Category Archives: Keeping It Real
LEAP NZ Law Enforcement against Prohibition. New Zealand.
Hat tip… Dakta Green
Ross Meurant: The case for decriminalisation.
What simply does not work is the system of severe penalties for producing, transhipping and selling substances deemed illegal.
During my first four years as a National MP I initiated four policy papers, three of which were ultimately embraced as party policy.
But the fourth, to legalise drugs, failed miserably.
By the time I articulated my views on this subject in my second book, The Beat to the Beehive, I had wimped out under internal National Party pressure and merely articulated a case to study, in depth, the consequences of legalising cannabis, and to consider changes in that direction.
Privately I argued all dope should be decriminalised and now, 10 years later, I believe the evidence I gathered is as valid as ever. My case in 1990 was based on research done during my last few years in the police. As an inspector and university student I had high-level access to police data and an academic interest in drug crime.
The research suggested that perhaps 50 per cent of all crime in New Zealand was drug related. The data – which I collected in the Auckland police cells and extrapolated as a hypothesis across the country – covered arrests for importing; supply; possession for supply; thefts, burglaries and robberies for drugs or money to buy drugs. Possession for self-use brought up the rear.
It was obvious that a high percentage of serious crime – such as bank robberies, kidnappings and serious assaults – had a drug-related theme.
Gangs needed ready cash to make down-payments on large imported caches, addicts needed cash to feed their habits. Then there was gang warfare over territorial distribution rights and retribution over payments not made.
It occurred to me that the police workload might be reduced substantially if the drugs people fought over, killed for, and died protecting, were dispensed through government-licensed outlets – just like alcohol.
It would be possible to establish the names of all who entered government-licensed stores to make legal purchase of substances we presently deem illegal.
This record of “users”, those who used hard drugs such as heroin, could be placed on a register for treatment and counselling from health professionals.
Drug addiction, like alcoholism, is a sickness. It should not be treated as a crime – although penalties for abuse in a public place would be part of the armoury of the state to protect other citizens from those who took drugs lawfully but caused a nuisance. This is what happens now with alcohol.
The question of young people being vulnerable is no more potent a concern with drugs than with alcohol.
Alcohol has an impact on perhaps 75 per cent of crime, and much road carnage. It is not good for your health, nor does it have spin-off benefits for the community.
Yet we as a society tolerate continued advertising of alcohol as a desirable cultural characteristic – and why? I suggest it is the power of the brewery lobby and the recognition that prohibition simply won’t work.
The best way to control alcohol use by young people is not to make it unobtainable but to impose draconian penalties for misuse, particularly where the effects of misuse are manifest in a public place or impact adversely on others.
Zero tolerance with drink-driving for people under 28 is my start point. Overnight in a police cell for street drunkenness is another bottom line.
The rationale being: abuse of a substance lawfully available is where the penalties should fall and not on supply or possession, which effectively stimulates a black market and underworld.
This same rationale I suggest could be applied to drug use.
What simply does not work is the system of severe penalties for producing, transhipping and selling substances deemed illegal. Whether it be the death penalty, life imprisonment or examples of many past and present profile cases where mere “mules” let alone people higher up the supply chain are imprisoned in foreign jails with terrifying reputations.
All these and other attempts to prohibit possession and use of drugs through a punitive approach to the supply line have failed.
Instead, the policy has spawned drug barons with the wealth to own private armies which deliver terror to the doorsteps of politicians, judges and police and by this corruption govern entire states de facto.
At the same time, the impact of the drug trade on the world economy is massive.
Recently, former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan acknowledged that the international war on drugs had failed.
Others suggested that the international community (a euphemism for “someone else – not me”) revisit the question of legalisation.
It is my contention that the pain to society of trying to protect a minority from themselves is disproportionate to the benefits to society.
* Ross Meurant is a former MP and drug squad detective.
No Free Will = No Moral Responsibility. William Lane Craig
“And God made man in his own image….”
When God made Man he not only formed his body out of matter, He breathed ‘spirit’ into him and he became a living soul… a freewill moral agent capable of making real choices… not a robot slave of Materialistic determinism.
Atheist delusions leave mankind not only without any Objective morality, but also renders him incapable of making moral choices… whether Evil, or Heroic.
