Is Cannabis prohibition causing the P epidemic?
See this article in the forum.
Wednesday, December 31, 2003
New Zealand News - NZ - P changes threaten bottleneck
P Crackdown Overwhelms Court
Judge Dame Sian Elias has told the Justice Minister of a concern that a police crackdown up P would place pressure upon the High Court's workload. Due to the reclassification of P as a Class A drug, cases involving dealers of the drug end up being charged in the High Court. 200 additional cases per annum are expected to add to the workload, an increase in the number of judges and resources could cost $10 million.
See New Zealand News - NZ - P changes threaten bottleneck and discuss the P epidemic on our discussion forum
Listener article - The running man
by Alistair Bone
Tuesday, December 23, 2003
Moscow court orders Russia's richest man to remain jailed another three months
Russian Prisoner of the State
The Russian billionaire being held on suspicion of fraud in Moscow is widely considered to be politically, rather than legally motivated.
See Moscow court orders Russia's richest man to remain jailed another three months for details of the case.
Whatever happened to the leaders of Enron and Worldcom in the Land of the Free? I doubt that the State arrested them until they were found guilty of something. Whether they then managed to find a jail cell may be debatable but Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the embattled former chief of Russia's largest oil company, has been detained since Oct. 25.
Prosecutors have extended the pretrial investigation until March 31st. The former executive has not been charged although killings are alleged.
Sunday, December 21, 2003
Special Kbu
Special K - Danger
No, not the breakfast cerial, which is probably very good for you, unless you pile on the sugar. Sugar is very bad for you and children brought up on sugar may well be "in training" for a life of drug dependency as they try and regulate the resultant highs and lows.
Those who want something harder may be out there buying E or Speed but in fact getting Ketamine. The danger with Ketamine is that an overdose can render the user into a state of semi unconsciousness, known as a "K-Hole". It is probably like going unconscious and it is that state where sexual preditors may take over.
Trouble is that people will not remember much about it or what happened. If you were to take Ketamine, it is rather essential to employ a minder who does not take anything. The same goes for LSD or other mind bending substances like GBH. Drugs like E (which Ketamine often replaces) do not tend to disable the person taking it. Speed just gives you an edgy time and ends up killing you and your brain.
Marijuana has no major side effects, but some people may faint (the media call that "collapse") if they take too much. Unlike a K Hole which lasts for hours, this is easily slept off. There are safer ways to party this holiday season.
Detective Inspector Gary Knowles, of the police national drug intelligence, said ketamine was one of the drugs "that for some reason has become popular again". Probably the big busts the police have achieved this year on other drugs make what is left more popular.
This points to a demand level that is not prevented by regulation or enforcement. It points to a culture that uses drugs to make believe that it has a good time.
A drug drought typically hits during the (holiday) season of high demand, and then kids who want to party stuff anything down their throats in an attempt to fit in with the scene, or an attempt to "feel fantastic". Party drugs are a culture that exists that provides a market that the law ignores to the peril of our children.
Friday, December 19, 2003
Zaoui High Court Ruling re Evidence
Zaoui Ruling
In a 60 page ruling, High Court Judge Hugh Williams ruled that the Ahmed Zaoui has access to hitherto secret documents. In this landmark human rights test case, the Judge's ruling means that Zaoui is entitled to a summary of the secret information the SIS claims to have on him.
The Security Intelligence Service is headed by the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark, who is taking advice on the Government's next move.
This case is a landmark Human Rights ruling - as it establishes the right of an accused person to have access to evidence against them. In New Zealand at least.
Tuesday, December 16, 2003
STUFF : NATIONAL NEWS - STORY : New Zealand's leading news and information website
Strip Club Law Change
The Government has proposed amendments to the Crimes Act that would penalize Strip Club owners who exploit under age workers.
