Posts by paulalambert
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Russell I'm sure the current stats are something like 10-15% of the pop have the predisposition. (sorry no proof)
You may be talking about the COMT gene. This is in something like 20% of the general population.
1% of the population are prone to schizophrenia. SHORE stats estimate 16% of the population use cannabis regularly, though that could be underreported. Heavy cannabis use, particularly if started young (around age 14), raises your chance of developing cannabis-induced psychosis to about 1.4%. Some say as high as 2%.
Mike Sabin's company mantra : "Protecting People e & Profits Through Education" should be read as "Producing Profits from Propaganda"
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We do know that use of cannabis in early teenage years greatly increases the risk of subsequent problems thats heavy use, which I've seen defined by one Australian expert as 20-50 cones a day. In the NORML forums schizophrenia and cancer studies have been thrashed for months, as well as drug driving.
Cannabis has serious impacts on mental heath & lets not forget its cancer causing properties. The serious impacts come from utter confusion as to why its illegal, ie. prohibition. The 1998 Mental Health select committee enquiry established that. Other serious mental health impacts come from reading comments such as yours. Re cancer you really need to see this http://www.counterpunch.org/gardner05032008.html The NZ study he refers to is here http://www.norml.org.nz/postx5108-0-0.html Do a quick google to find out who Donald Tashkin is, in case you don't believe it.
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Three young blokes of maybe 16-18 inside the local mall on Sunday came around the corner toward my son and me. WH they fit your stereotype perfectly; their hoods were up, they were wearing sunglasses on (granted it was a sunny day outside and that part of the mall has a glass ceiling). But . . . they went around us and were not in the least threatening, only very noticeable, so I doubt they were even shoplifters.
I have cycled past pairs and more of the same on footpaths all around Aranui and Linwood, a low socio-economic area where I live, and haven't yet felt threatened. It is a mindset, and you seem to be troubled by yours.
On the other hand in my travels around town in the last few years I have actually felt and been threatened by both older and younger well-heeled drunks on the street, in daylight hours. And for the record I have been burgled several times, but not for the last 12 years since living here.
This is not to say intimidation never happens as you describe, but it is just not as common as you fear. You need to get a grip.
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At the Hep C Awareness event in Christchurch today there were several likely-looking Public Address readers. It was a fairly calm and sunny good day, finished off very nicely by 45 minutes of The Chills. Noone there was wearing a snorkel though, pity LOL it would have added to the occasion, every other style was represented. People suffering with Hep C seem to be a wide cross-section of the community.
I am nowhere near my teens but wear a hoodie quite often, its great; keeps the top of my back extra warm in marginal weather, so no need to continually drag a scarf around.
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and very much agree with whoever said the best thing you can give your kids is a good 'listening to"
I should qualify that by adding 'at appropriate times' LOL
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How would you people who are parents feel about your kids using LSD etc if it were legal and available?
I'm not sure whether or what my eldest has used, but I do know she's been glad there was the option of discussing it with me in a sane and rational manner if she needed to. I expect/hope her younger brother may also appreciate it one day and very much agree with whoever said the best thing you can give your kids is a good 'listening to"If LSD etc were legal and available at least there would be some sort of safety and quality control. There are liars and thieves throughout the black market.
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Its a moot point where they plucked their figures from, I have been unable to locate a copy of the actual research. The bottom line is prohibition is a failed policy. In that context I don't see why the figures are any more credible, peer reviewed or not.
FYI from the Otago Uni Cannabis Awareness Week, re the debate last night...
The debate was good, but with 6 participants things got a bit diffuse. Pauline Gardener while focused on the harms drugs cause a percentage of users, supported the 2 year moratorium on policing cannabis. Jim Anderton who didn't look that comfortable showed himself to be the wily politician he is, by using the meeting to announce the BERL etc results concerning the cost of illicit drug use - particularly cannabis. Professor Kevin Dawkins was a blunt critic of the process Anderton had overseen with regard to BZP. Chris Fowlie, Ross Bell and Nandor Tanczos all spoke well. Amongst the 250 people in the audience there seemed to be nobody who opposed drug law reform.
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An often unacknowledged dynamic at work is the pressure that groups put on each other to conform to a given, essentialisms are not only externally defined 'constructed mechanisms'.
Thank you very much Ali. Tacit (or not) suppression of internal dissent is just as powerful.
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The things that make me different, though, that sometimes make me feel jarringly out of step with the flow of System are nothing to do with demographics. It's more the times I wonder if I'm the only one here who's ever sat in a gang house and listened to guys talk about killing people . . . I may be the only one who doesn't talk about it, or there might be a whole bunch of you here not talking about it as well.
Bingo, though not talking killing, but sometimes very um... unseemly stuff [grin]
I can't really figure how that sort of experience would translate easily to places like PA but its ok on the NORML forums where I moderate part time. -
As I recall, it was Russell who led me to PA but Tze Ming who kept me returning. What a great description this was :
"You went through this place like a dose of the salts, in a good way. I will miss your brilliant prose, your assiduous non-taking of prisoners, and your (ahem) scouring wit. It already feels quiet and, dare I say it, a little boring without you."So I second that, and now shes gone I'm not quite as quick to click when I have enough spare time to sit and read __anything__for pleasure.
I think it would be amazing to get anyone else as challenging and edgy as Tze Ming, who was outstandingly outstanding. Good luck with the idea of more guest contributors, male or female. The very enjoyable-to-read high standard of writing, as well as criticism, here may be a bit daunting to some (I'm also grinniing amd thinking of the post which said something like 'more voluntary work for women, are you MAD?').
Oh, and more of the very good things about PA are the humour, and everyone seems to be relatively civil. Remarkable !