Gangster Warlords, by Ioan Grillo, Allen & Unwin, $32.99 In May 2010 a state of emergency was declared in the Jamaican capital of Kingston. Schools and businesses were closed as armed vigilantes were seen patrolling the ghetto streets. In Tivoli Gardens, a west Kingston housing estate, gang members stockpiled weapons to prevent the arrest of their leader Dudus (Michael Christopher) Coke, revered locally as a Robin Hood figure but reviled in the US as a master of drug cartels. Ioan Grillo's exploration of the drug trade in the Caribbean, Central and South America, a follow-up to El Narco (2011), charts the rise of newlook drug barons such as Dudus, who see themselves partly as combatants in a war zone, partly as an alternative state-within-a-state. [continues 460 words]
Former union boss Helen Kelly, who has lung cancer, has written to Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne seeking permission to use medicinal cannabis. "He said it took him an hour once he got the last application, so I'm hoping to hear today," Ms Kelly said. She is already using cannabis oil to ease her pain, and said the drug had been "brilliant" for helping with nausea, lost appetite, and pain relief following chemotherapy. She now wants a legal, regular supply of the drug. [continues 144 words]
Visual test shows better scores in children exposed to drug in utero Smoking cannabis during pregnancy produces infants who score better on one measure of brain development, according to a study of New Zealand children. The researchers say their test outcome cannot be construed as maternal marijuana use being good for babies' brains. Drinking alcohol, however, led to worse scores - and when both drugs were used, they cancelled each other out. But the optometry and psychology researchers who did the study warn that women should not self-medicate on the strength of their findings because cannabis use in pregnancy is also known to lead to poor outcomes on other measures of brain development, [continues 347 words]
Regarding Jane Bowron's thoughtful column (November 16), there is a middle ground between drug prohibition and blanket legalisation. Switzerland's heroin maintenance programme has been shown to reduce disease, death and crime by providing addicts with standardised doses in a clinical setting. The success of the Swiss programme has inspired heroin maintenance pilot projects in Canada, Germany, Spain, Denmark and the Netherlands. Expanding prescription heroin maintenance would deprive organised crime of a core client base. This would render illegal heroin trafficking unprofitable and spare future generations addiction. Cannabis should be taxed and regulated like alcohol, only without the advertising. As long as criminals control cannabis distribution, consumers will come into contact with sellers of hard drugs. Cannabis prohibition is a gateway drug policy. Robert Sharpe Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, DC [end]
Tenants contaminating state houses with P face year-long bans from renting Housing New Zealand (HNZ) homes and steep costs to have the properties repaired. HNZ is taking a hardline against illegal activity as it combats a growing number of homes contaminated by the use and manufacture of the Class A drug methamphetamine, also known as P. Drug-abusing tenants can expect to be evicted and taken to the Tenancy Tribunal to pay the thousands of dollars it costs to decontaminate properties. HNZ can also suspend them from being in one of its houses for up to a year. [continues 482 words]
While some may view the government dishing out of tips on howto get high safely as cynical and degenerate, surely this is a health issue rather than a moral one? Last week's announcement by Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne that government experts may be able to offer advice on recreational drug-taking will probably go down like a cup of cold sick with conservative Kiwis. In Dunne's time as associate minister, the very flexible centrist politician who prides himself on his common sense has been learning on the job, his rocky journey into legal highs taking him to professional lows. [continues 579 words]
While some may view the government dishing out of tips on how to get high safely as cynical and degenerate, surely this is a health issue rather than a moral one? Last week's announcement by Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne that government experts may be able to offer advice on recreational drug-taking will probably go down like a cup of cold sick with conservative Kiwis. In Dunne's time as associate minister, the very flexible centrist politician who prides himself on his common sense has been learning on the job, his rocky journey into legal highs taking him to professional lows. [continues 583 words]
Don't hesitate to medicate," call the spruikers in their white coats on Hollywood Boulevard and Venice Beach, California, where doctors licensed to prescribe medical marijuana do a brisk trade. Walk-ins merely have to turn up and describe some vague pain or high level of stress to bag their weed. The rest of the world seems to be trying to ignore it, but slowly and surely the United States of America, until recently leading the charge in the war on drugs, is legalising marijuana possession. Twenty states, from Alaska to Vermont, have already decriminalised adult cultivation and use of cannabis. [continues 506 words]
How severely people are dealt with for possession of illegal drugs or drug utensils is to be reviewed. Officials will focus on whether action is proportionate to how much harm an offence causes. Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne has released the 2015-20 National Drug Policy, which could significantly reform the treatment of drugs such as cannabis. Mr Dunne said three words - compassion, innovation and proportion - were of the utmost importance when developing drug policy. The policy has been hailed as hugely significant by the NZ Drug Foundation, which says it signals an armistice in the "war on drugs". [continues 148 words]
Drug Laws Have Been Liberalised From Portland to Portugal. Why Is New Zealand Missing the (Magic) Bus? Philip Matthews Talks With Decriminalisation Advocate Ross Bell. Drug law reform. Is there any better example of a heart versus head issue? Logic and rationality tells you that the system does not work, that drugs are a medical issue not a criminal one. But your gut says lock all the junkies and potheads up. It is Ross Bell's job to wrestle with these dilemmas. For 11 years he has been chief executive of the New Zealand Drug Foundation, a charitable trust charged with preventing and reducing harms caused by drug use. [continues 2104 words]