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For Enough is enough. Liberalising the laws on prostitution is law-making purely in the adult domain where certain toleration of sexual expression is well established in law. That someone should quote those laws to apply economic force over a child in Strip Clubs is a violation of the child's human rights to be cared for as a child. There ought to be no reason for a child to prostitute itself and that the law should move to protect children is a Politically Correct policy motive at work. Everyone has an undeniable right to be a child and require guidance of one's elders as it is a right to be a parent and have a say in what one's children experience. Cases of violation of children's rights are not a matter of what is fair for one or other parent - or any other party. Children may be protected from cults, and they should by the same logic be protected from an industry that best remain an Adult-only domain. And people that attend are not enticed into child pornography. The onus is also on the owner not to criminalise his patrons. It is good to test the law to make it work. But it is not good to provide employment to the underaged in the sex industry, however you look at it. |
Against Laws should create a frame work that humans operate within. Laws can not define every individual. We all develop ourselves according to our own direction in life and who are we to say that something is right for someone else? If the law makes it hard or impossible for the girl to find work when she clearly wants to leave home at the tender age of 15 do we want to criminalise her and any schmuck that offers her a break? It is quite obvious that regulations and the sex industry go hand in hand. But existing laws are clear on what the boundaries are, and if 15 year old girls want to dance in a nightclub as a career, and a club owner perceives a demand for it, then a strip club provides a venue that is licenced and at least safe and predictable enough. Existing law defines the boundaries clearly enough. |
Article STUFF : NATIONAL NEWS - STORY : New Zealand's leading news and information website
STUFF - STORY - HOME : New Zealand's leading news and information website
Roadside Drug Testing
In theory, it sounds like a promising way to reduce the road toll. In reality it may not be that important. Roadside drug testing of drivers is being considered for introduction as cannabis has been found in the blood of a few bad drivers and the penalty for causing death in one case was just two months jail. If for example the driver had alcohol in his blood, legal culpability would be more established.
We believe that anyone getting behind the wheel of a car has a responsiblity to control it well. Bad driving is bad driving no matter what excuse or rationale explains it. And making laws based on individual cases is foolish in the extreme. How many years of police time will be spent detecting the few idiots who get behind the wheel with impared judgement - time and resources that may be better expended keeping drivers cool and moderate.
Will other factors that relate to misjudgement at the wheel be ignored as there is no crime to punish - for example if someone is fired, or has an argument with their spouse? Both can cause resentment and anger to boil the blood and that anger causes driving impairment. If they then smack into a driver who has traces of a cannabis in their blood, an established legal culpability may punish the wrong party.
How many of us approach a police breath check with some trepidation and for that time drive unnaturally well? And are those the people who may then react to the big brother approach with a sense of recklessness in subsequent drinking? Road side checks appear to work for the majority of drivers.
The application of the law is a dual edged sword and consequences of poorly thought out laws are many and vast.
Mind you, with such new laws, they can get boy racers under the influence of adrenaline or shoving too much testosterone into their exhaust pipes as well as the mad P maniacs before they committ drug fueled attrocities.
Sugar also causes manic behaviour in many children, so perhaps a blood-sugar level check would also be in order. No, I am sorry sir, but you are at fault - it was the second Snickers bar that took you way over the limit.
The sheer number of cars on the road is also a factor. Travelling at non-peak times is a way to reduce driver stress and fatigue. Road rage, unexpressed, is also deadly. Day in and day out traffic queues as holiday makers all converge at the same intersection on the same day could be avoided and that would also improve driver conduct.
STUFF - STORY - HOME : New Zealand's leading news and information website
Sunday, December 14, 2003
New Zealand News - NZ - Sentencing judge urges drastic measures on P
Hard Sentencing for P violence
A High Court judge called for "drastic" measures to combat the P scourge and sentenced an armed robber, aquitted by the jury on a count of murder, to 18 1/2 years for armed robbery. Dean James McDonald Shedden was told he must spend at least 10 years behind bars.
Justice Harrison said the evidence showed that methamphetamine led to prolonged periods of sleeplessness, confusion, anxiety and ultimately to "random acts of extreme and senseless violence".
Auckland Barrister Marie Dyhrberg represented the defence and a jury decision found Shedden not guilty of murder. His jail sentence reflects multiple charges related to the armed robbery.
See New Zealand News - NZ - Sentencing judge urges drastic measures on P
New Zealand News - Technology - Computer game banned for repetitive extreme violence
Video Game - Censored
A video game has been censored in New Zealand for too much violence. The game, Manhunt, rewards players who inflict the most grisley deaths with closeups of victims suffering. Freedom of Speech is a basic human right. Denying everyone the opportunity to be influenced by this game for its possible influence on any one (not just gullible teenagers), the Chief Censor, Bill Hastings sounded shaken by his exposure to the frightening game.
