Here’s a letter to the editor I wrote that was published in the Evening Post back in December 1983.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. 🙂
Category Archives: Cannabis
God’s gift to the terminally ill
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Here’s a Biblical argument for euthanasing the terminally ill.
The argument relies on a couple of reasonable assumptions which I now make explicit.
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. …
And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. (KJV)
I assume that God gave us plants for all sorts of purposes, not just to eat. Creating the known universe, including our solar system, our planet and all life upon it including us was quite a feat. The account given in the Book of Genesis, of the origin of God’s green earth, is necessarily highly abbreviated. It cannot reasonably be argued that God did not intend us to use trees for building material as well as fruit, nor can it reasonably be argued that God did not intend us to use Cyperus papyrus to make the manuscripts that the Books of the Bible were originally written on, notwithstanding that these non-nutritional uses aren’t specifically mentioned in Chapter 1 of the Book of Genesis.
I also assume that we can tell what a plant is for simply by looking at its actual uses. Take any plant. What’s it good for?
Now I’m fond of using Genesis 1:29 (“I have given you every herb bearing seed”) as an argument for legalising cannabis. The Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party exists to legalise cannabis for recreational, spiritual, medicinal and industrial purposes. I think the ALCP’s cause is righteous. And I don’t think it’s eisegetical to suggest that God gave us cannabis for our recreational use among other things but I do acknowledge that it can reasonably be argued that getting high is not among the uses God intended for it. No matter, I don’t think principled exceptions disprove the general rule.
Sometimes I meet the objection, but what about deadly nightshade? Did God give that to us to eat too? But this objection just lends further credence to my view that God gave us plants for more than just food. So what about belladonna? Well, what’s deadly nightshade good for? It turns out that belladonna is a medicine and dispensable to a healthy diet.
Belladonna tinctures, decoctions, and powders, as well as alkaloid salt mixtures, are still produced for pharmaceutical use, and these are often standardised at 1037 parts hyoscyamine to 194 parts atropine and 65 parts scopolamine. The alkaloids are compounded with phenobarbital and/or kaolin and pectin for use in various functional gastrointestinal disorders. The tincture, used for identical purposes, remains in most pharmacopoeias, with a similar tincture of Datura stramonium having been in the US Pharmacopoeia at least until the late 1930s. The combination of belladonna and opium, in powder, tincture, or alkaloid form, is particularly useful by mouth or as a suppository for diarrhoea and some forms of visceral pain
Which brings us to the miracle plant that is the topic of this post, the opium poppy. Surely, God intended us to use this plant for the strongest of strong pain relief! Morphine is the predominant alkaloid found in the opium poppy, and in the 21st century it is still the analgesic of choice for pain management in the terminally ill.
Jesus himself is said to have been offered a drink containing opium (according to one interpretation) on the cross, but declined to accept.
They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. (KJV)
Now to the argument. Morphine is not just an analgesic. It is also a respiratory depressant. It slows breathing and, in sufficiently high doses, slows breathing to a stop. Its effects as a respiratory depressant are inseparable from its effects as an analgesic, both brought about by activation of the central nervous system’s μ-opioid receptors. Is it by design that these two remarkable effects of morphine are, as it were, yoked together? I suggest that it is.
I suggest that morphine’s design ensures that when a terminally ill patient is in severe pain, and the dose of morphine administered is increased appropriately, it also tends to kill the patient. That’s euthanasia by any other name.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FRwnkrolYc
Guardian Angel. Happy Birthday Mercedes Corby.
You exemplify everything which is good about Family, and a Libertarian commitment to justice.
Fighting for your beloved sister caught in the Jaws of an Evil system, you risked everything for her sake.
Happy Birthday Mercedes…. from Eternal Vigilance.
We salute you!
Tim Wikiriwhi.
Christian Libertarian.
From the Facebook page People for Schapelle Corby
Tuesday (7th October) is Mercedes Corby’s birthday. Please join us in wishing her a truly wonderful and stress-free day.
