Posts by Ray Gilbert
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Hard News: Together Alone, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
At least in Auckland it does. My wife has been reasigned from the CADS detox unit which has been shut down to AODS in CADS South. All discussions are by phone rather than in person but the team are still having to work from site at the moment.
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For almost two years it was so easy to get methadone in Dunedin that some people moved to Dunedin from other parts of the country (particularly Christchurch)
Bringing with them a fair portion of the ChCh skinheads I recall.
You could also find self sown poppies in the back blocks of Central Otago. They have probably all been plowed under to make way for Vineyards or arable pasture nowadays.
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Habeneros work fine as a substitute for scotch bonnets. I've grown both for several years and have found that scotch bonnets grow well in Auckland but don't seem to get the heat in them for some reason.
I make several batches of jerk seasoning in the autumn when my chillis are in seaon then freeze them for later use. The chillis alway seem to come on in early autumn just in time for the end of barbeque season and jerk is best on a smoky grill rather than a fry pan. This year I have done some batches with my homegrown Carolina reapers for that extra kick. -
Hard News: We are, at last, navigating…, in reply to izogi,
I suspect the literature they are basing their claims on will be full of self references and cirucular citations - like anti-vax and anti-fluoridation.
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Hard News: We are, at last, navigating…, in reply to izogi,
I caught the RNZ interview this morning and just about spat out my breakfast. The complete BS regarding the research they were alluding to being the absolute truth while the oither research that Peter Gluckman and his team had waded through being just plain wrong was palpable. It got even more surreal when he started spouting off about testing protecting your precious investment - don't worry about minor details like health and scientific proof.
The work done by Russell and Ross over the last few years resonates with me as managing chemical and other risks is a huge part of my day job. Seeing entities like HNZ accepting the flimsily supported opinions of the like of Meth Solutions without doing even basic fact checking has been a massive blunder that has affected the lives of many vulnerable people. It shouldn't have needed the recent report to put this practice to bed, but at least it has had the desired effect at last. -
But even GMP products don't pass muster in NZ – or, rather, they face a case-by-case ministry approval process. MoH officials have become considerably more flexible in what they're willing to sign off though. It's not out of the question that raw flower products could be approved – it's just difficult.
Interesting to know things are changing these days. In my past life I’ve worked in a couple of jobs under cGMP processes. The second (nearly 20 years ago) was with NZ’s largest manufacturer of blood produced medical and research reagents, including sera that was potentially destined to be used to produce medicines and therefore was classified as a medical device. In a lot of respects sera is similar to a cannabis based medicine – essentially a lightly refined natural product with variable batch to batch product. The company underwent an upgrade from ISO to cGMP status while I was there and despite being well established with a long manufacturing history and sizeable QC and QA units it still took a dedicated team nearly 2 years to do all the validation work required. It was also nearly impossible to find any tests for the quality for end user applications in the various pharmacopeia as performance testing was way outside the usual quality tests medicines undergo. We may find the same with CMs.
The answer may need to lie in testing regimes similar to foodstuffs, looking for CBD and THC levels alongside contaminants and microbes rather than a strict need to validate every process and instrument and track approved raw materials and other items from door to exit.
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Hard News: A handful of deeply precious…, in reply to ,
That is one thing that I find a bit perplexing about the widespread adoption of medicinal cannabis across the US in the past years. The regulations governing the manufacture and sale of medicines and medical devices are extremely onerous, in principle anyway, for patient protection. There seems to be less requirements for MC products. Although a quick search does show the industry seems to be trying to come to grips with this there is still a long way to go before anything as sophisticated as current GLP and cGMP standards are reached or a standard is adopted by all suppliers.
Does anyone know if there are any regulatory requirements for MC set by the FDA or in the USP and European Pharmacopeia?
I’m not saying this should be a road block for the introduction of cannabis based medications, especially as the interactions between multiple constituents on raw cannabis is not fully understood, but if a legitimate green fairy cooks up a bad batch then lack of an rigid industry wide standard could set things back significantly.
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Hard News: The shared-use path that no…, in reply to Max Robitzsch,
I understand the need for provisioning for the visually impaired but if you think these tiles provide a challenge to cycles that is nothing compared to small hard wheeled modes of transport like scooters and skateboards. They are difficult to navigate when dry and down right dangerous when wet. I avoid them at all costs then.
On the plus side - I commute home on fine days from Grafton to the New Lynn end of Blockhouse Bay by scooter. This summer I have the pleasure of being off foot path and roads most of the way from the beggining of Kingsland to the top of Avondale thanks to the North Western Cycleway and the wonderful new Waterview Cycleway. I'm looking forward to the extension to the back of Olympic Park and on into New Lynn when the Whau section is completed.
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One of my favourite "quirks" of the current legislation is the rating of fentanyl and its analogues. Heroin is Class A, fentanyl which is 100 times as potent is Class B and carfentanyl which is 50 times as potent as fentanyl and 5000 times as potent as heroin is Class C as it is a fentanyl analogue.
The obvious differences in the class rating of a drug and its risk index really stand out in this case.
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Hard News: All Change, in reply to Jonty,
Hosking is also getting headlines in the Herald website including Breaking News banners earlier in the morning. Tha's the last straw for me TBH. When an news organisation considers the rantings of Hosking breaking and headline news over the content of a new govenrment coalition then I'm not interested. I've deleted my link and removed my app so I don't need to deal with any more BS from them in the future.