There is a famous anecdote about a conversation Winston Churchill once had with a woman at a party.
Churchill: Madam, would you sleep with me for five million pounds? Socialite: My goodness, Mr. Churchill … Well, I suppose … we would have to discuss terms, of course … Churchill: Would you sleep with me for five pounds? Socialite: Mr. Churchill, what kind of woman do you think I am?! Churchill: Madam, we’ve already established that. Now we are haggling about the price.
The moral of the story is obvious. If you sleep with someone for money—any amount of money—then you are a prostitute. Even if that someone is Winston Churchill.
Even though it was Winston Churchill, it was rather a cruel trick he played. But not as cruel as testing recreational drugs on animals. And that brings me to the point of this post.
The government has played a cruel trick on those in the drug law reform movement who give the thumbs up to the Psychoactive Substances Bill.
Government minister: Activist, would you accept significant drug law reform if it meant some limited amount of animal testing? DLR activist: My goodness, Mr. Dunne … Well, I suppose … we would have to make submissions to the Select Committee, of course … Government minister: Would you accept significant drug law reform if it meant that thousands of the nation’s beloved family pets are made to suffer slow, agonising deaths? DLR activist: Mr. Dunne, what kind of drug law reform activist do you think I am?! Government minister: Activist, we’ve already established that. Now we are haggling about the depth of your depravity.
Five pounds or five million pounds? If you accept animal testing—any amount of animal testing—as the price of drug law reform, then you are a sadist. Even if the drugs are really, really good.
Now, I’m not suggesting that any of my friends in the drug law reform movement are sadists. But I am suggesting that they’ve been cruelly tricked. And I am suggesting that they think carefully about how far down this particular slippery slope they’re prepared to slide. And I’m suggesting that after they’ve thought about it they claw their way back up to the moral high ground.
SCIENTISTS ANGRY OVER COLLEGE’S ‘DISTURBING’ HIRE OF ASTRONOMY PROFESSOR WHO EMBRACES INTELLIGENT DESIGN.
Creationism and intelligent design are causing quite a stir at Ball State University, a public college in Muncie, Indiana. In addition to sparking an internal investigation into Professor Eric Hedin, a Christian who is accused by the atheistic Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), among others, of potentially indoctrinating students, there’s yet another new target. The FFRF is now joining evolutionary scientists in speaking out against the same university’s hire of Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez, an astronomy professor who embraces intelligent design.
What’s most fascinating about the debate is that academic environments really should be the host of vibrant discussion, debate and diverse viewpoints. While most scientists do believe in evolutionary theory, the notion that people who do not should be silenced seems counter-intuitive. But that is exactly what is unfolding as the contention over Ball State’s hiring of these professors progresses.
^^^ This story exposes the Bigotry which corrupts the academic world which not only stifles real science, but maintains the lies of evolution and Materialist in the position of ‘Orthodoxy’.
These Atheists are complete hypocrites because they are doing today what they accuse the Religious zealots of the past of doing!… Stifling dissenting opinion for the sake of maintaining a monopoly… not by reason… but by force!
This is an update to the lists here and here of synthetic cannabinoids banned by Peter Dunne.
Banned as from 9 May 2013
BB-221-(cyclohexylmethyl)-8-quinolinyl ester-1H-indole-3-carboxylic acid 5F-AKB48 or APINACA 5-fluoropentyl analog or 5F-APINACA N-((3s,5s,7s)-adamantan-1-yl)-1-(5-fluoropentyl)-1H-indazole-3-carboxamide
This is another blow to the industry and one of many we have delivered – but I fully acknowledge it is more of the cat-and-mouse game until we can deliver the killer punch in August when the Psychoactive Substances Bill will become law
said Peter Dunne when he banned BB-22 and 5F-AKB48 last month.
But take a look at the trend here. There were 20 synthetic cannabinoids banned in 2011, 11 banned in 2012 and, so far this year, just 2.
I think the cat is getting tired.
And the industry is in very good health, despite having had to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous prohibitions. Tonight on Cuba Street, Wellington, I counted 9 synthetic cannabinoid products, in 2 different stores, probably containing 3 or 4 different synthetic cannabinoids. (And that’s not even to mention the flourishing herbal cannabis industry.)
I think the mouse won this cat-and-mouse game a long time ago.
Tony Bower Director of Mullaway Medical Cannabis Limited, and Auzzy Hero!
Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/Mullaway#!/Mullaway
Any one with Children who suffer from Fits and Seizures needs to watch this Video!