Atheism has no explanation for consciousness.
Heroic deeds like that of John Shear only deserve praise because they stem from the heart… ie He chose to endanger himself for the sake of someone else *when he could have just stood by* in safety and watch the Horse do it’s worst.
What is truly shocking is that there are many so-called ‘Educated’ Modern Christians who are embracing this anti-free will Atheist Materialism!
They must have rocks in their heads not to appreciate the fact that Monist Materialist Determinism is absolutely incompatible with Biblical/ Christian morality!
God cant judge sinners who had no choice but to sin.
William Lane Craig makes this point clear.
The Bible is Dualistic…. it is emphatic about the greater Non-material Spiritual Reality.
The Morality Of God and Bible is built upon these Truths.
Free will is a testament to our inner Spiritual Being…. and proof of God almighty!
This is because Freewill is inexplicable in materialistic terms and conditions.
And Libertarianism is utterly dependent upon free will… voluntary acceptance of the Justice of the philosophy of equal God-given inalienable Rights and liberties.
Atheism is fundamentally corrosive to the Philosophy of Liberty.
It is deterministic and Nihilistic… whereas Libertarianism is not Lawlessness, but depends upon Objective moral absolutes.
Monism: Evolutionary Psychology and the Death of Morality, Reason and Freewill.
We are not Robots Ayn Rand. We are Moral Agents.
Atheism has no basis for Rights… or Morals.
How can a Good God exist when there is so much evil in the world? (part1) Atheist Nihilism.
Nyctophilia: Hiding in the Dark….
“Keep things in the shallow end… because I just didn’t want to know…”
Science goes Ga Ga! The Spirit Temple-Material Interface. The Human Brain.
Un-ask-able questions… Police Brutality: When should you shoot a Cop?
This video not only highlights the blatant criminality of police violence agianst protesters, party goers, etc, but also reminds me of the Cannibals case of Jan Molenaar who fired on New Zealand Police officers executing a ‘routine’ cannabis search warrant at his house at 41 Chaucer Road, killing Senior Constable Len Snee and seriously injuring Senior Constables Bruce Miller and Grant Diver. A neighbour attempting to assist the police was also shot. Read about that >>>here<<<
I was thinking that Pot smokers and their friends, neighbours, and families have become so submissive of peaceful people being violently fucked over by police under the pretence of the 'war on drugs', that we are shocked when One man chooses to defend his own liberty from a corrupt Political tyranny.
Now I am not saying pot smokers should start shooting.
I believe in passive resistance.
Yet lets not confuse who is in the wrong and who is perpetrating violence against whom!
Just by posting this to our site brings the fear of being tagged as 'an extremist' invites the intrusive Evil eye... and phobia of Tyrannical retributions... yet tyranny prevails when good people through terror...say nothing.
I'm a fan of Peaceful activists like Socrates, Jesus, St Paul, Martin Luther King, Gandhi ...Oh wait.... they all got Whacked.
:-(
Tim Wikiriwhi.
Christian Libertarian.
Read more… Police Brutality in ‘God’s Own’
Filthy Bastards: “It was an Accident”. Kim Dotcom Raid.
WESTFEST 2014 KORN, MAGADETH, ROB ZOMBIE
I’m ginna get tickets!
Update: Someone said this may not be happening….
Nothing on Google.
????
Click >>> Brian Welch: From Korn to Jesus
Forbes: Everything You’ve Heard About Crack And Meth Is Wrong
By Jacob Sullum
Growing familiarity with marijuana has been accompanied by growing support for legalization because people discovered through personal experience that the government was lying to them about the drug’s hazards. But it is easier to demonize less popular drugs such as crack cocaine and methamphetamine, which in the public mind are still linked, as marijuana once was, with addiction, madness, and violence. Any attempt to question the use of force in dealing with these drugs therefore must begin by separating reality from horror stories.
That is where Carl Hart comes in. Hart, a neuropsychopharmacologist at Columbia who grew up in one of Miami’s rougher neighborhoods, has done bold, path-breaking research that challenges widely accepted beliefs about crack and meth. In his inspiring and fascinating new memoir High Price, he describes both how he overcame his early disadvantages to secure a tenured position at an Ivy League university and how he came to question everything he thought he knew about drugs as he learned to think critically about the issue.