When Schapelle was wrongly arrested in 2004, a nightmare began for Mercedes too. She stayed in Bali to be with her sister, and brought up her young family there. She helped to sustain Schapelle through the most harrowing and horrendous experiences.
She took up the cause with everything she had. Knowing her sister was completely innocent, she did everything in her power to free her from the chains of corruption.
She confronted politicians, she faced down the AFP, and she fought through the courts in Australia, where even her sister’s book royalties had been stolen by the government. She followed every lead, and sought help everywhere possible.
She explored every avenue in Indonesia, applying for clemency for Schapelle, and eventually, getting the parole through. She campaigned endlessly, and she told the truth to anyone who would listen.
In doing so, she became a threat to many interests and many corrupt individuals. So she was abused, maligned, and vilified by the most repugnant media on the planet. She became a target for sewer journalists, and malicious cowardly predators. She was even brutally beaten on the street.
One day, her own story will be told, and like Schapelle’s, it will shake the world.
Today, she remains by her sister’s side. And again, like Schapelle, her human rights continue to be openly breached, as she is illegally gagged. Her own government support this, and the media applaud it. But still she remains strong.
She is one in a million
Happy birthday Mercedes!
Cannibalising the cannabis vote (Part 2)
The Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party‘s electorate candidates did well in last Saturday’s general election. (See Part 1.) But the ALCP’s share of the party vote was down.
The 2014 GENERAL ELECTION – PRELIMINARY RESULT gives us 0.41% of the party vote. That’s roughly 20% down on 2011’s final result of 0.52%, and pretty much back to where we were in 2008. (But we’re projected to be 0.45% after special votes are counted.)
With cannabis law reform happening in many jurisdictions around the world (e.g., Jamaica, Uruguary, Colorado, Washington) and the “synthetic cannabis” industry derailing itself this year here in New Zealand, cannabis law reform was supposed to have been much more of an election issue. But it wasn’t. So what happened?
Before we get to that, let’s take a look at our party vote performance in previous MMP elections. The ALCP first contested the general election in 1996, which was New Zealands first under the Mixed-Member Proportional system. (See NEW ZEALAND ELECTION RESULTS.)
| Year | 1996 | 1999 | 2002 | 2005 | 2008 | 2011 | 2014 |
| Percent | 1.66 | 1.10 | 0.64 | 0.25 | 0.41 | 0.52 | 0.41 |
The 1996 general election saw the ALCP’s best party vote result. Subsequently, its vote share steadily declined to an all-time low of 0.25% three elections later in 2005. It’s risen since then, to 0.52% of the party vote in 2011. Last Saturday’s result is a slight dip, but as much as 20% down on 2011’s result nonetheless. How to explain all this?
I think a big part of the explanation is obvious. After 1996 and again after 1999, cannabis law reform voters came to the realisation that a vote for the ALCP was a “wasted” vote. Wasted in the sense that it was extremely unlikely that the ALCP would ever reach the 5% threshold and have MPs enter Parliament. Nonetheless, a vote for the ALCP is worthwhile as a protest vote, worthwhile because protesting is worthwhile and it’s absolutely clear what AlCP voters are protesting about: cannabis prohibition.
But cannabis law reformers want more than just to protest, they also want to effect change. And I think another part of the explanation of the decline in the ALCP’s party vote share in 2002 and 2005 is that the cannabis vote was cannibalised by the Green Party. In 1996 Nandor Tanczos and Metiria Turei were candidates on the ALCP’s list. In 1999 Nandor Tanczos was on the Green Party’s list and entered Parliament. By 2002 it was obvious to cannabis law reform voters that in the dreadlocked skateboarding Rastafarian MP the CLR cause had a champion in Parliament, and in 2002 Nandor Tanczos was joined by Metiria Turei (after her 1999 stint with the McGillicuddy Serious Party). (Nandor Tanczos has since left the toxic hellhole that is New Zealand’s Parliament. Metiria Turei remains and is now the Green Party’s co-leader with Russel Norman.)