If you know anyone with children who suffer Fits and Seizures please forward this Video to them!
It could save their lives.
It is a matter of extreme urgency that Medical Cannabis be Legalised and made available to the New Zealand public!
IF had a child with such a condition, I would not hesitate to break the Law and get some of this Medicine for my child.
Tony Bower is a hero who is battling Prosecution for Cannabis cultivation to produce his wonder Medicine. I implore the people of Australia to Rally in his defence.
Post script update 15-6-13
It appears that the benefits of Cannabis in respect to treating Epilepsy were well known before it was prohibited…
THE ANTIQUE CANNABIS BOOK
Chapter 3 – (2nd Edition)
CENSORED MEDICAL STUDIES
CENSORSHIP
1947 – EPILEPSY STUDY
HARRY ANSLINGER’S CONCERN
[America’s 1st Drug Czar, Harry Anslinger]
This section of the Antique Cannabis Book, was meant primarily as a tool for active News Media Reporters who needed a quick (yet well documented) source of information on the subject of Governmental Censorship as it relates to Medical Cannabis. As such this (1947) study, which was openly published and never actually under the threat of censorship, would normally not qualify for inclusion.
However, a quick look beneath the surface shows a different story. One that reveals, wheels within wheels, circles within circles, all spinning around . . . . let’s just say that this study, came very close to (ah, how shall we put it), going the way of oh so many other Medical Cannabis studies.
The author is convinced that had Anslinger (or anyone at the D.E.A.) known about the study BEFORE IT WAS PUBLISHED , it most assuredly would have been CENSORED. Either that or (doing what the Narc’s do now), killed it in its cradle by simply denying the researchers the needed licenses and permits.
This one however, seems to have slipped though the cracks. Here let us go over the facts (those we’ve been able to locate), and let the reader to decide.
1.1 – STUDY SUMMERY
The following, located via 420 Magazine [1] is the shortest summery that we’ve been able to find. However, as it’s still filled with lots of PHD gobble goop, so the reader is advised simply to skim-read-it. The long and the short of it is that “ Cannabis Works. ”
Anti-Epileptic Action Of Marijuana-Active Substances BY JEAN P. DAVIS, M.D., and H.H. RAMSEY, M.D. [2]
The demonstration of anticonvulsant activity of the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) congeners by laboratory tests (Loewe and Goodman, Federation Proc. 6:352, 1947 ) prompted clinical trial in five institutionalized epileptic children.
All of them had severe symptomatic grand ma1 epilepsy with mental retardation; three had cerebral palsy in addition. Electroencephalographic tracings were grossly abnormal in the entire group; three had focal seizure activity. Their attacks had been inadequately controlled on 0.13 gm. Of phenobarbital daily, combined with 0.3 gm. of Dilantin per day in two of the patients, and in a third, with 0.2 gm. Of Mesantoin daily. Two isomeric 3 (1,2-dimethyl heptyl) homologs of THC were tested, Numbers 122 and 125A, with ataxia potencies fifty and eight times, respectively, that of natural marijuana principles. Number 122 was given to two patients for three weeks and to three patients for seven weeks. Three responded at least as well as to previous therapy; the fourth became almost completely and the fifth entirely seizure free. One patient, transferred to 125A after three weeks, had prompt exacerbation of seizures during the ensuing four weeks, despite dosages up to 4 mg. daily. The second patient transferred to 125A was adequately controlled on this dosage, except for a brief period of paranoid behavior three and a half weeks later; similar episodes had occurred prior to cannabinol therapy. Other psychic disturbances or toxic reactions were not manifested during the periods of treatment. Blood counts were normal.
The cannabinols herein reported deserve further trial in non-institutionalized epileptics. Reprinted from Federation Proceedings, Federation of American Society for Experimental Biology, vol. 8, lY49, p. 284.
Source: Anti-Epileptic Action Of Marijuana-Active Substances
1.2 – MARJUANA LEAF PLAYS EPILEPSY CURE ROLE
The below newspaper article, taken from the “Salt Lake City telegram [May 20, 1947], was located via the National Archives (College Park, MD). It belonged to and was integrated into the files of Harry Anslinger’s old Bureau of Narcotics, today known as the D.E.A. We believe that it was the first that Anslinger knew about the study, and thus too late to CENSOR or put a stop to it.
[Bureau of Narcotics files, — National Archives, College Park, Md.]