New Zealand News - Technology - Computer game banned for repetitive extreme violence
SmileCity New Zealand
Blame discussion
Steven Williams pleaded guilty to the brutal murder of Coral Burrows after he spent five nights without sleep binging on P. People react with shock and want to spread the blame to the mother, to CYFS, to society and there are those who say that it is stupid to blame the drug, P, for the man's deeds, usually also beying for the death penalty.
The man pleads guilty and therefore he admits it was by his own agency and will that the girl's life was taken. Blame belongs with him, not others. There is no need to question the mother. One has to respect her dignity and let her get on with her life.
It is hard for those on the outside to enter into and judge the actions of others. Or that it is too easy to do so without understanding the problems the mother faced or to crticise her relationship with the accused before the murder.
Her main objective was to bring up kids. It is not her responsibility to inflict justice upon her boyfriend. How may of us would stand behind our closest even if the police were at the door?
"88 Convictions" - for what? If he was convicted of violent crimes one hopes that the mother understood. It is also likely that the criminal Williams was incredibly overbearing and threatening to her on a day to day basis.
The accused murderer pleaded guilty. There is no reason to find blame elsewhere - it is his fault no matter the lesser failings of others, be broke the essential boundary between civilised behaviour and that we wish to be protected from.
The role that P played was to destroy the value the man had. That destruction is a long slow and gradual process. Speed addiction leads to brain damage. P does it more quickly.
Discussion:
SmileCity New Zealand
Business News - Brochure wars get approval
Copyright violation?
A judgement went against Mitre 10 when their brochures were used with orange stickers outside Benchmark. The claim was that Benchmark was damaging their trade mark.
That claim was dismissed. But it remains that if Benchmark were printing materials with Mitre 10's logo, there may a case to answer for copyright (or theft of brochures) as they would have had to print the brochures or obtain them somehow.
Business News - Brochure wars get approval
Wednesday, December 10, 2003
STUFF : NATIONAL NEWS - STORY : New Zealand's leading news and information website
The Folly of Self Defence
Robert Charles de Bruin along with others has been found guilty of importing ecstasy with a "street value of $12 million". He was caught importing 36,000 pills valued at $2 million (each pill retailing for $55) found in a customs seizure, earlier discharged at earlier trials. The drug was hidden in furniture imported from Zimbabwe.
The prosecution asked the jury to consider that the method of importation was also used in six earlier similar shipments.
De Bruin's conducted his own colourful defence with a dramatic story of gun running for the white minority government of Ian Smith as the source of a large quantity of cash, namely $443,000 in used $20 used in paying for a house.
Choosing to represent himself has cost the man dearly as the jury were asked to infer that the earlier shipments of furniture also contained drugs from figures written in his diary to the cash paid for the house.
Although it is a choice that an accused person may make, it is often not wise to forgo a proper defence. Taking it into one own hands brings with it the stress of being accused and it certainly sounds this way as the Crown cast doubts on De Bruin's character by getting ex-wives to testify that he had not been in the army.
See : STUFF : NATIONAL NEWS - STORY : New Zealand's leading news and information website
Human Rights
Human Rights
In the UN declaration of Human Rights
Article 9 : No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest detention or exile.
Article 10: Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by and independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charges against him.
Article 14:
1. Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
2. This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the UN.
Mr Zaoui has a right to seek asylum unless it is proven in court that he has committed non-political crimes.
He was subjected to a 7 hour interrogation after a 14 hour flight and not advised of his rights to a lawyer or given a proper interpreter. If the SIS did not conduct their investigations with due regard to the law, then they need to review their practices as it may also fail to detect real terrorists at the border; with NZ earning a reputation as a repressive state and that may in turn attract terrorism.
Tuesday, December 09, 2003
STUFF - STORY - HOME : New Zealand's leading news and information website
Zaoui Interview found
The Security Intelligence Service suddenly unearthed a second recording of the audio of the seven hour marathon interview. Zaoui's lawyers have asked for the video tape but were then told by the SIS that an hour of it was "missing".
In a new letter to the lawyers it was revealed that the second audio recording was made that covers all but two minutes while tapes "were being changed".
Zaoui has been in prison for a year during which time his refugee status has been confirmed. He arrived in New Zealand requesting political asylum. He has been held in custody under new terrorism legislation ever since.