I confess that I party voted Green once (I’m pretty sure it was in 2002) and for exactly the reason just outlined. I’m sorry. 🙁
Giving my CLR vote to the Greens turned out to be a mistake. (Even though in my book Nandor Tanczos was, and still is, cool.) It was a mistake for two reasons. Because, beyond legalising a couple of strains of industrial hemp, the Greens have done nothing for cannabis law reform despite having had Parliamentary representation for 18 years now. And my vote for the watermelons (green on the outside, red on the inside) no doubt helped further their far-left agenda. Fortunately, in 2003 I saw the light of liberty, identified as a libertarian, and joined the Libertarianz Party. 🙂
Fast forward to 2014 and the cannabis vote was again cannibalised. This time by the Internet Party who basically copied the ALCP’s cannabis policy (stopping only just short of full, Colorado-style legalisation) and announced it barely two weeks out from the election. With much song and dance, since Internet Party leader Laila Harre’s partner in crime, the Mana Movement’s leader Hone Harawira, balked and gave the Internet Party’s policy pronouncement a great deal of extra publicity. (See, e.g., Internet Mana leaders fall out over weed and Mana leader angry at cannabis plan.)
It’s hard to tell how many party votes went to the Internet Mana Party that would otherwise have gone to the ALCP, given that the IMPs gained only 1.26% of the party vote (although projected to rise to 1.37% after special votes are counted). I’d like to think it was at least as many party votes as we lost compared to our 2011 election result.
This time I wasn’t anywhere near stupid or unprincipled enough to give my party vote to the IMPs. But those who were and did also made an electoral mistake. We witnessed InternetMana self-destructing over cannabis policy. Hone Harawira lost his (inaptly named) Te Tai Tokerau seat to Labour’s Kelvin Davis, and so all those CLR voters who voted IMPs flushed their party votes straight down the toilet. They should have protested instead! Then at least we’d know that they voted for cannabis law reform.
Regardless, perhaps John Key will hear the CLR message and legalise cannabis in the Fifth National Government’s third Parliamentary term.
What’s The Likelihood of Cannabis Law Reform in John Key’s Third Term?
Cannibalising the cannabis vote (Part 1)
The Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party took a big hit in Saturday’s general election. I don’t mind saying that I’m somewhat disappointed. (It’s my party – I’m the Vice President – and I’ll cry if I want to.)
The 2014 GENERAL ELECTION – PRELIMINARY RESULT gives us 0.41% of the party vote. That’s roughly 20% down on 2011’s final result of 0.52%, and pretty much back to where we were in 2008.
This time around was supposed to have been our election. With many jurisdictions around the world decriminalising (e.g., Jamaica) and some countries (Uruguay) and US states (Colorado, Washington) outright legalising, globally the tide has turned on cannabis prohibition. Consciousnesses were supposed to have been raised and cannabis law reform was supposed to have been much more of an election issue. But it wasn’t.
I was optimistic that we’d double our vote and achieve 1%. I never doubted that we’d stay safely above 0.5%. But we didn’t. So what went wrong?
Before we get to that, let’s take some big bong hits. All our candidates did well in their electorates, and their individual successes are worth celebrating.
Preliminary vote counts are highlighted in the table below, with some comparable figures from the NEW ZEALAND ELECTION RESULTS from the previous two general elections in 2011 and 2008. (Figures in brackets may not be the same candidate, the same electorate or the same party. Two out of the three.)
