Independent drug-testing tents at festivals ‘a fantastic idea’, says Police Minister Stuart Nash
Independent testing tents that let you know what’s in recreational drugs could become a regular feature at New Zealand festivals, Police Minister Stuart Nash says.“I think they’re a fantastic idea and should be installed at all our festivals,” he said. “But I need to see how it works and better understand the implications of it first.”
The idea behind recreational drug testing is not to stop drug use but reduce harm, by letting consumers of illicit pills know if the drugs they are taking have been mixed with other dangerous chemicals.
“The war on drugs hasn’t worked in the past 20 years, so it’s time to change to a more compassionate and restorative approach,” Nash said
Seriously now, how hateful do you have to be to have a problem with drug testing pills at dance festivals?
Don’t you dare attempt to justify your bullshit alt right moralistic bloodlust as anything to do with safety!
How many NZers have died from MDMA/ecstasy over 3 decades?
3.
3 confirmed deaths from MDMA/ecstasy over the last 3 decades.
How many people die from booze every year?
800.
3 deaths from MDMA over 3 decades compared to 24 000 from booze. Shove your moralistic public safety concerns right up your tight alt right arseholes.
And don’t start me on ‘it’s the law’ bullshit. Are you seriously suggesting everyone who speeds should remove their seatbelt because they are breaking the law and shouldn’t have any right to any safe guards?
If you are decrying pill testing at dance festivals, just admit that you do so not because of safety or ‘respect my authority’ law worship, just admit you are against it because you are the type of petty NZ hate-tyrant fascist who sadistically gets off on human suffering while masquerading as social concern.
Absolutely bring in testing of drugs.
But I wonder..”Provisional figures from the coroner show between 40 – 45 people died in the year since last June” from ‘legal highs'(2017)…and no one blinks, and the story disappears from the news cycle within the hour…I mean seriously..40-50 deaths from crap drugs in 6 months, yet here we are wringing our hands over the drugs at festivals. Maybe if Nash started talking about drug testing facilities in Maraenui I’d get a bit more hopeful..
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/maraenui/365062/maraenui-no-local-support-for-synthetic-addicts
Hmmm…I wonder if there are any differences in the demographics that explain ‘our’ priorities and perceptions of who deserves protection and help from the harms of drugs?.
Ah….? Portugal? You! You, the sadistic scum @ MB speaks of ? Heard of Portugal?
Go here, read this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portugal
You’re right @ MB.
You’d need to be deliberately eager to cause suffering while flying in the face of facts and common sense.
That’s a chilling realisation.
The arseholes who are screaming about the degeneracy and lawlessness that’s going to flood the country if the government legalises and supports pill-testing are the same pricks who vehemently opposed needle-exchanges and injecting rooms 20 years ago. All they managed to achieve then was a huge increase in the spread of HIV and Hep C, and more totally avoidable deaths due overdoses.
The hardest part about getting a pill-testing regimen started in this country was always going to be finding a government with the balls to stand up the moralistic naysayers who would prefer it if a few sacrificial young people continued to die as an example of the “dangers of doing drugs”. Good on Labour for having the backbone to do what’s actually right in the face of some very strong and opportunistic hostility.
If it is implemented, pill-testing will become totally uncontroversial within 3 years. The only question that’s going to be asked is; “Why didn’t we start doing this years ago?”
How about we finally push for also doing “adipose tissue chemical panel analysis” as part of ‘toxicology human analysis’ as other countries do to really find the exact “adipose fat tissue build up in our bodies to show the toxicity to our bodies has been already built-up from the chemical spays the horticulture industry and manufacturers have been using that we are consuming daily without being notified that the harm from their toxic ingredients are causing us all?????
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3569688/
Environ Health Perspect. 2013 Feb; 121(2): 162–169.
Published online 2012 Dec 5. doi: 10.1289/ehp.1205485
PMCID: PMC3569688
PMID: 23221922
Review
I had a chemical toxicity adipose test conducted on me in 1993 in Texas similar to this paper discusses, as part of a workplace chemical over-exposure I suffered working in a building for six months as the building was being sprayed for insects and other toxic chemicals and the laboratory actually then found that I had built up a very large level of very high levels of DDE (a component of DDT) that was traced back to the bug spray used on new capeting as five areas of the carpet was placed inside the building while the workers werte exposed to the spray used without any ventilation, and the same spray was actually used on many crops in the 1950’s through to the 1980’s and finally banned for use in horticulture due to health concerns but unfortunately in other industries was still used as a “bug retardant’ on other consumables such as carpeting and many other uses such as home bug spays.
We found out that the chemical companies had for years legally banned using “adipose chemical panel testing” on humans, until the 1990’s as a way to hide the effects of their damages in their studies ordered upon them.
They hid the truth from us back then.
Read the truth here and live a healthy life.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3569688/
Undercover Cops flood festivals and concerts busting dealers by targeting the innocent/naive recreational weed/pill users, when they leave the testing tent. Doh!
Puritanism and compassion are negatively correlated.
I love the example of the seatbelt, that is exactly what any government of society attempts to do with drugs. It says “sorry, you want to drive fast, we won’t let you have a seatbelt.”
As an American working to end prohibition in the US, it is always interesting to see that the issues in other countries are at a higher level than they are in the US.
The US still has Drug Courts that don’t recommend methadone or buprenorphine because they believe that the euphoria these medications can supposedly cause for “inexperienced users” makes them it would seem immoral and, thus, dangerous, despite religion supposedly being separate from our government.
Also, the very bad policy of the US has generally been enforced on other countries, when the US is able to do so, but yes, it is obvious the countries that have ended prohibition, such as Portugal, Switzerland and now most of the rest of Northern Europe have a much better situation with drugs than the US. Of course, the US is spending more money than ever before and our death rates keep climbing. So following the US model of increased prohibition does not work.
Anti-prohibition try to present the argument that we need safe use, but our country is too conservative to grasp it. So point is, make not just your country better, make the world better and provide another useful model which basically means to end prohibition and focus on safe use, rather than attempting to enforce abstinence. Think about it: it actually is pretty stupid for the government to attempt to prevent adults that want to consume a product from consuming it.
I think we have better things and more important priorities than to be doing drug testing at concerts. I think some people need to get a life we can’t even deal with our p epidemic and our synthetics where is the funding and policies to sort this
Thanks for pointing out another moronic argument against pill-testing: “I don’t want my tax dollars wasted saving a bunch of druggies!”
Nobody’s ever suggested the government has to fund pill-testing. It has always been stated that funding will continue to be provided by festival organisers (included in the ticket price) and by charities as it is in the UK and elsewhere.
The only thing that’s being asked for here is a change to the woefully outdated ‘Misuse of Drugs Act’ (1975), so that pill-testing centres can operate openly and legally with the full support of law enforcement as they are starting to do in places like as Canberra.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/act/overwhelming-success-calls-for-expanding-pill-testing-after-canberra-trial-20180619-p4zmdn.html
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/lifestyle/health-and-wellness/call-for-pill-testing-part-of-national-strategy-to-reduce-drug-harm-20180922-p505e5.html
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