Mr Zaoui's lawyers have expressed concern that the Inspector General of Security and Intelligence, Laurie Grieg, reponsible for the security risk certificate review appeared to also not be aware of the missing evidence.
See:
STUFF - STORY - HOME : New Zealand's leading news and information website
Fortuin likens Zaoui jailing to apartheid
Zaoui case
Justice vs Paranoia
A discussion on a popular NZ bulletin board SmileCity reveals a general ignorance of facts and plenty of assumptions about this important test case.
Ahmed Zaoui is in prison and has been held for a year because he arrived in NZ claiming refugee status, that has since been granted.
Monday, December 08, 2003
STUFF : NATIONAL NEWS - STORY : New Zealand's leading news and information website
CYFS Failures
A 15 year old girl escaped CYFS care and protection to work as a stripper in Nelson.
MP Nick Smith said :
"It's not good enough - I don't care how many mealy-mouthed words we have from the department or the police: we can't have 15-year-old girls stripping in this country, we've got to fix it."
Police should be given the power to prosecute club owners who "exploited" young women, he said. The Prostitution Reform Bill, passed by Parliament in June, had "given an invitation for these scumbags to exploit young women".
We question Dr Smith's judgement in politicising the case. It is a failure to contain an out of control teenager, and not the Prostitution Reform Bill that is at fault. And sexual activity with a minor is a chargable offence.
Strip clubs are licenced and if they employ under aged girls, the licence may be revoked. If that happens, then another scumbag who does not abuse children can run the joint.
The Prostitution Reform Bill allows a clearer definition of what is right and wrong. It is not a licence for child abuse.
Dr Smith may however be right that residential schools may form part of a real solution for the young people who are out of control or need help or come from broken homes.
CYFS requires more than good leadership. It requires a clear and unequivocal message and mission statement. It is here to help families. Now it is time for it to get organised.
See STUFF : NATIONAL NEWS - STORY : New Zealand's leading news and information website
New Zealand News - NZ - Clark demands answers over lost Zaoui tape
New Zealand News - NZ - Clark demands answers over lost Zaoui tape
Lost Evidence
The NZ Prime Minister questions how the Zaoui evidence is lost. Auckland Barrister Marie Dyhrberg questioned what appears to be a serious breach of justice in this case.
MP Matt Robson said: "I believe also that we need now to disprove the suspicion that external powers, particularly France with its close relations with the murderous Algerian regime, are pressuring New Zealand on this matter."
Zaoui was quizzed for seven hours by the police and the SIS after arriving as a refugee in New Zealand.
Marie Dyhrberg says anyone detained in New Zealand has the right to be told they are being interviewed. She said there is no discretion for the police to make a judgement that someone doesn't merit the Bill of Rights.
Wednesday, December 03, 2003
Tuesday, December 02, 2003
New Zealand News - NZ - Govt reacts to 'explosion' in child porn on internet
Child Porn Penalties
The gut reaction of any Kiwi to news of "child porn" is one of extreme rejection and disgust. It is one of those nasty subjects that simply must be talked about in order that this evil sickness is recognised for what it is. It is a criminal empire enslaving and making objects of people to turn a profit. That the possession of digital images leads to jail is supposed to send a message to would be child pornographers and put them off enterting the business.
These abusers are not known for sensitivity to market conditions or public opinion. Child porn is too late on the chain of abuse. It is a record of something that has already happened. Charging the consumer does not work in policing cannabis. By the time they find the pictures, it is already far too late. The Government would be better to spend money persuing the sources of child abuse. Severe penalties for any support of such networks certainly sends a message, but it is not a good tactic to fill jails with sex abuse victims and hapless fools. It is much better to channel them into therapy using existing ACC programmes.
Anybody who abuses the vulnerable should not be celebrated in our world. I would rather read about how the police busted a gang of child pornographers than a 21 year old with his stupid fetish. Let's face it, the internet explosion of porn between consenting adults is a result of human behaviour, technology and healthy capitalism.
Child molestation is a serious disease that destroys people's lives. Make it safe for the victims of child sexual abuse and put the makers of child porn in the dock and behind bars. The internet has brought to light potential abusers but the law needs to jail those who will hurt other people.
See: New Zealand News - NZ - Govt reacts to 'explosion' in child porn on internet
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