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Tasmania- proposed legislative changes. Read 'em and weep http://www.bikeme.tv/index.php/wanna-protest-tasmania-dont/ Great article, expressly directed at motorcycle protests, but applies to everyone. Excerpt from the article: Firstly, the laws apply to any protest action, in which the protester prevents access to, or obstructs, or hinders a business in any way, even if the protest action is on public land, like a footpath or roadway. The definition of ‘business’ is incredibly broad. A protester is anyone who is engaging or participating in protest activity in furtherance of, or raising awareness of, an ‘opinion, or belief, in respect of a political, environmental, social, cultural or economic issue’. Obviously the list of beliefs and opinions of which you can peacefully protest has been severely curtailed. Why should motorcyclists care about this? Most rallies or protest rides organised by and attended by motorcyclists consist of a ride to a location where speeches and other protesty things take place. Under the proposed laws, if a convoy of motorcyclists, on their protest ride, hinder a taxi, delivery driver, truckie or some other such person lawfully going about their business activities, it will be an offence. Now the law requires that the protester must know their actions will prevent access to, hinder or obstruct. However if just fifty motorcyclists form a convoy through a city, it would be hard to argue they did not know their actions may hinder or obstruct other people going about their business activities. Even more so if the action has been labelled a ‘block the bridge’ type event. Understandably the taxi driver, delivery man or truckie might be annoyed and temporarily inconvenienced by your protest ride, but they do not have to suffer any economic loss for the laws to apply. And now comes the reality check. For a first offence, the police can give you an on-the-spot $2000 fine. They can also order that you do not return to the location within four days. If you do, it’s another fine. Or you can be arrested and charged and face court, in which case, the fine is a minimum of $5000. If found guilty, the conviction must be recorded. For a second offence, you will go to jail. There is no other option. The judge must sentence you to a minimum of three months in jail, with a maximum of two years. You may not be overly concerned at this point. You may be willing to cop a fine, even if it is grossly excessive, for the privilege of exercising your democratic right to peaceful protest. But if the taxi driver and truck driver both report you at the same time, that constitutes two offences. And you will go to jail. _________________________________________________ BikeMe is great for staying up to date with legislative changes which potentially effect us *all*- motorcyclists, and people whom for some strange reason don't ride motorcycles at all. The commentaries on the legislative changes are thorough, researched and IMO balanced.

The Victorian drug statistics handbook 2003: Patterns of drug use and related harm in Victoria http://www.health.vic.gov.au/drugservices/downloads/hbook_2003.pdf Not much use, messy and inconsistent stats - sometimes MDMA is included as a hallucinogen ( eg for health reporting purposes), sometimes not 2007 National Drug Strategy Household Survey http://www.aihw.gov.au/publications/phe/ndshs07-df/ndshs07-df.pdf Form of hallucinogens used, recent users aged 14 years or older - Datura/angel’s trumpet comes in at a staggering 4.7%, but they admit there isRESEARCH CHEMICAL DRUG USE a "Relative standard error greater than 50%." AUSTRALIAN DRUG TRENDS 2010 Findings from the Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDR http://ndarc.med.unsw.edu.au/NDARCWeb.nsf/resources/Conference1/$file/IDRS+&+EDRS+2010.pdf - Not a lot of people using tropanes, though why it was included under the heading of "RESEARCH CHEMICAL DRUG USE" is a mystery...(Thanks for this qualia )

Louisiana State law banning a number of plants, including such deadly varieties as Mugwort, Lions tail and Damiana: http://www.legis.state.la.us/billdata/streamdocument.asp?did=722309 and their law that banned Salvia Divinorum, plus datura, galangal (yes, that's right), Calea and many more. But don't feel left out, our glorious federal government is giving their own band of stupidity a red-hot go