Before he became a scientist, Hart believed that people who use crack generally get hooked on it and thereby lose control of their behavior. But when he looked at the data on patterns of drug use as an academic, he could plainly see that only a small minority of people who try crack become heavy users. “Even at the peak [of] widespread use,” he writes, “only 10–20 percent of crack cocaine users became addicted.” According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, just 3 percent of Americans who have tried this reputedly irresistible and inescapable drug have smoked it in the last month.
Contrary to what anti-drug ads claim, Hart observes, addiction “is not an equal-opportunity disorder.” He notes that even rats, whose voracious consumption of cocaine in certain contrived conditions supposedly shows how powerfully addictive that drug is, tend to use it in moderation when they have other options, such as food, sex, or an interesting environment to explore.
Crack “gained the popularity that it did in the hood…because there weren’t that many other affordable sources of pleasure and purpose,” Hart writes. “And that was why, despite years of media-hyped predictions that crack’s expansion across classes was imminent, it never ‘ravaged’ the suburbs.”
Furthermore, Hart’s own research with heavy crack smokers found that, in contrast with the stereotypical addict who cannot help but immediately consume whatever crack is available, they frequently rejected the drug in favor of small cash payments or vouchers. He got similar results with meth snorters, even though he deliberately recruited frequent consumers who had no interest in stopping. These findings underline a crucial truth that Hart emphasizes: “The effects of drugs on human behavior and physiology are determined by a complex interaction between the individual drug user and her or his environment.”
Hart debunks various other misconceptions about crack and meth. He notes that the vast majority of violence attributed to crack grew out of black-market disputes, as opposed to the drug’s pharmacological effects. His studies found that cocaine and methamphetamine do increase heart rate and blood pressure, but the effect of typical doses is not dangerous in otherwise healthy people. He argues that research linking meth to brain damage confuses correlation with causation and fails to show that meth users’ cognitive capabilities are outside the normal range. And in case you were wondering, “There is no empirical evidence to support the claim that methamphetamine causes one to become physically unattractive.”
Read more >>>here<<<
*********
Well Shucks!
Do you really think that Bigotry, Paranoia, and Tyranny has been propagating lies about how bad drugs like Meth are to maintain public support for their persecution and grievous oppression of an unpopular minority of Citizens????
Well DRRRRR! OF COURSE THE NASTY BASTARDS HAVE BEEN!
That’s how evil powers justify violating such principles as our personal sovereignty and property rights over our own bodies and our right to peacefully pursue our own happiness… at our own expense.
I salute Carl Hart for his bravery in presenting his observations which challenge the popular prejudices and delusions of the Status quo, and Forbes for running this story.
Evil prevails when good men do nothing.
We need to expose the war on Drugs for the Brutal tyranny and injustice that it is and empty our prisons of innocent people, and remove such revenues streams from the vicious Drug Cartels and gangs… exactly as ending Alcohol prohibition achieved.
Read my blog post >>> The New Jews… Meth Users.
and >>> New Prohibitions. How our Police and Government work for Criminal Gangs.
and >>> Drug users fill New Zealand jails
And >>> What you should know about Drug Prohibition.
And >>> The Child Casualties of the Jihad on Drugs.
And >>> Prohibition is a Bad trip!
And >>> A Transitional Drug Policy
Update: 13-10-14 …
METH HEAD ALERT: Report statest that Hitler used crystal meth
Guy Fawkes. Agent of The AntiChrist. (Re-post)
Guy Fawkes night is creepy! Yet raise your glasses high Ye Liberty Lovers!
As a Libertarian Christian it creeps me out to think about how as a child I took great pleasure in making a Guy for the Bonfire. It bothers me that in my innocence that the sight of a Man burning at the stake did not provoke in me any horror whatsoever… but joy.
Pondering this I shudder at the thought of times and places where Real Men and woman were burned on bonfires, and worse still many of these were Heroic and Righteous people, completely innocent of any wrongdoing. They were victims of persecution and corrupt Laws and Governments, and Religious intolerance. Many were like myself… fringe dwellers labeled Unorthodox ‘Heretics’ and Non-conformists whom dared to challenge the Authority and Doctrines of the Orthodox Church.
