Drug paraphernalia sales outlawed in SA

[Torsten]

Drug paraphernalia sales outlawed in SA

The South Australia Parliament has passed legislation outlawing the sale of drug paraphernalia.

The legislation makes it an offence to sell items such as bongs, ice pipes, and hookahs.

People caught breaking the law face fines of up to $50,000 or two years in jail.

The Attorney-General, Michael Atkinson, says one shop in Hindley Street which sells drug equipment has already decided to close because of the ban.

The legislation was introduced by Independent MP Anne Bressington, who lost her daughter to a drug overdose.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04...?section=justin

[Auxin]

Fucking typical, some grieving parent cant face what happened and so blames her troubles on innocent people rather than admitting that her kid was the architect of her own death.

How can they ban hookas tho? Thats a traditional tobacco smoking device.

Over the last several years australia has been looking less and less appealing, y'all are loosing rights faster than a farmer in guantanamo bay! I need to scout for another tropical country to move to if I win the lotto.

[Vertmorpheus]

Especially given that most things people fatally OD on eg heroin, meth, alcohol, G, K, are things that you really don't "need" a particular artifact to get off on them, or die from them... and we're still handing out needle packs at exchange places nationwide? Ooooooo K Then... lets not get into the fact it was a heroin overdose that killed her daughter anyways... which would be unimaginably terrible thats for sure... but it would seem shes just got a dangerous hardon for "those druggies that took my daughter" I guess. Still, would seem more logical to hear her complaining about free needle exchange...though she does seem to be running a lovely rehab centre... I wonder if it turns a profit? Hafta put you in a dodgy spot, once that started happening... after all you want ppl off the drugs but you need em on the drugs to pay your bills and keep the beemer on the road in the first place, pay for the bling and the almost medicinal levels of makeup...could get dicey!

Most weapons grade drug fiends I've ever known have been very much in the "ice break bottle and garden hose" department anyway, and most thought pipes, hookahs etc were for poofs, women and arabs Never had much to do with crackheads, can't you smoke that shit thru just about anything made of conductive material anyway?

Bessington has popped out with a few weird things over time, but usually sticks with the "tough on drugs, law n order" routine beloved by pollies... fish in a barrel or what.

Paraphenalia sales will bother me more when they start campaigning against sale of hip flasks, yard glasses, beer can hats, OP rum, shot glasses, rum pig stickers, ban alcohol ads on telly, stop selling ciggies, bla bla... hypocritical arsewipes.

I'm thinking Easter Island... those big stoned guys are onto a good thing...dunno bout the weather but you can fix most of lifes problems with plastic sheeting and polypipe.

VM

[Auxin]

Fight the man. Refurbish an old metal lathe and make pipes and trinkets for barter. Its not as hard as it sounds.

[PD.]

If you try and cook a frog by placing it in boiling water, the frog gets a shock and hops out, but if you place the frog in cold water and slowly heat it the frog cant decide when the water is too hot and before he knows it he is cooked.

[Vertmorpheus]

... not only that, but if you get a big dead lizard and leave it on the road for a month or so over summer, it dries out and stays rigid so you can bore it out and use it as a crack pipe! Or rather, preload it with crack and force previously disinclined young people to smoke your lizard crack.

This frog decided the water was a bit dicey a while ago, and has now opted for the semi-nomadic lillypad approach. More flies, that way, and less with the being parboiled.

VM

[fractium]

Boo!

Interesting timing considering the story in the paper yesterday about the flood of pills entering Australia. It sure doesn't take much paraphernalia to swallow a pill.

All this law pretty much means is that people will just use whatever is at hand to smoke through, rather than equipment that wont add its own toxic effects.

Anne Bressington needs to realise that her daughter was almost certainly taking drugs to escape her overly meddlesome mother.

This is all just speculation, but if I had a mum who in the future would ban fun for everyone in SA, I would be dead now too.

[BlackDragon]

Drink up boys and girls, drink up.

Looks like moonshine will be the only acceptable drug here in SA soon.

I once thought we were like the Australian Mexico. Now im thinkin we are heading down the white path of the southern US states.

I would rather we jump the border back to where cacti are loved and spirituality isnt a crime against all fearing God.

Im really getting sick of this legal mind entrapment.

Its time people stopped blaming society and started accepting responsibility for themselves.

Bd

[The Dude]

If you try and cook a frog...

