Bob Carr

ILLICIT drug users in NSW won't be sorry to see the back of Bob Carr. This is the man that escalated the domestic war on drugs with the introduction of the "drug house" legislation, sniffer-dogs on the streets of Sydney and the militarisation of the NSW police.

Hopefully the next premier will be someone who realises that their drug war does more harm than it is supposed to prevent; or maybe that's just collateral damage.

Gary Meyerhoff
Rapid Creek, NT

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Fri, 29 July 2005
Source: Australian, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2005 The Australian
Email: letters@theaustralian.com.au
Website: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/35
Author: Gary Meyerhoff

Prisons and Prohibition

The prisons are full, and the NT Labor Government is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars jailing ten people involved with the Network Against Prohibition (NAP).

If prison numbers are increasing rapidly, could it be for their position on drugs in our society?

Sensible drug laws will stop prison overcrowding. The current policies are unable to stop drug misuse and the associated crime in our communities.

Prohibition needs to be debated openly by our politicians. Its repeal would reduce the prison population and help facilitate positive change in our communities.

People involved with NAP are being punished for how they think. NAP's 'crimes' were non-violent direct action protests. Just like the '70s.

If people can be jailed for thought crimes, how many prisons need to be built.

Scott White
Stuart Park
Network Against Prohibition (NAP)

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/pages/scottwhite1.html
Pubdate: Mon, 25 July 2005
Source: Delirra (Australia)
Author: Scott White
Contact: delirra@su.cdu.edu.au
Website: http://marx.su.cdu.edu.au/delirra/

Emptying our prisons

Dear Editor

THE prisons are full, and the NT Labor Government is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars jailing 10 people involved with NAP.

If prison numbers are increasing rapidly, could it be for their position on drugs in our society?

Sensible drug laws will stop prison overcrowding. The current policies are unable to stop drug misuse and the associated crime in our communities.

Prohibition needs to be debated openly by our politicians. Its repeal would reduce the prison population and help facilitate positive change in our communities.

People involved with NAP are being punished for how they think? NAPs "crimes” were non-violent direct-action protests. Just like the '70s. If people can be jailed for thought crimes, how many prisons need to be built?

Scott White
Stuart Park
Network Against Prohibition (NAP)

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Fri, 22 July 2005
Source: Territory Times (Australia)
Author: Scott White
Copyright: 2005 Territory Times
Contact: territorytimes@iprimus.com.au

'If you do drugs you die': Tens of thousands of Australians beg to differ

I am writing regarding the Australian Federal Government anti-drug advertisements on television.

The truth about drugs – according to the $6 million War on Drugs campaign – is 'If you do drugs, you die'.

The reality is that there are tens of thousands of Australians from all walks of life who use drugs and do not die.

They take drugs and they have a good time.

The bad stuff doesn't happen to everyone and once you've used drugs once and suffered nothing but fun, the scare tactics aren't very scary anymore.

The only people they scare are people who have had nothing to do with drugs.

Gary Meyerhoff,
Rapid Creek,
Darwin,
Northern Territory
Australia

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Wednesday, 20 July 2005
Source: The Southeast Asian Times
Author: Gary Meyerhoff
Website: http://www.southeastasiantimes.com/
Email: southeastasiantimes@bigpond.com

Prisons are no answer

THE prisons are full, and the NT Labor Government is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars jailing 10 people involved with the Network Against Prohibition (NAP).

If prison numbers are increasing rapidly, could it be for their position on drugs in our society?

Sensible drug laws will stop prison overcrowding. The current policies are unable to stop drug misuse and associated crime.

Prohibition needs to be debated openly by our politicians. Its repeal would reduce the prison population and help facilitate positive change in our communities.

NAPs "crimes" were non-violent direct-action protests. Just like the '70s. If people can be jailed for thought crimes, how many prisons need to be built.

Scott White
Stuart Park

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Fri, 15 July 2005
Source: Northern Territory News (Australia)
Author: Scott White
Copyright: 2005 Northern Territory News
Contact: ntnmail@ntn.newsltd.com.au
Website: http://ntnews.news.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/283

Release drug offenders

The NT Police Association has hit out at plans to lock up prisoners at the Darwin watch house (Northern Territory News, July 12).