Yet Guy Fawkes was not Officially a Heretic , nor was he burned at the stake. For the crime of High treason, He was Hung, Drawn, and Quartered! This is a process in which after being dragged through the streets and Hung on the Gallows, the Body is then cut into 4 pieces. These were then usually fed to Dogs.
All this heinous business churns the stomach and one may wonder why it is that 400 years after the barbaric punishment of Guy Fawkes we still celebrate the event? It is here where I must say that despite the atrocious fate of Guy Fawkes, I am a Fan of this celebration as it memorializes one of the most important circumstances of Providence in establishing Liberty in Western Civilization. Today there is a lot of Fireworks and money changing hands yet the truth behind this celebration is all but forgotten. Let me touch briefly upon the monumental events of the time and activities of Guy Fawkes, and revive understanding of the true meaning of this strange Day.
1605 Guy Fawkes was a devout Catholic, a Jesuit, and enemy of the Protestant King of England and Scotland James the 1st. The Jesuits were a Machiavellian Order…the KGB of the Catholic Church. They were involved in Covert / black opps and because King James had authorized an official translation of the Bible into English, The Catholic Church had marked him for Assassination. The last thing they wanted was the Bible placed into the hands of the common Man! They wanted to maintain their Monopoly on the word of God, the control of which left the populations of Europe at the mercy of the Priest-craft of the church of Rome. In these times Protestant Christians called the Pope the Antichrist, and as if to prove them absolutely right, his Satanic church moved to suppress The word of God from reaching the common Englishman. Enter Guy Fawkes and the Gun powder plot. He was caught planting Gun power in the cellars of the House of Lords to be detonated when King James was in attendance. After getting a forced confession He was sentenced to death and executed. There is not space here to lay out just how dire it would have been to the Liberation of Western Civilization from the yoke of religious tyranny had the Plot succeeded. When the Authorised King James Bible was published in 1611 the effect was Explosive! It is no exaggeration to rank its publication as the single greatest impetus to Freedom and Justice in Modern history. I will leave you with a 200 word letter I sent into the Waikato Times earlier this year in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the KJV.
Dear Ed…This year marks the 400th anniversary of the 1611 King James Bible. Its publication was the greatest single event of the Protestant Reformation inspiring enlightenment, religious toleration, independent thought, and justice among English speaking peoples and beyond. It was onboard the ships of the Pilgrim fathers whom set sail for America desiring freedom from old world tradition and ‘orthodoxy’. An explosion of denominations and sects occurred, which many conservatives mistake as a great evil, when in truth this represents true religious liberty from the tyranny of priest craft and the establishment. Tom Payne quoted the KJV in his ‘Common Sense’ sparking the American Revolution. John Locke used it in formulating his two treaties on civil government upon which Jefferson founded the American Declaration of Independence. It was the Mighty sword used by Wilberforce to end slavery in the British Empire , and later fostered the fraternal inspiration of North American abolition. The Font of civilization, it dispatched brave Church missionaries down to the antipodes to liberate savage tribes from superstition, cannibalism, and lawlessness. It was often upon the lips of Martin Luther King jr calling for peaceful civil disobedience in the fight for equal rights for blacks, etc. Praise God Almighty!
Tim Wikiriwhi
Nothing less than this entire history was at stake in 1605. As a Libertarian, I’m sure glad Guy Fawkes failed. I celebrate the survival of King James the first as an act of Divine Providence from which Western civilization embarked upon the road to religious liberty and enlightenment.
Picture: Painting of the Radical Abolitionist John Brown who inspired by the King James Bible set about to overthrow slavery in the American South by force of arms. Some believe him to be a murderer, Yet in my view He was a righteous Man. He did nothing which was not done on a much grander scale in the Civil War which soon followed after his capture and execution. For an interesting first hand account of this Radical Christian and the abolition of slavery in America I suggest reading ‘The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.’
Antichrist pseudo morality: Democratic social arbitrary Law, The greatest happiness principle, and the mandate of the majority vs Freedom, and Objective right and wrong.
“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”
Jesus Christ.
An Atheist’s Amoral Manifesto. Joel Marks.
