The first day of the cannabis symposium is dreary. With the ever safe Drug Foundation trying to offend no one, it’s a little slice of beige Wellington public sector dropped upon Auckland from a great height. Holding a cannabis conference across the road from Police Central HQ is as safe as it gets.
Damien Christie is the host, so there are moments of hope.
Kevin Hague is wandering around, I fail to corner him and ask why on earth David Hay is challenging Rus for the leadership (that’s the task for tomorrow), and Russell Brown is snuffling around in his usual lost disheveled hedgehog way.
Nice to see NORML up front and in everyones face.
Lunch is a silver service knife and fork affair with a desert bar island with multi-tiered cheesecake towers. Nothing is as creamy as public-sector-quasi-pseudo-Government-Department money.
It seems after a quick glance at the agenda that the only truly interesting debate for the entire event isn’t even being held at the symposium! It’s being held off site tomorrow night when there is an invite only discussion on how to create actual political change on cannabis, I booked my ticket early for that.
The symposium seems focused on discussing everything but cannabis prohibition. It’s like the 10 000 ounce bag of indoor skunk sitting glazing out the entire room with second hand vapours that no one wants to mention.
When bloody America, Uncle ‘freaking-war-on-drugs-damn-the-oceans-of-blood-consequences-switch-on-Fox-News’ Sam has become more progressive on cannabis than we have, then this Symposium should sound more like an apology to the Nation for losing the debate to arseholes.
It isn’t.
Day 1 opens with some health overview and a moralistic film about helping indigenous peoples off the evil Mary Jane, because apparently keeping it illegal and locking up all those indigenous peoples is a far more successful social strategy.
After lunch, it’s the health consequences of cannabis use. Professor Richie Poulton’s research seems to amount to ‘don’t smoke cannabis in your adolescent years’. There are higher chances of psychosis if you smoke cannabis at 15. So if you don’t start using cannabis until you are 18 the chances of that psychosis drops significantly, which, forgive me, screams regulation right?
10.3% of users who smoke cannabis by 15 go onto have psychotic disorders, where as 4.7% of users who smoke cannabis by 18 go on to have psychotic disorders.
Soooooo, let’s make the age of purchase 20 then.
Even with the worst case scenario, 90% of users who are smoking by 15 won’t have any psychotic episodes? I wonder if booze can claim that sort of safety record?
The conclusion is that cannabis is NOT a major risk for psychosis, adolescence is vital in terms of negative impacts and policy makers need to delay the use of cannabis in teenagers. Impacts on lungs seems minimal but the gum disease rates weren’t flash, so hash cookies for adults it is.
There was a decrease in IQ, again for adolescents who smoked, those who were smoking after 18 however didn’t have much impact.
Again, kinda screams regulation and not prohibition, but that’s not a message you will actually confront on Day 1 of this symposium.
There’s a cocktail night tonight, but I think sculling booze at a cannabis conference seems like a hypocrisy of the highest order, so I’m skipping that.
I will be blogging Day 2 tomorrow, where the only interesting elements seem to be the impact of the law, and the aforementioned late night invite only discussion on political change.
Rather than trying to “gonzo” this coverage (you seem to have made up your mind that the conference is a waste of time already) why not treat it with a little more gravitas? There are some basic questions unanswered here.
Why is the symposium being held? (EDIT: I have to offer a small apology, I see you gave a little background info here: https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/11/26/2013-international-drug-policy-cannabis-symposium/ – maybe it could be linked in the story?)
What is the Drug Foundation? It’s agenda?
Why are the Green politicians in attendance? What is Green Party cannabis policy?
Why should the age of purchase be 20 (based on the scientific data you’ve outlined above)?
Don’t get me wrong, I think cannabis (and other illicit drug) regulation is a hugely important issue, but as long as journalism continues to DERP DERP DERP its way through these events without asking serious questions, I worry that this will continue to be seen as a fringe issue in conservative NZ.
I applaud the fact that you’re blogging about the event but tell us more about it, please.
Pot causes serious outbreaks of Thinking and Socializing . Two very , very dangerous threats to our current Bank orientated status quo .
And if I may …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgdEfZa74X0
An oldie but a goodie .
The elephant in the living room that they are looking for is that it is not cannabis on it’s own that causes psychosis, it’s the triumvirate I identified in psychiatric hospital of ‘early onset of usage + developing a regular habit + stressful life event’ that triggers the psychosis. So cannabis on it’s own isn’t the problem, it’s that throw in a major life crisis such as relationship breakdown, death of a family member etc and in a young person it seems to reduce the brain’s inability to cope with major stress. I wrote a whole book about it called ‘Matters To A Head: Cannabis, Mental Illness & Recovery’ but the AOD sector has refused to acknowledge it for reasons I can only guess at. In the book I repeat the statement my father made after my breakdown, that ‘some people can use cannabis and be ok and some can’t. But by the time you find out you’re a can’t, it’s too late’. This symposium stuff is just a talkfest.
Its all very well poking fun at the US, but it is far more progressive than we are here at the state level (something we Kiwis quite ignorantly combine with the federal government). A number of states have decriminalised cannabis with still more to follow, we have?…..
we also are well ahead of the US in per capita domestic violence and child malnutrition. A great new book called ‘Iniquality: New Zealand Crisis’ might go some way in informing the OP. It is fine to criticise US national policy, but there is nothing we can do here, and is much more useful to focus on things that can be changes in our own country.
Actually a couple of US states (Colorado and Washington) have *legalized* cannabis, with a regulated market for adult users, and the federales have decided to let them get on with it, and see if it works, rather than interfering like they have with legalized medical cannabis in California etc (under both Bush and Obama I might add).
>> much more useful to focus on things that can be changes in our own country. <<
Like following Colorado and Washington's example?
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