[As per the Bureau of Narcotics Files ; National Archives]
TAKEN FROM SALT LAKE CITY TELEGRAM 5-20-49
Marijuana Leaf Plays Epilepsy Cure Role
Drug principles isolated from leaves of marijuana, an innocent-looking plant that grows wild in different parts of the world, are playing an important role in research on a cure for epilepsy.
This is the same marijuana which so many people fear as a habit-forming drug and which is noted for the opium-like dreams it produces in those who partake of it.
The drugs being used are synthetic substances related to cannabinol, which is contained in marijuana, but does not produce the same effects. Dr. Jean P. Davis, faculty researcher at the University of Utah medical college, has done considerable research with the drugs in treatment of minor and convulsive epilepsy.
She reports that the drugs have been found effective about 50% of the time. Future for epileptics appears “very bright,” she said, “because of not only one new drug, but a whole field of new compounds to combat epileptic seizures.”
Helps Minor Seizures One of these new drugs, trimethadione, is most effective in petit mal epilepsy, minor seizures common in younger patients. Another, paramethadione, a sort of second cousin to the first, is useful in such spells.
A third compound, called phenerone, is effective in psycho-motor seizures, sudden episodes of unusual behavior, accompanied by amnesia.
Epilepsy comes in four degrees: grand mal, or pykno-epilepsy, with brief staring spells; psycho-motor, accompanied by amnesia and unusual behavior, and Jacksonian, identified by retention of consciousness with progressive twitching and numbness of one leg or arm.
Mr. Davis is in charge of a section of the psychiatric clinic at Salt Lake General hospital, where she does some clinical work. She also instructs advanced courses in the departments of pharmacology and physiology at the university.
Began in 1929 According to Dr. Davis, actual valuable research with modern methods of fighting epilepsy came into their own in 1929 with the invention of the electro-encephalograph, an instrument for recording brain activity.
And the latest of the compounds used in treatment of the affliction was developed in 1948. Meanwhile, research is advancing at a rapid pace, Dr. Davis said.
She studied for three years under Dr. William Lennox, one of the top U.S. experts on epilepsy. She received her doctor of medicine degree at Yale university in 1943.
Most of her clinical work has been confined to children, with whom she “likes to work.”
Here note the wording:
“. . . Have been found effective about 50% of the time. “
“ . . . the same marijuana which so many people fear “
“ . . . Drug principles isolated from leaves of marijuana . . . being used are synthetic substances related to cannabinol, which is contained in marijuana, but does not produce the same effects. “
With respect to the above — note that a Medical Cannabis like “synthetic substance” is being referred to.
EPILEPSY STUDY — ON TO THE NEXT PAGE
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Richard Goode I’m a libertarian. I believe in individual freedom and personal responsibility.
The big problem in New Zealand (much bigger than the problem with K2 being sold in dairies) is that people want individual freedom for themselves but they don’t want the personal responsibility that goes with it. [But] individual freedom and personal responsibility are two sides of the same coin.
I see far too many people blaming “K2” for their problems, when their own lack of judgement, lack of a moral compass, psychological problems, and lack of parental control are the root causes in the vast majority of cases. Like that teenager supposedly “addicted” to K2 whom I saw on TV the other night. He was fine once someone found him an honest job boring post holes up [in] the hills.
Remember that cannabis is a gift from God and that the Devil makes work for idle hands.
That was my post [with minor edits] on the Facebook group K2 and Other “LEGAL HIGHS” in New Zealand we all need to know the dangers. I was added to the group recently by a fellow drug law reform activist and didn’t at first appreciate the nature of the group. It’s a support group “to warn people about the dangers of these relatively new highs and the trouble it has caused so for many.” Perhaps if I’d known that I’d blundered into a support group, I wouldn’t have made such an insensitive post. Perhaps.
Here are the responses.
Tracey Metternich supposedly “addicted” Richard do you not believe it is addictive? lack of parental control? this I disagree with strongly. I am guessing he wasn’t as good as it looked on TV because this teenager found an honest job he was fine. I bet he struggles everyday and he still thinks about it everyday.Cannabis is a gift from god? shame people decided to speed up the natural process and grow in under lights instead of planting a seed and leaving it to grow. Yes it is the lesser evil but it can cause problems for some but not to the extent this chemical crap is doing and it would be a safer option.
Polli Marriner Hayden is not fine . That’s why he spoke up. You have no idea of the pain he goes through every day, or his mother! How DARE you minimise the harm to push your own barrow! You people are the evil! Kids do not need drugs! It was pot heads who brought this stuff into our country and made a demand for it by trying to escape from reality through chemicals. Live a real and godly life in THIS reality before you judge others!
