Watch this space

[Strontium Dawg]

Bro, if we can each get a slice of the pie I'm a happy man. Pie for everyone in fact!

[-RC-]

Might have to bake a pie or two for Chrissy if this type of shit keeps up:

 

https://smallcaps.com.au/greens-party-richard-di-natale-floats-cannabis-policy/

 

Speaking as one of the leading figures at this year’s ‘420’ event, alongside the event’s organisers Jason Foster and Matt Riley from Free Cannabis Victoria, a fledgling political party to help people overcome the prejudice, discrimination, persecution, and oppression of prohibition.

Speaking in unison with the event’s organisers, Dr Di Natale reaffirmed his party’s determination to see cannabis legalised — with various caveats attached.

 

*btw if you are in VIC and cannabis reform is your thing get in touch with Matt Riley. Top bloke and staunch as fuck.

Edited April 25, 2018 by Responsible Choice

[Yeti101]

@Glaukus Yeah, I thought no one was paying attention to that inquiry, or anything many of us have written since. I've been starting to suspect I was very wrong about that. Even before the Greens announcement, and the Victorian Drug Law reform report, I had good reason to think that some people in the MSM are very interested in the kind of angle we're keen on here. 

[Yeti101]

@Responsible Choice I should catch up with Matt, I was talking to him before I moved down here - and yes, he is staunch as fuck.

[Strontium Dawg]

2 hours ago, Yeti101 said:

@Glaukus Yeah, I thought no one was paying attention to that inquiry, or anything many of us have written since. I've been starting to suspect I was very wrong about that. Even before the Greens announcement, and the Victorian Drug Law reform report, I had good reason to think that some people in the MSM are very interested in the kind of angle we're keen on here. 

I think the greens are smart enough to see that it's happening under the party most people thought least likely to allow it, and they are rushing to stay in the race.

[-RC-]

2 hours ago, Yeti101 said:

@Responsible Choice I should catch up with Matt, I was talking to him before I moved down here - and yes, he is staunch as fuck.

 

Please give him my regards. 

[Yeti101]

FYI: Alex Wodak will be on Channel 10  (Studio 10) tomorrow morning talking sense about the actual risks of weed. 

[Yeti101]

Quote

 

Cannabis company Canopy Growth Corporation to set up Asia-Pacific HQ in Victoria

 

 

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-26/victoria-set-to-become-medicinal-cannabis-capital/9696330

[-RC-]

I reckon this type of shit is actually problematic, in that it's a bit of "Well, now we've proven it, you can use it for this purpose, and when we've proven it for that purpose, then you can use it..."

 

Cannabis helps you sleep? NO FUCKING SHIT! Mankind has known this for ever, but thanks OZ for chucking heaps of cash at research to prove it. Who knows, it may even improve appetite in some patients...  Next research question for study = found.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/cannabis-may-help-insomniacs-sleep/news-story/43a6cebca6823039b3c724e96c706761

[freakazoid]

maybe the pollies want the media release to start with "....a study has found...."

having it prescribed for "people who can't sleep" would be one more (big ol') floodgate in a series ( like a three tiered shit dyke, Ricky ) with the pollies bighting their nails and shitting their pants wondering when will be the right time to start calling out "....the dam is bursting, taxed weed for everyone....". fun times, eh? so much fun

[-RC-]

 

[stonewolf]

https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Petitions/House_of_Representatives_Petitions/Petitions_General/Petitions_List?id=EN0596

 

Petition on Parliament house website.  It's worth a lot more than one on change.org for example.

 

Worth signing and sharing

[Yeti101]

Interesting petition. I do wish whoever wrote it had consulted a little before putting it up - the wording of the plebiscite they are requesting could have been better. This isn't supposed to be unduly critical, but if we were to get anywhere near a plebiscite, you KNOW that politicians would try to undermine it by putting up a question that would split the pro-reform forces. E.g.: mentioning only sativa and not indica, mentioning the 'herb' and not edibles or other derivative products. 

 

Of course, as a strategic move that is designed to split those who think that legalisation can only ever happen via a Colorado-style market solution, it might be worthwhile. 