You don't crank the gas straight away. All these recent laws in other states about plants = drugs essentially meaning the govt. need to destroy a nice chunk if not most of our native flora (everythings got SOMETHING you can get high off) to avoid breaking its own laws... And now this shit here bout paraphernalia. The Kava scheduling... everything is getting fucked up.. and if she knows it or not... that silly politician has probably inadvertently created more crack and heroin users through the now harder to reach supply of bongs... heh like it matters. Plastic bottles and garden hoses.. a headfuck for the recycling industry, y'know what? Lets try to create as many problems as we can in creating new laws eh? aren't these people meant to be the super educated elite that we deem responsible and fit to run shit.. I mean sure they're assholes but do they even know what they're doing?

back to frog analogy, the water got a fuckload hotter pretty rapidly

[tassiejd]

From here

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0...659-911,00.html

Government's bong ban 'will harm cannabis smokers'

THE Rann Government's ban on bongs will not stop drug use and could have dangerous flow-on effects on the health of pot smokers, according to users and experts.

The State Government last night passed tough new laws so anyone selling cannabis bongs or drug implements will face fines of up to $50,000 or two years in jail.

The laws cover the sale of implements such as hookahs, bongs, cocaine kits and pipes used to smoke deadly crystal methamphetamine, otherwise known as ice.

One local drug expert, pharmacology associate professor Rodney Irvine, said users will seek other ways to inhale smoke and that could be more dangerous.

"When you close one loophole another one emerges, a different pattern of use emerges," he said

"They'll make them out of anything, obviously.

"I would say that there's a possibility those alternative homemade ones will have some problems."

Dr Irvine said smoking through a bong or water pipe was probably slightly less dangerous than using joints or pipes.

"Intuitively, I would say that smoking anything through a water pipe is a better option than smoking it in a joint or a spliff," he said.

"If you're smoking tobacco through a water pipe you've got cooler smoke. If there's cooler smoke, there are less volatile substances, therefore less tar."

Many cannabis smokers said they would simply make their own pipes from household goods.

SA Attorney-General Michael Atkinson said the legislation - introduced by independent MLC Ann Bressington - responded to the widespread public concern that paraphernalia intended for use with illicit drugs was freely available in South Australia.

"The Rann Labor Government has banned the bong,'' he said.

"Commercial outlets retailing drug paraphernalia in South Australia will now either have to shut up shop, as Smoke Signals at No. 34 Hindley Street has done, or find another line of business.''

Until now, courts had to establish, beyond reasonable doubt, that the person in possession of the equipment intended to use it in connection with preparing or consuming an illegal drug.

"To my knowledge just a handful of cases have been brought against commercial outlets selling drug paraphernalia because of the difficulty of proving that the seller intended the equipment be used in connection with preparing or consuming an illicit drug," Mr Atkinson said.

[Vertmorpheus]

Yeah time to get some bamboo I reckon.

Like to know how they make sure that noone is selling glasses or flasks that will end up being used illegally by underage drinkers, though.

Gotta love when law collides with style..you can legally only get corncob pipes in QLD I think, which would be cool if more people were Amish... not sure why you cant smoke dope thru one of those, or why you cant smoke tobacco thru a three inch brass piece either... but lets have faith big brother knows the way!

VM

edity bit... not to mention the readily available free junkie/speedfreak kits with needles n swabs n whatnot... I'm much happier that crackheads are being taken care of versus say harmless enough people that smoke only what their own pay packets can support...

Edited April 13, 2008 by Vertmorpheus

[Auxin]

No one has mentioned the up side. A whole new generation will have reason to become interested in arts and crafts. The 14 year old kids that will be teaching themselves to make bongs from bamboo and pipes from plumbing gear will likely end up being the future carpenters, sculpters, plumbers, tool & die workers, etc.

Not to mention they only banned sale, unregulated barter of home made goods will increase thus subtly increasing peoples measure of freedom by easing their reliance on the economic system.

[Vertmorpheus]

Might be onto something there... I certainly don't buy anything if I can borrow it or trade for it... but then youd have to take a close keen look to make sure it says "sale" rather than "supply" as even handing a mate a joint is "supply" around here, if they want to get technical. And how they lurve to get technical...

Soapstone makes a lovely pipe, if you take time to carve it, as do various combos of clay, bamboo, seashells, etc. Back in the day i could make a ute from anything, I think the prizewinner was a matchbox and some staples, closely followed by the gumnut-bowl-with-hollow-bullrush-for-stem job that was easily THE smoothest smoke I've ever had. I've seen people make em from bone, vegies (ask sina what rabbits eat...), sea urchin spines, even seen a nugget stuffed into the end of a natural clay pipe made by tree climbing termites, once... it crumbled after one use but hey, thats all it takes to get the morning going right kids.

Sounds like SA just became the Bushmans State, anyway. The local aluminium recycler just got a lil stinkier.

VM

[Yeti101]

"And now bills were passed, not only for national objects but for individual cases, and laws were most numerous when the commonwealth was most corrupt." Tacitus, Annals Book III, 27

[Jonny Deformed]

I've seen people smoke out of the ground. It involves two holes, one half bottle and pure intent.

Lets ban the ground....