Richard Goode “Live a real and godly life in THIS reality before you judge others!” It’s good advice.
Tim Wikiriwhi I suppose you Polli Marriner are going to blame Nz’s Suicide epidemic of ‘Pot heads’ too! You simpletons seen to forget that like Suicide, drug use is *an Effect* of deeper underlying issues in our society… not the cause of them. Young people try drugs (including alcohol Polli) for different reasons, often it is to sooth a painful heart or to fill a dark empty void… and as you know sometimes a drink (or a smoke) can help… other times it can make things worse… One thing is for sure… persecuting people certainly makes things much much worse, whereas when things like K2 are legal, at least no one is getting kicked over and criminalised by a cold hearted Nazi police, and they can get help for what is *the real problem*… the ussues which have nothing to do with drugs… yet simpletons like you cant e bothered thinking about the deeper/ more complex problems in our society which result in high suicide rates, high drug use, etc…. You prefer to think like a pig and say ‘Ban it’ ‘Ban it’…. Throw them in Jail…. Give the police greater powers!…. More raids!…. Zero Tollerance… “Everyone should be like me!!!”… vote for the Populist Politican who promises to be ‘Tuff on drugs’… etc etc…. year after year… decade after decade…. yet the Stats keep getting worse and worse…. yet you will continue to floog your favorite dead horse because you refuse to consider you have been wrong your whole life….
Polli Marriner Lol…. That’s so funny! If you only knew!
Richard Goode “You people are the evil!” Judge not, that ye be not judged.
Polli Marriner Therre have been a lot of pot smoking people in these anti K2 groups hurting people’s feelings and linking the fight with support cannabis efforts. NOT HELPFUL AT ALL! Gof iChat your own battles in your own page and leave these heroes alone!
Polli Marriner Again, leave people alone, and go fight yr own battles somewhere else!
There’s irony in a rabid Prohibitionist telling me to “leave people alone”! There’s irony in her judging that “you people are the evil” and in the same comment reprimanding me for judging others! (Just saying.)
Subsequently, my post was deleted by the group admin, presumably for its unsupportive tone. (But I blame Tim’s comment. :-D)
Two things are very clear.
First, there are some seriously upset people out there. It’s understandable that they’re upset. From what I’ve read of their stories, some of them have been to hell and back, and they blame it on K2. Indeed, it does seem that some synthetic cannabinoids can have some very serious ill effects on some people.
Second, these people should not be allowed to have any sway over the government’s drug policy. With all due respect, they’re too emotionally overwrought and they can’t think straight. We need to regulate, not ban.
K2. (I assume that is short for Kronic 2… the synthetic variant of THC in ‘kronic one’ having been banned.) Is this the packaging of this stuff available in New Zealand?
I don’t know! I have never actually seen a packet myself.
What is interesting about this photo is the clear R18 age restriction voluntarily printed on the packs by the distributors, which is a prudent and socially conscientious thing to do, showing that contrary to all the hypocritical claims of ‘drug panic’ merchants who are busy ripping their shirts over the availability of legal highs… the fact is that the distributors have no desire to peddle their wares to children, and that any shop keepers doing so are violating the express conditions of being vendors of this product, and could be/ should be sued by the K2 distributors.
All Legal highs should have such R18 age restrictions on sale and purchase… just like Alcohol.
I have just recently been accepted into a face book group called ‘K2 and other ‘Legal Highs’ in New Zealand. We all need to know the dangers’ (thank’s to my invitation by Richard)
And as recreational drug use and prohibition is an important subject to Libertarian minded people like myself, I hope to present the group with alternative arguments to prohibition… in the interest of society, Justice, and harm minimization.
It will be interesting to see if my input will be recognized as a legitimate contribution to the discussion, or if I… because I am Anti-prohibition… anti- drug phobia… will be labeled ‘a Troll’
And banned.
I certainly hope not!
It is not my intension (today…in this group) to cause trouble, or to be a Gadfly. I enter this group in sincerity believing I have a valid position to put forward and can contribute value to this discussion.
I have blogged about Internet trolling before Here:, , and though I now need to do a follow up blog post confessing my realization of the reality of malicious predators whom do indeed stalk the Net seeking to cause Chaos and disorder, that in no way is this my intension in joining this group.
My intensions are honourable.