| Candidate | 2014 | 2011 | 2008 | Electorate |
| KINGI, Emma-Jane Mihaere | 838 | 703 | – | Te Tai Tonga |
| DOMBROSKI, Jamie | 608 | 439 | – | New Plymouth |
| GRAY, Abe | 466 | (398) | (483) | Dunedin North |
| CRAWFORD, Julian | 395 | (398) | (483) | Dunedin South |
| WILKINSON, Robert | 373 | (254) | (487) | Christchurch Central |
| GOODE, Richard | 332 | 332 | (64) | Mana |
| MANNING, Romana Marnz | 307 | 352 | – | Tukituki |
| McDERMOTT, Adrian | 267 | (319) | – | Te Atatu |
| GREGORY, Alistair | 258 | (404) | (407) | Wellington Central |
| LYE, Jeff | 221 | (331) | – | Kelston |
| – | (559) | (788) | Te Tai Tokerau | |
| WILKINSON, Steven | (203) | 450 | 623 | West Coast-Tasman |
| MACDONALD, Fred | (107) | 253 | – | Otaki |
Clear star of the show is Emma-Jane Kingi harvesting 838 votes in the southernmost Maori electorate of Te Tai Tonga. EJ, you rock! Also a very strong showing from Jamie Dombroski harvesting 608 votes in the New Plymouth electorate. Solid numbers too from the ALCP’s Leader Julian Crawford and Deputy Leader Abe Gray in the Dunedin South and Dunedin North electorates respectively. (The numbers in brackets are Julian’s results from 2011 and 2008 when he ran in the Dunedin North electorate.) And well done to budding newcomer Robert Wilkinson representing the party in the Christchurch Central electorate.
I’m happy enough with my own preliminary result of 332 votes in the Mana electorate. I expect a few more votes when the special votes are counted and the Electoral Commission announces the final results early next month. But my tally right now is exactly the same as last time. It’s significant that I got over 5 times as many votes standing under the ALCP banner this time and in 2011 as I did in 2008 when I was a Libertarianz Party candidate. Whose mast you nail your own colours to matters a great deal. I’ve included a couple of candidates in the table above who stood as ALCP candidates in previous elections, but who went their own ways this time. Both Steven Wilkinson and Fred Macdonald stood as Independents, and both more than halved their yields.
Satisfying results from our other candidates too, albeit slightly down on previous figures at this stage. I’d anticipated a few more votes for rising star Alistair Gregory who ran a stellar campaign in Wellington Central. In fact, the not quite comparable numbers in brackets are votes won in previous elections by Michael Appleby, the ALCP’s locally well-known leader and brand-recognised figurehead since the party’s inception in 1996 until he stood aside late last year. Suffice it to say, Ali had big shoes to fill.
But I think there’s another reason that Ali’s (and Jeff’s and Adrian’s) vote counts were down a little on previously (and also why Julian’s and Abe’s vote counts were steady despite Dunsterdam being this election’s ALCP campaign headquarters). They all had competition in their electorates from Internet Party candidates. Which brings me to what I think accounts for the significant drop in the ALCP’s party vote.
The Internet-Mana Party cannibalised the cannabis law reform vote. Read more in Part 2.
Ministry of Cannabis
Regulatory Regime for Cannabis Announced
The Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party announced its regulatory policy today, calling for a new Ministry of Cannabis.
The new regulatory authority would be established at a cost of $10 million according to ALCP’s shadow budget.
ALCP regulatory spokesman Dr Richard Goode said the Cannabis Ministry would issue licences for the commercial cannabis trade and help with training programmes for those interested in the industry.
“Licensing the commercial production and sale of cannabis will allow conditions to be put in place such as an R18 age-limit and a tax regime,” he said.
“Home-grown cannabis and social dealing among friends will not require a licence and will be tax-free. The medical marijuana industry will be offered tax-breaks so they only pay 50% of regular taxes. The hemp industry will pay regular taxes, while the commercial-recreational industry will pay excise duty on top of regular taxes.”
The definition of adult will be set at 18-years-old or above, while the limits for personal use will be set as high as possible in negotiation with the Government. Excise duty will be no higher than 15%, similar to the Colorado model.
This allows easy access to personal or medical cannabis while ensuring that commercial players contribute the most to public revenue.
Dr Goode said the new authority would also offer training programmes to help get the industry off the ground.
“Doctors will be offered training about the medical benefits of cannabis and how to prescribe it for patients,” he said.
“There will also be courses for those who want to get more involved in the hemp industry.”
These regulations will encourage cannabis commerce while ensuring an even playing field and and a market driven approach to pricing. All New Zealanders will be better off once legal cannabis sales are contributing to public revenue.
The new Ministry of Cannabis will have the following areas of responsibility:
Stop the Arrests:
- Instruct Police to use their discretion and stop arresting cannabis users.
