apothecary Posted June 12, 2007 http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2...0-2862,00.html# THE GREENS' chief policy strategist in Victoria has admitted she helped organise a cannabis festival. Freja Leonard, chief of staff to Victorian Greens MP Greg Barber, used to be a coordinator at Mardi Grass, Nimbin's pot celebration. Mothers of overdose victims are calling for Ms Leonard to resign and say the revelation raises major questions over Mr Barber's judgment. The illegal festival features widespread drug-taking, nudity and the Hemp Cup - a judging section designed to find the best marijuana. Ms Leonard refused to say whether she had taken any illegal drugs during her stay in Nimbin. "The lifestyle choices I have made in the past are irrelevant. That is none of your business," she said. It has also emerged that Ms Leonard was a speaker at a rally outside a court in Lismore, NSW, calling for anti-drug laws to be scrapped. Her appearance was heralded in a 2001 issue of the online magazine Weed Witches. Jillian Parker, whose daughter Janelle died of a drug overdose at 15, said: "This woman should be dismissed. "Drugs ruin lives and those of the drug users' extended families, and cannabis is rightly illegal. "They must have known her background. It really raises questions about the Green Party." Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
naja naja Posted June 12, 2007 (edited) http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2...0-2862,00.html#"Drugs ruin lives and those of the drug users' extended families, and cannabis is rightly illegal. Fuck yeah, drugs ruin lives. U know, like those DRUGS that save millions of lives everyday and destroy the extended families. Or how cannabis could ease the suffering of sum1 undergoing chemo therapy, which in turn provides a better (wat little remains) life for the sufferer and eases their familes suffering in the process. Drugs r bad, M'kay Edited June 12, 2007 by naja naja Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vertmorpheus Posted June 13, 2007 Interesting... I can see both sides. On one hand, who cares? On the other hand, if any other pollie found to be involved in dodgy business (haha, just a few of em eh?) has their name and sins plastered across the papers, same should probably go for her. On the other hand again (yes, I have three arms) anyone that was going to vote greens still will , and anyone that wasn't, thinks they're a bunch of treehugger homo drug fiends anyway right? Is a bit of a silly thing to do if she planned on being in real politics later on... but then I'm sure most of the rightie tighties have been to their share of Aussie National Socialist meetings, Bircher Society, various anti-everything organisations... I hear that Jeanette Howard used to run some hardcore tupperware parties, and who can deny the link between tupperware and cannabis haha. Eh... bit silly however I look at it I reckon.. though I loved > "The lifestyle choices I have made in the past are irrelevant. That is none of your business," she said." ..... people can be so incredibly funny without even trying can't they? Especially stoners haha. take care, keep your noses clean, GD Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aya Posted June 13, 2007 (edited) Jillian Parker, whose daughter Janelle died of a drug overdose at 15, said: "This woman should be dismissed."Drugs ruin lives and those of the drug users' extended families, and cannabis is rightly illegal. "They must have known her background. It really raises questions about the Green Party." Once again i love how they lump all drugs together. Idiots. The whole story is about Freja Leonards past involvment with cannabis and then right at the end they put in the above nonsense about a drug overdose to imply that the drug the girl overdosed on was cannabis. Suggestive brainwashing is what it is. Not technically saying she died of a cannabis overdose, but implying, that she did. And the scary thing is that kind of subtle propaganda works, it works all to well. Politics is less about running a country, and more about trying to prove that the oppositions couldn't run it as good as you. Going by situations like these, the best politician would be one who from the moment they were born, lived in a confined sterile room and had no interaction with the outside world, had no life of there own and no life experiences except studying politics by corrispondence until they were 25. Then they would be unleashed in the world to be the new face of the liberals... Stop digging up shit from the past and focus on the present for gods sakes! This is about running a country, an environmentally aware, just and honest country! It really is just a beauty contest, that's how you win. Make sure your past is cleaner then the rest and your halfway there. And that's a sad and terrible fact. Edited June 13, 2007 by Ayahuascara Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vertmorpheus Posted June 13, 2007 (edited) I think it's fairly common for people that have suffered a fair bit from the nasty follow on affects of some drugs or their use to lump all of em together, can't really blame them I guess... buds wont make you a smackhead, but I've rarely met a junkie that didn't have lungs like an oil tanker. I think the mother-of-dead-girl thing is more about community concerns that if one pollie can decide to blatantly oppose (in a hands on way) the law as it relates to one drug, then it opens up more for people to start making claims that "meth is good for narcoleptics so it must be medicinal" or "heroin, great for the tummy runs" etc. No sensible parent want their kids to be chronic users of anything but a toothbrush... and whilst some out there can happily have a