[waterboy 2.0]

There's an art to petitions

[-RC-]

Just in case you didn't know, because there's been fuck all coverage that I've seen:

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-20/canada-approves-recreational-marijuana-use/9890440

 

Canada has become the second country in the world to legalise recreational marijuana, although locals will have to wait at least a couple of months before they can legally buy it. 

 

 

[Black Rainbow]

I was in Vancouver last month. The best Cannabis environment I've ever encountered, it put Amsterdam to shame.

[-RC-]

More of this I say from Australian senators:

 

https://www.afr.com/opinion/columnists/toss-aside-puritanism-and-legalise-marijuana-20180621-h11nw0

 

Last month I introduced into the Senate a bill to repeal all Commonwealth laws restricting cannabis use, transport and production. If passed, it would leave marijuana regulation entirely to the states. I also succeeded in convincing the Senate to hold an inquiry into my bill and the complex issues it raises. This will occur over coming months.

If the government can get over the pearl-clutching and puritanism that characterises drug debate in Australia, the days of slavishly following the agenda of Harry Anslinger will be numbered.

[-RC-]

Hmmm, smells like a new financial year:

 

http://theconversation.com/most-australians-support-decriminalising-cannabis-but-our-laws-lag-behind-99285

 

Australians have a more progressive stance to cannabis reform than current laws reflect.

A poll conducted by the Greens this week found that the majority of Tasmanians support the decriminalisation of recreational use of cannabis in the state.

This is in line with the findings of the latest 2016 National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSH Survey) showing Australians largely support the decriminalisation of cannabis and the use of medicinal cannabis, and a growing number support full legislation of cannabis.

 

It's good and that, but since when did laws reflect public opinion? I'm just glad that now we are being told that we support legalisation now, instead of being told it's poison. What will they tell us next? 

[TheMooseZeus]

3 hours ago, Responsible Choice said:

Hmmm, smells like a new financial year:

 

http://theconversation.com/most-australians-support-decriminalising-cannabis-but-our-laws-lag-behind-99285

 

Australians have a more progressive stance to cannabis reform than current laws reflect.

A poll conducted by the Greens this week found that the majority of Tasmanians support the decriminalisation of recreational use of cannabis in the state.

This is in line with the findings of the latest 2016 National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSH Survey) showing Australians largely support the decriminalisation of cannabis and the use of medicinal cannabis, and a growing number support full legislation of cannabis.

 

It's good and that, but since when did laws reflect public opinion? I'm just glad that now we are being told that we support legalisation now, instead of being told it's poison. What will they tell us next? 

Its a profound statement knowing that laws don't reflect political opinions. I look forward to seeing that change. We know or at least we are led to believe the answer of your average aussie on the street in regards to pot legalisation or decriminalisation but if that isn't the case we need to communicate with more than our political "leaders" the conversation is between us!

[etherealdrifter]

 

Vietnamese cannabis grow house syndicates exploiting Australian immigration system, according to agent

By Nino Bucci, ABC Investigations

Updated Tue at 11:45amTue 3 Jul 2018, 11:45am

Photo: Migration agent Jack Ta says some Vietnamese crop-sitters enter Australia under false pretences. (ABC News: Michael Barnett)

Related Story: Police struggle to stop vast cannabis grow house syndicates

Vietnamese students and tourists are travelling to Australia to earn thousands of dollars minding cannabis crops, exposing troubling loopholes in the visa system, according to a migration agent.

Jack Ta said his migration firm, which has offices in Australia and Vietnam, has represented as many as 300 crop-sitters who have been caught during police raids on cannabis grow houses.

An ABC investigation has found that cannabis grow houses in Australia are far more common than police had suspected, with Vietnamese organised crime syndicates at the centre of the multi-billion-dollar enterprise.

The syndicate model has three tiers, with heads of the syndicates insulated from those at the bottom — the crop-sitter.

Mr Ta believes young men and women from Vietnam have been travelling to Australia to crop-sit on student and tourist visas for much of the past decade — a suspicion shared by senior police.

Photo: Most grow house syndicates operate in a three-tier structure. (ABC News)

 

Most crop-sitters who are caught in Australia insist they were lured into the job after arriving in the country, but Mr Ta said many travel to Australia on fraudulent visas hoping to make a fortune.

"A lot of these young students came to Australia for the sole purpose of sitting in crop houses," Mr Ta said.

"They get blinded by the amount of money offered to them, at times $20,000 to 30,000.

