youth unemployment. He met a lot of people, all of whom said a lot of things he wanted to hear: that they hated being on benefits, that they approved of the new youth rates because it gave them a chance, and that they were doing well.

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