A prison source told the newspaper about the problem over a month ago (Prisons overcrowded, June 4).

The NT has the dubious distinction of having an imprisonment rate almost as high as the US.

In fact, the NT imprisonment rate (more than 500 per 100,000) is five times higher than Qatar, Algeria and Burma.

This problem could easily be resolved if Clare Martin's Labor Government ordered the immediate release of all non-violent drug offenders from Territory jails.

Gary Meyerhoff
Rapid Creek

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Thur, 14 July 2005
Source: Northern Territory News (Australia)
Author: Gary Meyerhoff
Copyright: 2005 Northern Territory News
Contact: ntnmail@ntn.newsltd.com.au
Website: http://ntnews.news.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/283

Choice of drugs

Dear Editor

The AFL is a beacon of common sense in a world gone drug crazy. They have defied the World Anti-doping Agency and the Liberal government bribe of a million dollars, with a humane response to personal and recreational drug use.

If it were just about cleaning up the games image, alcohol and tobacco would have been targeted as well. Instead this 'World' body and the Liberal Government are intent on invading peoples personal life and trying to moralise peoples right to choose what drug they want to use.

If the drug is not performance enhancing, and used sensibly, then people should be left alone, regardless of their position in society.

Scott White
Stuart Park
Network Against Prohibition (NAP)

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/lte.html
Pubdate: Fri, 08 July 2005
Source: Territory Times (Australia)
Author: Scott White
Address: PO Box 120, Humpty Doo NT 0836, Australia
Email: territorytimes@iprimus.com.au
Copyright: 2005 Territory Times

Butter the drug

It is obvious members of the NT judiciary need to be educated with regards to the provisions of the Misuse of Drugs Act.

I am referring to “Butter is better” (Northern Territory News, NT and Beyond, July 2).

A person facing a charge of possessing 50g of cannabis butter had that charge dropped after a confusing exchange between Magistrate John Lowndes and the prosecutor.

Mr Lowndes said he did not know how one could quantify the amount of cannabis in the butter.

This is quite odd as the law clearly states that there is no need for a judge or magistrate to quantify the amount of cannabis in the butter. According to the law, it was 50g of cannabis.

Labor’s “Tough on Drugs” package, implemented in 2002, amended the Misuse of Drugs Act to ensure the total weight of a mixture of substances which contains an illicit drug is taken to be the weight of the drug.

For example 0.5gm of amphetamines mixed with 0.5gm of glucose equals 1gm amphetamines. Cannabis butter is no different.

Section 3 of the Misuse of Drugs Act is clear: “a preparation or mixture of that dangerous drug (which may include a substance that is not a dangerous drug) that contains any proportion of that dangerous drug”.

Supreme Court Justice Dean Mildren has questioned these provisions. In October last year, he refused to accept a man's guilty plea to having a commercial quantity of amphetamines because the amount was not "pure".

He said: “I would be astounded if Parliament meant you could mix 1 per cent of a dangerous drug with flour and even if it was 99 per cent harmless the whole amount was to be taken into account” (Drugs in the mix, NT News, October 24, 2004).

That is exactly what Parliament meant.

Gary Meyerhoff
Rapid Creek

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Tue, 05 July 2005
Source: Northern Territory News (Australia)
Author: Gary Meyerhoff
Copyright: 2005 Northern Territory News
Contact: ntnmail@ntn.newsltd.com.au
Website: http://ntnews.news.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/283

Keep out of athletes' lives

The AFL is a beacon of common sense in a world gone drug crazy.

They have defied the World Anti-doping Agency and the Liberal government payment of a million dollars, with a humane response to personal and recreational drug use.

If it were just about cleaning up the game's image, alcohol and tobacco would have been targeted as well.

Instead this "world" body and the Liberal Government are intent on invading people's personal life and trying to moralise people's right to choose what drug they want to use.

If the drug is not performance enhancing, and used sensibly, then people should be left alone, regardless of their position in society.

Scott White
Stuart Park

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: Mon, 04 July 2005
Source: Northern Territory News (Australia)
Author: Scott White
Copyright: 2005 Northern Territory News
Contact: ntnmail@ntn.newsltd.com.au
Website: http://ntnews.news.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/283