Posts by david westcot
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Hard News: Drugs and why Dunne did it, in reply to Russell Brown,
Interesting ! About a month ago I took a printout of your posting on Sue Grey & the CBD debacle to my MP David Clark [shadow health minister ] . I also did my best to impress on him the usefulness of cannabinoid products generally but esp CBD for the whole range of inflammatory conditions [rheumatoid arthritis MS etc], with particular emphasis on the virtual ABSENCE of any side effects. This as compared to the whole range of accepted anti – inflammatories – ie ,steroids,NSAIDs [ ibuprofen ,voltaren etc ] , & the DMARDS ,all with their quite severe range of potentially organ-damaging side-effects. A very relevant issue for the many people needing medication continuously for years. The NSAID`s are readily available at your local super market ! I spent a good 15 or 20 mins airing these concepts with him – it could be that he lobbied Dunne in the following weeks .
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Hard News: The place where things happen…, in reply to BenWilson,
I totally agree with the case your`e making Ben .The point blank refusal to do a serious , honest & comprehensive cost benefit analysis of psychoactives is irrational ,dysfunctional & pathetic in an age of endless metrics & analyses about social,political,economic & whatever issues. WTF!!!! No cost/benefit analysis here folks - move along please.WTF !!! Sooo instead of an honest societal dialogue we are put in the grovelling posistion of grasping onto every little crumb of harm reduction progress thrown from the prohibitionists table. This posistion is now so normalised that my argument here could be characterised by many as an unseemly rant .We need some serious thought on how to move this agenda forward with some transparency at more than glacial speed - incrementalism & dishonesty has not worked.
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Good on you Russel for valiantly ,comprehensively & patiently shining a light on the dickensian & kafkaesque legislation that presumes to call itself a policy [ ie the MOD act ].Hard to know where to start when critqueing this utterly shambolic hypocrysy & socio-cultural dysfunction .....lookin at the calendar now - are we really living in the 21st century !!
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`Yup. I’d go further and say that it’s both a health problem and a human right, like any number of ways to harm yourself that abound in society But I’m not going to hold my breath that even quite switched on people will grasp this, so long have we been under prohibition, so normalized has it become.` Ben is right on the money. The reality of drug policy in this country is an absolutely gobsmacking hypocrisy ! That we have on the one hand: alchohol class A/B drug - a pleasant enough inebriant with a few under the belt but a potential trainwreck of a high when pissed for the 1 in 4 drinkers who are regular bingers - fully embraced ,industrially produced & marketed, entwined with our cultural pinnacle rugby , politically untouchable despite a tsunami of 100% proven,serious personal , social & medical harms. On the other hand we have the popular low harm drugs [ I`m sure everyone reading this website is familiar with the ISCD Nutt & Blakemore et al harm rankings as used in the law commissions MOD review ] cannabis , MDMA, & the classic psychedelics, possession or supply of which to a friend can/will see you thrown in a cage no questions asked for a good long vacation. Looks like 80 years of propaganda will take a very lengthy rewind.
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Tail-ender reporting here . I had a poke around online re this incident & the smokin gun could well be the humidity level on the night - as one of the 100 or so DEA agents observed, it was so muggy condensation was running down the walls - even in a really hot space .This is a very bad combo - high ambient temp,100%humidity & over exertion + E`s mild hyprethermic effect on top .These type of hyperthermia events are rare but not unheard of in long distance running events ; so in both cases [running /dancing] there is a behavioural /cognitive issue whereby people simply don`t know when to stop. Not rocket science .
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why is it that the media in general [&the political class] are unable to have an honest indepth cost/benefit discourse about drug policy - we know - talking actual evidence here - that psychoactives like weed ,pure MDMA ,psilocybin & mescaline are far less dangerous than alchohol. What a pitiful state of affairs that we seem unable to shake off or even honestly address/discuss the abomination gifted to us {by way of the UN conventions} by Anslinger & Nixon - both racist arch-conservative bigots. I can think of no other important area of public policy where silence rules to such a degree. But then I s`pose 80 years of criminalisation,stigma,propaganda & scapegoating aren`t exactly a great pathway to rational thought.
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Hard News: The perilous birth of the…, in reply to tatjna,
excellent blog - demonstrates exactly what the media refuses to provide - rational EVIDENCE-based info instead of kneejerk ,moral-panic gibberish. I continue to be gobsmacked that we can mass-produce so many uni / polytech grads in this country & yet demonstrate a complete failure to engage with this issue [ie. drug policy the wider issue] withany degree of acumen or honesty - Russell over the years is an exception to this. Investigative journalism in this arena is a joke - AWOL ! The blatant & appalling double-standard vis-à-vis alchohol as opposed to various other relatively low harm [ but criminalised ] psychoactives is beyond ridiculous.
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Speaker: The changing world of drug policy, in reply to Richard Aston,
so true Richard,standing back in the cold hard light of day for a dispassionate look at the prohibition landscape [historical,social,legal,medical, & political] , you can but shake your head in disbelief at the naked double standard & bigotry that sees a very dangerous drug- alchohol - industrially produced & marketed ,while much lower harm drugs ie weed ,MDMA, & shrooms ,get U thrown into a cage for supplying some to a friend. The law commission TRIED to mitigate this disgusting travesty [ presumption of no jail-time for supplying friends] but was headbutted by drugwar rottweillers Simon Power & now crusher Collins. The power of the medieval papacy may have waned but sad fact is we still live amidst some grossly ignorant & barbaric customs.
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here`s a fantastic article detailing the absurd & corrupt evolution of US cannabis laws actually A Speech to the California Judges Association 1995 annual conference if anyone has the time -a fascinating read. http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/whiteb1.htm
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good on you for covering this ongoing travesty ; the corporatocracy & its US henchmen continue to prevail - still I s`pose thats better thn Hitler . Stalin , Mao or Khomeini at the helm - small consolation .