Reefer Madness logic

There is a scene in the anti-marijuana propaganda film 'Reefer Madness' between a father and his son (a young adult) that goes a little something like this......

Son: I have friends that smoke marijuana and they're not criminals

Father: Only because they haven't been caught yet son.

Aargh. Dear God man are you serious? Only because they haven't been caught yet.....I'm not sure but I think he's holding a cigarette and a glass of whiskey when he says the line. Personally I have to give whoever the actor playing 'Dad' was credit for actually being able to deliver that line without rolling about on the floor laughing.

Silver bullets, drug reform, power and lies.

When the US drug Czar (what is that?) Gil K starts making sweeping statements about drug reform and legalization that include terminology like 'silver bullets' is time to put this all back into context.
Drug reform is not about mythological creatures or things we don't understand. Its quite simple really.

The US lead Prohibition "War on Drugs" is a war on drug users, farmers, poor people, minorities and women and children.

All this misinformation and half truths from men who take drugs themselves- just legal and government subsidised forms such as alcohol and tobacco is a disgrace.
Human nature and addiction is complex no doubt but prohibition only makes everything a whole lot worse.

There is a old native American Indian proverb that says:

 "You cannot wake up someone who is pretending to be asleep"

This is the problem .
The truth has been and is as we speak being distorted and people are being manipulated by powerful legal drug using men to maintain power and control. Legalize and regulate all drugs and drug markets. Educate the people. Power to the people.

Whose community is it anyway?

I just discovered our local community centre has installed black lights (the ones that makes your teeth glow white) in the bathrooms.  According to one of the staff members and I quote " It stops people from shooting up in here".
After much argy bargy between myself and this volunteer (I can only assume) about whether or not this actually detters anyone I then said....
'So where do they shoot up now then'?
She looked dumb founded.
'I dunno' she said 'but they don't do it here anymore'.
Boom and aint that the truth. ......
Translation:
We dont care, we dont think about it as long as they dont do it here.!!!!!
It gets worse!
They also have a sign on the wall, you know were the sharps disposal bin should be, saying:     If you need a sharps container please contact reception.
Really? So they want some poor bastard to wander down the hall with a used syringe and scare the bejesus out of the poor woman on reception.
Or perhaps they want you to just stand at the loo door and holler real loud
"Can I have the sharps bin please?"
Both option are so very discreet and show a huge level of respect for the privacy of the individual and a high degree of thoughfulness. NOT.

Honestly, the Onkaparinga council and the general 'community' need to reaccess this situation immediately.
It seems really logical and quite simple to me but then again I'm not running council. So for the members of parliament among us i'll dot point it.

• There are over 149.591 known injectors in Australia.
• They are human beings.

Human beings do not live in a bubble. Each and everyone of those people has a mum, dad, kids, partners, family members, friends, collegues etc. These are the very same people that attend the 'community centre' in the first place.

• Therefor, they are part of the community.

If so many people are enacting acts of civil disobedience then it reflects the true value of said community.
While the majority of people who inject drugs do so in the privacy of their own homes. People who have drugs but no home to go to will still want to shoot up somewhere private with clean running water.
In the absence of Medically Supervised Injecting Centres, public toilets are the next best option.

• Blood borne virus is a very real risk amongst people who inject and they are entitled to protect themselves and others by being able to access sharps containers.
•  Syringe litter happens when people do not have access to sharps bins or when police harass people accessing the Clean Needle Program CNP .

So ALL councils and gov buildings should have sharps disposal bins and ultimately MSIC.
All opposing arguements are old, outdated, inneffectual and some of them are even blatant lies.                Lies that are costing precious lives. For more info ...check out this harm reduction blog http://stonetreeaus.wordpress.com/

Alcohol is a drug - Stop the hypocricy

In its recent report on 'Stigma and Discrimination towards the injecting Drug User Community' AIVL found that not only did most people routinely discriminate against people who inject drugs but that they thought it was OK because they (falsely) believed that it would act as a deterrent. It doesn't and research has proved that discrimination only has negative implications.


As a human being who cares about the most vulnerable members of our society it concerns me greatly to read this report.
I wonder what it says about us as a 'community' if we deliberately discriminate against people.
People who use drugs are no different to any other human being.
We all love, hurt, hope, dream. We all want to belong, try to do our best, feel pain, when we are hurt.
All people take drugs only some of us are called drug users.