- Instruct courts to drop all pending cannabis charges.
- Ensure cannabis is removed from the Misuse of Drugs Act.
Overturn Convictions:
- Ensure all cannabis convictions are quashed and a Royal pardon issued.
- Instruct Corrections to release all prisoners who are serving cannabis only sentences.
- Instruct Corrections to wipe all outstanding fines and probation sentences for cannabis offences.
- Establish a judicial panel to issue compensation for historical cannabis convictions.
Personal Use:
- Allow adults to possess and use cannabis for personal use.
- Allow adults to grow cannabis at home for personal use.
- Allow adults to trade cannabis with each other for personal use.
- Instruct IRD not to tax personal cannabis use.
Medical Cannabis:
- Allow medical patients to use cannabis and access it from a doctor or pharmacy.
- Allow caregivers to grow cannabis for individual patients.
- Issue licences to grow medical cannabis on a commercial scale.
- Issue licences to process or wholesale medical cannabis on a commercial scale.
- Issue licences to dispensaries and pharmacies to retail medical cannabis.
- Train doctors in how to prescribe medical cannabis.
- Instruct IRD to give a 50% tax-break to the medical cannabis industry.
Industrial Hemp:
- Allow anyone to register to grow industrial hemp without a licence.
- Run training programmes in growing industrial hemp.
- Run training programmes for processing and manufacturing industrial hemp products.
- Allow any business to retail industrial hemp products.
- Instruct IRD to tax industrial hemp at the usual tax rate.
Commercial-Recreational Cannabis:
- Issue licences to grow cannabis on a commercial scale.
- Issue licences to process or wholesale cannabis for commercial purposes.
- Issue licences to operate a retail cannabis outlet.
- Instruct IRD to tax commercial cannabis sales at the usual rate with an added excise duty.
- Allow adults to buy personal amounts of cannabis from retail outlets.
International Trade:
- Issue licences to import cannabis products into New Zealand.
- Issue licences to export cannabis products from New Zealand.
My Recreational Use Of Cannabis Should NEVER Be Used As A Reason To Deny Sick People Their Medicine
Prohibition is violence
IMO this is what ALCP should be arguing:
Prohibition is violence
Help end the violence
Vote ALCP
Eternal Vigilance electorate candidate endorsement #2. Alistair Gregory for Wellington Central.
Alistair Gregory is a rising star in the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party. He’s our candidate for the high-profile Wellington Central electorate and #4 on the party list. He’s also the ALCP’s Wellington Regional Manager and President of the ALCP’s Wellington branch. (I’m the Vice President. Ali’s the main man!)
Vote Alistair Gregory in Wellington Central
Legalise Cannabis in WELLINGTON CENTRAL!
Hello, I’m Alistair Gregory, your ALCP candidate for the best little capital in the world.
I’m a 23 year old chef, born and bred Wellingtonian, and convinced that we have to stop making criminals of people having a joint.
Using natural cannabis for medical, recreational, industrial and spiritual purposes should be a standard human right.
Cannabis, also named marijuana, has been used for centuries around the world. It is not and never has been a ‘demon weed’.
Jamaica, Holland, Uruguay, Portugal, USA and many other countries are introducing relaxed cannabis controls. New Zealanders are repeatedly calling for the same choice.
Sensible reform is legalisation, with regulated supply and use, for adults. ALCP is the only party that will stop making our people criminals.
Alcohol prohibition was a failure. Cannabis prohibition is a failure.
Enrol to vote. Vote for civil rights. Vote ALCP.
I’ll also mention that Ali is a medicinal user, and a friend. He needs cannabis, I don’t. As a recreational cannabis user, I’m prepared to live like it’s legal and live through the occasional supply drought. But I’m not prepared to do nothing while my friends suffer because the law denies them the best medicine. That’s why I’m out supporting Ali on the campaign trail.
Voters in the Wellington Central electorate, I urge you to give your electorate vote to Alistair Gregory and your party vote to the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party!
Cannabis saves lives