"With kids at that age, it's a lot of money."

Mr Ta said he had urged the Australian Government to only accept visa applications from registered migration agents, but had been ignored.

According to a UK anti-slavery commissioner report, the Vietnamese Government has an ownership stake in the majority of migration brokers in Vietnam.

Mr Ta said between the Australian Government's reliance on international student revenue and the huge windfall of $2 billion generated annually from visa application fees, there was little impetus for change.

Inside the grow house

Step inside Australia's vast network of suburban cannabis grow houses.

 

This allowed for dodgy brokers in Vietnam to produce fraudulent applications en masse, he said, using falsified financial records and even identities to secure student or tourist visas.

A Department of Immigration insider told the ABC such widespread fraud may never be uncovered, as there were no checks done on a person's original visa application after they had been deported.

It means the integrity of the original visas granted to dozens of crop-sitters who have been convicted and then deported had not been questioned, the insider confirmed.

He also said there was no central database kept on the crimes a non-citizen had committed which led to their deportation, making it impossible to quantify how many Vietnamese crop-sitters had been caught.

The Department of Home Affairs deported 380 Vietnamese nationals in 2016-17.

Two crop-sitters who travelled on student visas, before being deported back to Hai Phong in northern Vietnam, told the ABC they were only lured into the work after they arrived in Australia.

Media player: "Space" to play, "M" to mute, "left" and "right" to seek.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

00:0000:1700:00

 

 

 

 

 

00:17

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video: Police raid a cannabis grow house in a south Sydney suburb. (ABC News)

 

Both young men made several thousand dollars from their work, but were caught in grow houses in Melbourne and then deported.

Like most crop-sitters, the men pleaded guilty, avoiding a more detailed police investigation into their student or migration histories.

One of the men, Pham Minh Duc, had his student visa expired within two weeks of arriving, but told police after his arrest that he and a fellow crop-sitter — also from Hai Phong — had only met while attending English language classes at Baxter Institute.

In a separate case that also raises questions about the recruitment of crop-sitters in Vietnam, a young man who had only been in Australia on a student visa for three months was found to have control over 370 plants across two houses in Melbourne's outer south-east.

NSW Police Detective Inspector Gus Viera, who heads a strike force that has raided more than 570 grow houses and about $205 million worth of cannabis since 2011, said he had no doubt many of the people his officers had arrested travelled to Australia to crop-sit.

"They're crop-sitters that have been bought into Australia as students and probably under false pretences, because they're not studying anything," he said.

"They're basically just being kept as crop-sitters."

The Department of Home Affairs estimates there are 2,340 Vietnamese unlawful non-citizens — the term given to those who have overstayed visas — currently in Australia.

In a statement to the ABC, a spokesperson for the Department said they were aware some people entered Australia to commit crime, but that those who were in Australia illegally were vulnerable to exploitation.

"Criminal networks are known to deliberately target and exploit non-citizens living in Australia to facilitate their criminal enterprises," the statement said.

"The Australian Border Force regularly undertakes enforcement and disruption activity, often in collaboration with state, territory and federal law enforcement partners, to locate the criminals responsible for exploiting foreign workers, and to identify those engaged in organised visa fraud."

Topics: drug-offences, law-crime-and-justice, drug-use, crime, drugs-and-substance-abuse, immigration, australia, vietnam

First posted Tue at 5:04amTue 3 Jul 2018

[DiscoStu]

damn immigrants stealing our jobs again 

[-RC-]

All around the world yo!

 

https://hightimes.com/news/israel-moving-decriminalize-marijuana-use-week/

 

The Israeli Knesset, the country’s legislative body, is moving to decriminalize marijuana with a vote set for this week. If the new law passes, it would replace jail time for most of those guilty of cannabis possession with civil fines. The Labor, Welfare and Health Committee approved the bill Monday and has advanced it to the full Knesset for consideration. The final vote on the measure is expected as soon as Tuesday.

 

 

 

[Insequent]

On 7/10/2018 at 7:30 AM, Responsible Choice said:

The Israeli Knesset, the country’s legislative body, is moving to decriminalize marijuana with a vote set for this week. If the new law passes, it would replace jail time for most of those guilty of cannabis possession with civil fines. The Labor, Welfare and Health Committee approved the bill Monday and has advanced it to the full Knesset for consideration. The final vote on the measure is expected as soon as Tuesday.