toke a day or a toke a week and it causes no major drama's, I know about a fifth of the 300 people I went thru highschool with were basically draino-ing our souls away before they had even started to harden off to to speak...sitting in bedrooms and creeklines smashing our minds open on that bullshit old style hydro, back when it was more about the hit rather than the odour or density haha... sittin there crapping on the buzzwords we heard from "more informed" users and promoters ... how it's great for glaucoma and paper, man, like wow.. doesn't relate much thogh to the fact that we'd end up drooling useless laughing shits for 6 outta 7 days a week at age 15. I'd rather pollies talked about drug law reform and application in their work hours, and maybe left the silly papier mache spliff action to the hairier fairies. nasty strains, bikies, vietnamese triads, glass particles, mould, having to get on from ppl that also shift speed, pills, whatever.. it's no longer the simple fun herbage it seems it used to be, and maybe shouldn't be promoted as such, though of course any moves to make its use safer for responsible users is a good thing. You cannot smoke yourself to death, many have tried, but you can smoke yourself into a life that might as well be death, but with a lot more daytime TV. Any legislator looks at the kind of carryon and dropkicks you get in by the tonne to mardigrass and feels even more justified in their stance, I'd say. It's the quiet mostly wholesome smokers that should speak up more, people without flouro green hair wraps with tiny hash pipes at the ends... Don't get me wrong, lovely stuff... but it can be and is sometimes harmful,and all a bit tangled up with nasty, harmful bullshit these days. Even the nice spicy bush bud when it used to rear its stinky head once in a while, onceuponatime.. got me thinking about just how much excess chem and high phos foods were buggering up isolated bushy enclaves, state forests, local waterways in remote areas.. all of which SHOULD be discussed in an adult way... running around screaming "make bongs not bombs" whilst waving your tits at bored looking police, might not be the most adult way. (cept in that screening after 9pm way haha). She might be a very good pollie, and person, but sounds a little naive. Bit of freshness never hurts though I guess. ah, todays news is tomorrows mulch... or divvying up surface GD "marijuana a healing herb!" says mentally ill unemployed deeply indebted socially inept man with poor personal hygiene! - from the late shift or somesuch attempt at comedy programming. Edited June 13, 2007 by greendreams Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aya Posted June 13, 2007 I think it's fairly common for people that have suffered a fair bit from the nasty follow on affects of some drugs or their use to lump all of em together, can't really blame them I guess... I think it's fairly common too, and it's true, you cant really blame them for lumping them all together because the majority are uninformed. But even still, you might not be able to blame them for there anger driven views, but it doesn't make there views right. It would be like someone being killed by a christian or a muslim and then hating and blaming all muslims and christians in return. But the bigger issue isn't that they still push the view that "Cannabis is bad" and so on, that's just a smoke screen to keep people occupied while the bigger implications and agendas are hidden. The bigger issue is the spreading of propaganda to fuel an agenda. The bigger issue is the attack on personal freedoms. The bigger issue is the spreading of misinformation. I dont believe in the abuse of any drug, and i dont believe that all plants/drugs are good for us. But i do believe in giving the proper information so people can make there own, informed decision. And they wonder why people are overdosing and abusing substances, yes, some people are addicted to drugs and knew the possibilities when they began, but most dont know anything about any drug except what the guy on the playground said. If they want people to treat drugs intelligently, then the government is going to have to treat people intelligently when it comes to drugs, and by putting that quote in from the angry mother, doesn't show that they respect or treat us as adults, as intelligent people. And when it comes to the legality of cannabis, my interest isn't so that everyone can get high everyday and smoke themselves stupid, but more the implications it will have on the environment. Instead of tearing down other plants and trees for materials, it's been shown and proven over and over again that cannabis is easier to grow then other species, it's less draining on the environment, it's much more versatile in what it can be used for, it's much more beneficial to soils and to the removal of co2 and other emissions, plus many more benefits... Plus all the good it can do with cancer patients and chronically ill people. I do understand what your saying greendreams, and for the most part i agree. I just think if we want intelligent, informed decisions when it comes to drugs, we need to educate and inform people with the facts and findings, and at the moment, that's not happening. When you have one extreme such as goverments saying drugs are bad and evil and so on, your going to have the opposite extreme defending it, such as the people at mardi grass that you mentioned. But as with most things in life what we need is a balance, respect for plants combined with the knowledge that we have found through science and the knowledge that has been brought down through the milenia. Education is the key, not the supressing of it. Love & Light Aya Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
