Kava ban leads to crime rise

[Agamemnon]

prohibition = disaster! please vote this evil Federal government out!

From the Northern Territory newspaper :

Kava ban leads to crime rise

TARA RAVENS

25Aug07

CRIME, gambling and a black market trade in alcohol and marijuana are on the rise following the Federal Government's ban on the intoxicating drink kava, remote Northern Territory councils say.

First introduced to communities in the 1980s, kava was outlawed as part of the Government's intervention to combat child sexual abuse.

With supplies now drying up, Yirrkala Community Council co-ordinator Adrian Rota said crime had increased in the dry Arnhem Land community.

"The last three weeks we've had little sleep," Mr Rota said.

"People who have drunk kava in the past are drinking alcohol, and it's having a very different affect on them.

"There are also people sniffing petrol. It has just gone silly and the weekends are the worst."

Mr Rota said the community, which ran out of drink three weeks ago, had had increased call-outs to police, who were unable to cope.

We've had a good deal more problems with alcohol-related incidents. It should have been co-ordinated better," he said.

"It's no good saying you're gearing up for it. Gearing up? What's that when the problem is right now."

Susannah Kuzio, chief executive of the alcohol-free Ramingining Community Council in Arnhem Land, said kava users - who commonly experience euphoria and a sense of well-being that makes them placid and lazy - were finding alternatives for their money and time.

"The thing we have really noticed more of is gambling," she said.

"They used to sit around and drink kava and now they are playing cards."

Ms Kuzio said she "would choose kava any day" over alcohol or pot.

"I have never seen spirits (bottles of whisky) in this community in the last 12 months," she said.

"I have seen people drinking that I have never seen drink. Kava would be their first choice but now they are finding strong alcohol."

NT Licensing Minister Chris Burns said the Government had taken steps to restrict the flow of alcohol and drugs into remote regions, but Aboriginal communities had to be vigilant as well.

"We have stepped forward in a major way and we are looking forward to communities doing likewise."

[Torsten]

surprise surprise

I thought Howard was a history boffin. Or was that just as far as Winston Churchill was concerned? Surely he must have come across the results of prohibition in history and would have known exactly what the outcome of this is.

[dqd]

Bastard's too busy getting stewed with the big business boys ... Gunns' can destroy a forest quick-smart, can't anyone fell this little fucker?!

[Kenny Blister]

From www.crikey.com.au

$1.8 million compo: that's Yirrkala kava karma

Darwin insider Henri Ivrey writes:

The Yolngu people of Yirrkala, the largest Aboriginal town in north east Arnhem Land, have always had an ambivalent experience with missionaries. On the one hand it could be argued that the Methodists were best of a bad lot in that they didn’t ride rough shod over local languages and the general thrust of cultural practices. They have been generally supportive of land rights, and the revanchist Yolngu political leadership of the 1960s.

Then again, it was the missionaries—or at least a bunch of lay workers from the south Pacific—that brought in kava.

Kava, used in ceremonial practices in places like Fiji was introduced in the mid 1980s as the silver bullet to counter the threat to community life posed by grog, not to mention the growing use of pot.

And it sort of worked. The soporific effects of kava have been a lot less damaging than dope or alcohol—though the jury is still out on the down side health effects of what has become the recreational drug of choice for hundreds of people stretching west to Ramingining along the "kava coast" of Arnhem Land.

But, since the regulation of the market through a licensing system, the real addiction to kava is being experienced by the organisations licensed to sell the stuff. Sales of the drug have reaped millions of dollars to cash-starved community organisations along the kava coast in ways not dissimilar to the addiction state governments have to gambling revenue.

But the Brough Intervention has imposed cold turkey on kava drinkers, and its licensed sellers. All further imports of kava, other than for religious purposes by south sea islanders, were banned on 25 June—and stocks have run out.

Now, one of the biggest sellers—the Laynhapuy Homelands Association—has put in a claim for compensation, presumably on the "just terms" principle of the Australian constitution which dictates compensation for the removal of property rights. The compensation bill, sent in by Laynhapuy chairman, Barayuwa Mununggurr, comes in at around $1.8 million, and encompasses:

Losses to the Association arising from recent investment and contractual liabilities directly related to the operation of the kava wholesaling business.

Loss of trading income to the Association that was to be utilized for the completion of community projects that were committed and planned for prior to the Australian Government’s ban.

Loss of income to our … homelands that operated as outlets under the Laynhapuy Kava Retail license.

The claim includes substantial community infrastructure projects and assistance to groups such as the night patrols in Yirrkala and Nhulunbuy, as well as a co-contribution to the construction of a women’s centre being sponsored by a Sydney branch of Rotary.

Whether a licence to sell kava is a right in property or not, the claim has been dismissed outright by federal Health Minister Tony Abbott.

Perhaps he should have spoken to his cabinet colleague, Senator George Brandis. He was in Yirrkala in early August. Cold fish that he is, even Brandis was enthusiastic in his praise for the new Bukkuy-Larrngay Mulka Multimedia centre he helped open. Around half the construction costs—$300,000—came from kava profits.

Or perhaps his mate Malcolm Turnbull: the federal environment department had a deal to co-fund a ranger station under their jointly signed Indigenous Protected Area program.

[Auntyjack]

Kava ban leads to crime rise...

Well after all there is ONE more good reason for drug dealers to up there now isn't there...so that would leave the winnie blues and asprin left, they should be drafting a bill up for these two very soon!

AJ

[Jesus On Peyote]

i saw this earlier today on abc,i think the people that sold the kava was a community thingy ( cant think of the name) but the cash that was spent on it was also kept in the local area. its weird, like they live under different laws there..

[shruman]

Thanks for that KB!

Answers some Q's I've had for a while.