Just ‘Liberated this from ‘Philosophical Theist’
“..I became convinced that atheism implies amorality; and since I am an atheist, I must therefore embrace amorality. I call the premise of this argument ‘hard atheism’ because it is analogous to a thesis in philosophy known as ‘hard determinism.’ The latter holds that if metaphysical determinism is true, then there is no such thing as free will. Thus, a ‘soft determinist’ believes that, even if your reading of this column right now has followed by causal necessity from the Big Bang fourteen billion years ago, you can still meaningfully be said to have freely chosen to read it. Analogously, a ‘soft atheist’ would hold that one could be an atheist and still believe in morality. And indeed, the whole crop of ‘New Atheists’ (see Issue 78) are softies of this kind. So was I, until I experienced my shocking epiphany that the religious fundamentalists are correct: without God, there is no morality. But they are incorrect, I still believe, about there being a God. Hence, I believe, there is no morality.” ~ Joel Marks, An Amoral Manifesto (Part I)
I post the following You tube vid in memory of an old atheist wastrel associate who mocked my faith… and ended up shooting himself
Read more… Francis Schaeffer ‘Materialism renders Man Nought. Meaning-less, Value-less, Right-less’
And…. ‘Poster child for Atheism…Hannibal Lecter.’
And…. Hiding in the Dark….
Party pills now on sale at supermarkets
Party pills are now on sale at supermarkets. You know, the ones that
assist you in remaining ALERT and WIDE AWAKE!
and that
relieve mental fatigue, drowsiness and general inertia, keeping you BRIGHT and ALERT!
NO-DOZ® AWAKENERS. $7.45 for a box of 24 tablets. Way better value than Cosmic Corner’s Pepe party pills which go for a cool $25 per 4-pack.
Focus, energy and a clear head. These guys are great for sports, study, shift work, or partying and are OK with alcohol.
I got my NO-DOZ® AWAKENERS at the local New World. But you can shop smarter and get them online at Countdown for only $6.79.
SHARPEN UP WITH NO-DOZ!
exhorts Countdown.
EACH TABLET HAS THE SAME AMOUNT OF CAFFEINE AS A CUP OF COFFEE, GIVING YOU THAT EXTRA KICK NEEDED TO KEEP YOU GOING
The active ingredient in both products is caffeine. NO-DOZ® AWAKENERS contain 100 mg caffeine per tablet. (And glucose.) Pepe contains caffeine in an unstated amount. (And black pepper extracts, vitamin B6 and a proprietry blend of amino acids.)
So what does this have to do with the Psychoactive Substances Act?
Section 9 of the Act gives the meaning of psychoactive substance.
9 Meaning of psychoactive substance
(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, psychoactive substance means a substance, mixture, preparation, article, device, or thing that is capable of inducing a psychoactive effect (by any means) in an individual who uses the psychoactive substance.
On the face of it, that includes both NO-DOZ® AWAKENERS and Pepe and their active ingredient caffeine.
Section 5 of the Act gives its application.
5 Application of Act
(1) This Act applies to the importation, manufacture, sale, supply, or possession of a psychoactive substance or approved product for the primary purpose of inducing a psychoactive effect in an individual who uses the substance or product.
On the face of it, the Act applies to both products and their active ingredient caffeine.
But Section (9)(3) of the Act tells us that the Act does not apply to any dietary supplement or to any food.
Cosmic Corner hopes that the Act does not apply.
our understanding is that it will not affect products which are classed as herbs or dietary supplements. For example, caffeine has a psychoactive effect, but it is classed as a food product/dietary supplement. This means the COSMIC range of party pills should continue to be available because their ingredients are classed as dietary supplements and herbs.
So does the Act apply? I don’t know. But I do know that Cosmic Corner has submitted an application for an interim product approval and presumably paid the $10,000 application fee. If their application is either approved or declined (rather than returned and the fee refunded) then I expect the Ministry of Health to come down on New World, Countdown and any other supermarket chain selling the unapproved product NO-DOZ with the full force of the law, i.e., a $500,000 fine per supermarket. (Troughers gotta fill the coffers.)
Silly supermarkets. You don’t go selling caffeine “for the primary purpose of inducing a psychoactive effect.” You’ve got to be way more subtle than that. Here’s how it’s done.