Matt Noffs means well. But he has fallen for a crackpot idea in his quest to help the addicts at the Ted Noffs Foundation crisis centre founded by his grandfather. He wants legally sanctioned "ice consumption rooms" where methamphetamine addicts can smoke, snort or shoot up to their heart's content. No surprise who has been whispering in his ear. "Alex Wodak and I have been drawing up an idea of how an ice consumption room could work in the same way that they have, you know, crack rooms in the States, where people go to smoke crack," Noffs told ABC radio yesterday. "It's a ventilated room; you contain a person for a period of time." [continues 745 words]
THE number of students using or possessing drugs in NSW schools is at record levels. On average 20 students are suspended each week after being busted with illicit drugs, with some principals calling it a "crisis". Schools handed out 790 long suspensions for drug offences in 2013 - the highest number in almost a decade and more than double the number of suspensions in 2009. For the two years 2012 and 2013, schools imposed 1539 long suspensions on students for offences involving suspected illicit substances, data collated by the NSW Department of Education and Communities shows. While much of the drug and alcohol use occurs outside school, some students have become seriously ill in class or in the playground and have had to be taken to hospital. [continues 275 words]
A DOCTOR says he will continue to defy authorities and supply medical cannabis to Australian children despite the threat of legal action. Cannabis oil producer Dr Andrew Katelaris, who was deregistered in 2005 after refusing to stop supplying cannabis to patients, said desperate families turned to him because they had run out of options. It is understood Dr Katelaris has a secret laboratory from which parcels of the drug, sometimes worth thousands of dollars, are sent across Australia. Cannabis oil and tincture is produced at the location, near Sydney, and delivered to 12 children across the country. He also produces cannabis resin for adult patients, including elderly people who are terminally ill. Dr Katelaris, who has been arrested a dozen times, was determined to continue, saying he is prepared to take the risk to help children. [end]
THE New York Times has called for the legalisation of marijuana, comparing the nationwide ban on recreational cannabis use to prohibition. In an editorial on the weekend, the influential publication said cannabis addiction and dependence were "relatively minor problems" compared with alcohol and tobacco. "It took 13 years for the US to come to its senses and end prohibition, 13 years in which people kept drinking, otherwise law-abiding citizens became criminals and crime syndicates arose and flourished," the newspaper said. [continues 87 words]
Australia Comes Top of Global List for Recreational Drug Use AUSTRALIA has hit a new low by getting high, with revelations our nation can claim an unenviable gold medal for recreational drug users. The United Nations 2014 World Drug Report has found Australia ranks first in ecstasy use, second for opioids, third for methamphetamines, fourth for cocaine and seventh for cannabis - with experts warning our drug use is rising. AUSTRALIA, a country of sports champions, innovators ... and drug takers. The nation has the inglorious distinction of having the highest proportion of recreational drug users in the world - an embarrassing new low, albeit from getting high. [continues 815 words]
NIMBIN'S 22nd annual Mardi Grass - a festival supporting the legalisation of cannabis that includes a bong-throwing competition, joint rolling events and a hemp rope tug of war - has been blitzed by police. A total of 86 people were nabbed for driving under the influence of a prohibited drug and five people were caught drink driving The annual festival, which attracted up to 10,000 people over the weekend and offers visitors tips about what to do if you get pulled over by police, was closely watched by Richmond local area command police. [continues 100 words]
MARIJUANA users in Colorado and Washington are counting down the hours before the western US states become the first to legalise recreational pot shops on January 1. Blazing a trail they hope will be followed in other parts of the US, cannabis growers and others are also rubbing their hands, while tax collectors are eyeing the revenue the newly-legalised trade will generate. Companies are offering marijuana tours to cash in on tourists expected to be attracted to the pot culture - including in Colorado's ski resorts. [continues 64 words]
Thank you Gary Christian (Letters, July 11). In the British Medical Journal (March 3, 2013) Professor John Henry wrote " cannabis is as dangerous as cigarette smoking - it may be even worse", adding users are up to six times more likely to develop schizophrenia. Dr William Oldfield wrote puffs by cannabis smokers " are two-thirds larger, they inhale a third more, and hold down the smoke four times longer . . . chemicals in cannabis smoke are retained in the body to a much higher degree, and cannabis today is 40 times stronger than that used in the 1960s". Colliss Parrett Barton, ACT [end]
Alcohol policy research director Robin Room (July 10) says his drive to legalise cannabis is driven by his deep concerns about the damage done by the legal drug alcohol. There is one death for every 320 alcoholics and other problem users of alcohol each year. Heroin kills one in every 100 users from overdose, plus other ways it kills. Alcohol does so much damage in Australia because 80 per cent of Australians use it. Less than 3 per cent use heroin, speed, ice, cocaine and ecstasy, and 10 per cent use cannabis. These drugs are used less precisely because they are illegal. [continues 107 words]