Below is my introduction to my Libertarian argument against Prohibition, in favour of an age restricted legal market. (I have embellished it slightly with photos and captions for the sake of this Blogpost)
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This is a very ‘polarizing’ topic… a matter of great paranoia to many….to the extent that they shut their minds to hearing all sides of the debate and demand heavy
handed laws and prohibitions, refusing to appreciate that such an approach has proven to be an absolute failure time and time again, and that the draconian nature of Prohibition is actually far more harmful to our society… esp to the youth who become criminalized and thereby alienated from our society… not for any acts of dishonesty, or violence, but because they have been caught with a small bag of ‘happiness’ in their pocket.
These young people know that they have been unjustly treated, because they know that many of those whom have brought the Law down upon their heads, including the majority of the Police who break down their doors, and ransack their homes, and drag them off to the cells… all drink Booze… beer, wine, and spirits, until they cant even walk!
I would like to present a counter-argument to prohibition as a means of minimizing the harm of drugs upon our society, and discuss why I believe having a legal yet age restricted market for recreational drugs is a far better means of controlling drugs… just as we have with alcohol… and for the very same reasons.
Alcohol prohibition was tried,…and was dismal failure!
Drug raid.
Though we still have big social problems with Alcohol, people still need to appreciate that having legal supply of alcohol is still much better than the evils of Prohibition.
For starters it is much easier under a legalized system for people with problems to go and get help, from places like AA, without fear of being prosecuted, or losing their jobs, etc.
This topic is also a lot like xenophobia and the witch craze, in that wild stories grow up all out of proportion to reality, fueling a lynch mob type hysteria.
Anyone familiar with the history of prohibition knows this classic phenomena.
It is a manufactured frenzy, purposely propagated by the prohibitionist lobby and their Populist politicians who think nothing of feigning Piety and social concern, by promising to crush an unpopular minority for the sake of getting elected.
Corby Schapelle. Imagine for a moment this is your adult child behind bars… not for robbing or harming anyone, but simply because they were found with a drug which was not alcohol.
This is the real ugly face of the injustice of Prohibition… which utterly fails to stop recreational drug use. It merely serves as a disgusting means of inflicting a Nazi-like bigoted hatred upon an unpopular and demonised minority. The Nazis swore their persecution of the ‘Socially deviant Jews’ was completely justified. Vicious bigotry always hides beneath a Cloack of ‘Righteous indignation’.
Though I don’t dispute that drugs (like alcohol and cannabis) ought to be kept away from children, and that adults too need to take care how and when they use such substances, I have little doubt that the fears about the harmful effects synthetic cannabis will prove as groundless as the Nonsense which fueled and maintained Cannabis prohibition.
Cannabis is now being legalized across the globe because of it’s ‘Health benefits’ and medicinal qualities!
It is ironic to understand that for thousand’s of years Cannabis was known and appreciated for it’s manifold beneficial qualities, and that the folly of prohibition of cannabis is itself a *modern phobia*… thankfully this terrible era of prohibition is coming to a close.
It is interesting to consider the fact that if we had already decriminalized Cannabis that we would not be facing the wave of new synthetic substances like K2!
And this fact in itself also reveals why Prohibitions are absurd. Ie because there is a demand for recreational drugs… some innovative people will always figure out an new way to get high, and undoubtedly some these ways will be far more dangerous than cannabis!
Thus Prohibition tends to endanger our youth because it has outlawed safer alternatives.
Below is a blog post I wrote the other day on this subject and I will produce more as this debate unfolds.
I ask members to seriously consider the counter arguments to prohibition if you claim to really have the interests of society at heart, and not be simply driven by a personal bigotry against drug users.
Tim Wikiriwhi
Christian Libertarian.
Hamilton West.
Update: 29-5-13
It appears that after One day, One post, and one reply (in support of Mr G) I have been ‘Fed to the sharks’ by the SOCIALISTS running the facebook page ‘K2 and other ‘Legal Highs’ in New Zealand. We all need to know the dangers’…. which completely vindicates my acustaions that the ‘Anti-everything lobby’ are so fanatically in favour of tyranny, that they will not even consider any alternative arguments to prohibition… in the interest of society, Justice, and harm minimization.
It was interesting to see that indeed my input was not recognized as a legitimate contribution to the discussion, but instead….because I am Anti-prohibition… anti- drug phobia… they chose the low road… the easier path which was to deem me to be ‘a Troll’… and thus….rather than openly debate me….. to simply ban me instead!, and forbid Group members from being able to message me!
*I told ya so!*