 

 

Mmmm.... A tiny half step in the right, general direction.. sort of. I don't think the powers-that-be need lessons in using a compass; they need to use a compass which accurately tells them which way to go. 

[Insequent]

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05659-z

 

I can't help the impression this is a good news story for the industrial medical/pharma complex very loosely wrapped in the guise of a good news story for those suffering who would potentially benefit from Cannabis. 

 

---Lessening restrictions on the study of CBD would also be good news for biotech startups that have been producing cannabinoids through genetic engineering. These products could be purer and more affordable than those obtained through older methods of extraction from marijuana plants or chemical synthesis.

“It’s a biochemical gold rush right now”, says Oliver Kayser, a bioengineer at the Technical University of Dortmund in Germany.---

 

---Another Canadian company, InMed Pharmaceuticals in Vancouver, is refining the production of rare cannabinoids in the bacterium Escherichia coli. Extracting useful amounts of these potentially beneficial compounds from plants is unrealistic because they occur at very low levels, says Samuel Banister, a chemist at the University of Sydney in Australia. “For minor cannabinoids,” he says, “there is a huge need for synthetic biology.”---

 

The inference here is the plant as a medicine is only going to be effective by genetic modification and isolating certain cannabinoids for targeted use (perhaps I'm wrong). Whilst this possibly offers (and has clearly demonstrated) great promise for treating the likes of epilepsy, for example, it flies in the face of what we know of cannabis as a "whole plant" medicine. The synergistic relationship between the more than 110 known cannabinoids and over 400 terpenes enables the plant to interact holistically with the body's endocannabinoid, immune and endocrine systems and offers clues as to why cannabis has shown success (albeit inconsistent success) treating such a wide range of maladies. In other words, it's not that certain cannabinoids exclusively and only "target treat" certain health issues, but the whole plant appears to have an overall positive holistic effect on the entire immune system, suggesting a positive systemic effect on overall health of the body enabling it to better deal with (certain) health issues. 

It may well be there will be an invaluable use for synthetic as well as whole plant cannabinoid medicine, but for the scientific medicine and the powers that be to abrogate what nature has perfected over the last 20 million years by claiming it can produce something "more pure and more affordable" while at the same time denying free access to the whole plant, to me at least, is counterintuitive and has the stink of capitalistic monopoly. In this light, it is not the minor cannabinoids which have the huge need for synthetic biology, it is the synthetic biology and pharmaceutical industry for whom the huge need exists. Minor cannabinoids appear to be do just fine until they are isolated from their brethren.   

To be fair to the article, it is clearly about the need to allow research into the medicinal benefits of cannabis and removing the legal barriers which have denied research and industry access to the plant. No one can argue removing the barriers will be a great benefit to industry, but will this and, more importantly, the subsequent end cost of any medicine produced, equate to a greater benefit to humanity than the benefit of using the plant in it's natural form?

The underlying message in the piece to me, is the benefits of cannabis can only be made available and can only be effective via biomedical intervention improving on nature. While the author makes it clear the changing of laws presents a potential windfall for industry and leaves it to the reader to infer the flow-on of this potential to patients, the patient is not mentioned at all. The benefit to humanity, in my opinion the crux of any debate over any potential for and safety of cannabis, should not be omitted from any discourse. 

My bias against government regulation/legislation and the industrial medical/pharma complex arises from being unapologetically opposed to those seeking to turn a profit from others' suffering.

 

 

 

[-RC-]

As WuTang rightly noted "Cash Rules Everything Around Me, CREAM! Get the money, dollar, dollar bills y'all..." 

 

This shit is irresistible to the the modern day prostitician:

 

https://hightimes.com/news/nevadas-marijuana-tax-revenue-expected-to-reach-70-million-this-year/

 

When Nevada voters legalized cannabis for adult use in 2016, they did so not just with an eye toward the social and civic gains of legal weed, but also toward generating revenue through state taxes. Prior to the legalization vote, advocates made the case that a regulated cannabis industry would generate millions of dollars in tax revenue for Nevada schools. Now, just over a year into legal retail sales, Nevada is expected to close out the year with $70 million in tax revenue from weed.