However strong your beliefs, it doesn't make economic sense to incarcerate people for drug use. Locking people up for such a "misdemeanour" is counterproductive, as it costs the taxpayer more and reduces the number of taxpayers. Taxing cannabis will provide money for school education campaigns on negative aspects of its use, extra money for hospitals, roads and, importantly, free up police resources. In The Netherlands, which has legalised its use, fewer people use cannabis than in Australia. Only "medicinal use" of cannabis is taxed in California and it provides huge government income. [continues 89 words]
IN his school photo, Nick Mitchell looks like a typical skateboard-mad Central Coast 15-year-old: a cheeky grin, twinkling blue eyes and tousled hair. He could be anyone's son. But the Gosford High Year 9 student died after taking a drug believed to be LSD, at a time when drug use among young people is on the rise after more than a decade of decline. Toxicology reports were still not complete on the exact composition of the tablets Nick and his unnamed friend took on that sweltering Saturday evening of December 1, Inspector Glenn Trayhurn said. [continues 843 words]
CONVICTED drug smuggler Schapelle Corby could be released on parole in just two weeks, if a letter from the federal government supporting her bid is viewed favourably in Indonesia. Corby's family has welcomed the letter from the Australian government as "great and exciting news". The government yesterday confirmed a letter supporting Corby's parole application was being prepared. If it is met favourably by Indonesian authorities, Corby could be eligible to apply for release in just two weeks. The Department of Foreign Affairs refused to say whether the letter would provide a guarantee that Corby will adhere to a strict set of conditions that would likely be imposed for her parole. [continues 286 words]
THE expulsion of three Year 8 boys from one of Australia's most prestigious schools, Cranbrook, for allegedly selling marijuana to classmates should ring warning bells. Year 8 students, after all, are only 13 or 14 years old, and cannabis use is on the increase for the first time in a decade. Instead, we have some counsellors and other people in authority shrugging their shoulders, saying boys will be boys and it's normal to experiment. Well it's not OK and it's about time grown-ups acted like grown-ups instead of overgrown teenagers with short-term memory problems. [continues 771 words]
The appalling behaviour of the so-called Bali Boy, the celebrity drug user and massage parlour habitue from the NSW Central Coast attracted the attention of Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Therese Rein, the wife of former prime minister, now Foreign Minister and political gadfly, Kevin Rudd. After two months spent in somewhat stressful conditions in Bali, during which he was comforted by Gillard on the telephone and was provided with "enormous support" by Ms Rein, he is home with his parents. [continues 945 words]
WE hadn't even parked the car when the dealer saw me. I looked like the perfect target - a fair skinned tourist with a local driver, The Daily Telegraph reported. He smiled at me warmly, which I returned (not knowing his agenda) and when I stepped out of the car he approached me. "You want to buy a phone?" he asked. "No thanks," I said simply. "A T-shirt? A T-shirt? Cocaine?" The jump from clothing to drugs confused me. So I asked him again. [continues 343 words]
IT WAS just like any other drug bust on a Friday night. Police had been watching a suspected drug dealer and arrested him in the middle of a transaction. The collateral damage was his alleged customer, Matthew Chesher, 44, the chief of staff to a NSW minister who was arrested and charged last week with possession of ecstasy. Chesher, the balding, bespectacled husband of NSW Education Minister Verity Firth, with whom he has a four-year-old daughter, resigned from his job -- as he should. [continues 1044 words]
POLITICIANS enjoy beating their chests about "zero tolerance". On drugs. Binge drinking. Bullying. Sexual harassment. But what about zero tolerance for suffering? As a society we allow our weakest - those with cancer, AIDS, chronic arthritis, fibromyalgia and multiple sclerosis - to writhe in pain because they can't get the right drugs. Many are helpless, innocent children. An AMA study out today reveals 84 per cent of cancer kids suffer "a lot" or "a great deal" of pain in the last month of their life. [continues 517 words]
THE head of one Australia's largest emergency departments said his ward was more like a private social and meteorological barometer. He can tell if it is going to be a busy night just by the weather. He can also detect whether a dance festival is in town. And while he is no meteorologist, Dr Gordian Fulde knows just what time of the year it is if his emergency department at St Vincent's Hospital is full of young drunk people mid-week. [continues 690 words]
THE Kings Cross safe injecting centre made no difference at all to overdose death rates in its local area in its first five years of operation. Statistics show death rates from drug overdose in the area around the injecting room are no less than in other areas across NSW. The findings into the $2.5 million-a-year facility are contained in an unreported independent evaluation that studied autopsy rates. The report assessed overdose deaths from heroin, morphine and other opioids in those postcodes - 2010 and 2011 - near the injecting centre and concluded that deaths rates fell at the same rate they did elsewhere in NSW. [continues 307 words]
A 64-YEAR-OLD grandmother who was arrested and strip searched for drugs on a busy Sydney street in a police case of mistaken identity is suing the state for false imprisonment and wrongful arrest. Leentje McDonald was somehow mistaken by police for an alleged drug dealer 24 years her junior and shaken down outside a Maroubra pub in full public view. A statement of claim filed in the District Court alleges officers took her belt off and put their hands underneath her clothes in the middle of the footpath in broad daylight. When she screamed and tried to stop them they pulled both her hands behind her back and pushed her to the ground. [continues 219 words]