What is it about the word "cannabis" that drives editorial writers and righteous social commentators to not only suspend their objectivity but to lose their compassion as well? Associate Health Minister Pete Dunne's one-off approval of Elixinol to treat Alex Renton's lifethreatening seizures being a case in point. A country that tolerates hunting deaths, recreational drownings and drunken carnage as the price of freedom reserves an almost hysterical odium for cannabis. That Elixinol is made from industrial hemp with less than a quarter percent of psychoactive THC is not viewed in the hope it just may work where other treatments have failed but as a stalking horse for marijuana law reform. Where the discredited fundamentalist "war on drugs" must be fought regardless of all costs, let alone the sense and humanity of it. Phil O'Reilly, Herne Bay. [end]
Garth Browning, 59, of New Plymouth, has been made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to health and the community in the Queen's Birthday Honours. A reluctant recipient, Browning said it was for a team of community organisations such as Like Minds and New Waves. "I work with those organisations, Jamie up at the Cathedral, the Salvation Army. By myself, the work I'm trying to do wouldn't happen without those people." Browning is the co-ordinator of Needle Exchange Taranaki Services, which provides clean needles for people with drug addictions. [continues 452 words]
The police showed good sense when they ignored some minor cannabis smoking incidents last Saturday. People were protesting against cannabis laws at 10 cities and towns around New Zealand, and calling on our government to regulate cannabis similarly to alcohol. When people are exercising their democratic rights, police harassment of smokers would have been a waste of taxpayers' money and valuable police resources. Protesting against unjust laws is our democratic right, so long as it's not a threat to others in any way. [continues 137 words]
CHASING THE SCREAM: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, Johann Hari, Bloomsbury Circus $27 Johann Hari's new book is a clear-eyed look at the war on drugs, writes David Herkt. MOST OF us know the war against drugs has been a comprehensive failure. Many of the negative effects of drug use are due to its criminalisation. In Portugal, Switzerland, and Uruguay, which have removed some of the legal consequences of drug use, we see countries that haven't collapsed into chaos, but have, in fact, a decreasing social problem. [continues 372 words]
A government investigation into the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes has found little evidence to support a wider review. Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne asked the Ministry of Health to report amid domestic and international pressure to legalise the drug's use among certain patients. The report said although some research had found cannabinoids might be useful to treat some ailments, overall, data was limited. "To date, clinical trials of unprocessed or partially-processed cannabis products have suffered from limited participant numbers and lack of data on long-term effects," the ministry said. [end]
A government investigation into the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes has found little evidence to support a wider review. Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne had called on the Ministry of Health to provide a report, amid growing pressure to legalise the drug's use among certain patients. Dunne said the issue needed to be addressed as and when new evidence emerged. [end]
Dunne Underwhelmed by Officials' Evidence but Drug Foundation Fears Advice Outdated. An investigation into the use of cannabis for medical purposes has been carried out by the Ministry of Health. Growing numbers of jurisdictions allow cannabis for medical use and the Government has come under pressure to re-examine its use here. Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne, who oversaw New Zealand's innovative regulations on so-called legal highs, asked officials to look into the issue. "My office receives regular correspondence seeking legislative change . cannabis, I am told, is apparently the panacea for a plethora of ailments, some of which, sadly, are painfully debilitating," Mr Dunne said. [continues 422 words]
Not only should medical marijuana be made available to patients in need, but all adult use should be legal, taxed and regulated. Drug policies modelled after alcohol prohibition have given rise to a youth-oriented black market. Illegal drug dealers don't ID for age, but they do recruit minors immune to adult sentences. Throwing more money at the problem is no solution. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increases the profitability of drug trafficking. For addictive drugs such as heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime, it fuels crime. [continues 69 words]
It is untrue that there is nothing in New Zealand law that allows for the use of cannabis medicinally. In New Zealand there is increasing public and medical professional support for cannabis' availability as a medicine, as well as a greater commitment by media to more balanced coverage of this complicated issue. The recent Taranaki Daily News article on medicinal cannabis (Taranaki woman sparks debate on medical marijuana, January 24) featuring a broad range of views is a case in point. [continues 687 words]
Former Northland police Detective Sergeant Mike Blowers is unlikely to serve out his jail term in the region, ironically because of the good work he did to put drug dealers behind bars. Yesterday, 51-year-old Blowers was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison after a judge said his actions involved "a very high level of hypocrisy". Blowers, who joined the police force in 1992, admitted to supplying methamphetamine between June 1, 2011 and June 31, 2012, as well as stealing methamphetamine from the evidence lock-up at Whangarei Police Station in October 2011, replacing it with rock salt to disguise his theft. [continues 530 words]
Inside New Zealand
