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Joined: Dec 01, 2003 Posts: 3278 Location: Christchurch, NZ
Rosemary McLeod again Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 11:55 pm
Thought I'd created a thread like this before, but couldn't find it, even with a search. Oh well ....
I was just reading her Sunday Star-Times column today that mentions cannabis. She nearly got it right, did anyone else read it ? I'll type it out tomorrow, theres no link to it yet, and I'm a tad exhausted.
Re: Rosemary McLeod again Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 6:48 am
paula wrote:
Thought I'd created a thread like this before, but couldn't find it, even with a search. Oh well ....
I was just reading her Sunday Star-Times column today that mentions cannabis. She nearly got it right, did anyone else read it ? I'll type it out tomorrow, theres no link to it yet, and I'm a tad exhausted.
Do you mean the article she did a few weeks ago.. I thought that was posted on the forum. I don't have any recent cannabis comment from her .
Joined: Dec 01, 2003 Posts: 3278 Location: Christchurch, NZ
Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 10:49 am
no, here it is. And I was wrong. She nearly got it rignt on several aspects, but completely blew it on others. Ho hum . . .
CANNABIS: GOOD AND BAD NEWS 6 Jan, p A7
JUST HALF a joint can trigger short-term symptoms similar to schizophrenia; small amounts of the drug can cause paranoia, hallucinations and delusions associated with other mental illnesses. Schizophrenics' psychotic symptoms worsen with cannabis use.
BUT other research found that one active ingredient in cannabis inhibits psychotic symptoms in schizophrenics.
Aids patients with debilitating nerve pain get as much pain relief from cannabis as from prescription medications, and with fewer side effects.
Occasional use of cannabis is not harmful to teenagers, but those who smoke cigarettes as well develop problems, and are likely to be heavier cannabis users.
Smoking cannabis eased pain induced in healthy volunteers - but less was more.
Marijuana skin cream could help with allergies.
Experienced cannabis smokers perform tasks as accuragely when stoned as when they're sober.
An ingredient in cannabis may help prevent mad cow disease.
A single joint has the same effect on the smoker's lungs as smoking up to five cigarettes in one go.
Heavy cannabis use among vulmerable young people leads to more social problems.
The greatest number of social problems is found among the heaviest users.
Driving under the influence of cannabis is more common than previously thought, and more dangerous than driving under the influence of alcohol.
This article , quoted here from the NZDF site could do with bumping and gettinga bit of exposure as well.
Seems Rosemary may well be doing some exploratory reading up on cannabis.. this could well be a good thing..
tony
Pain, pot and politics
Is fear, prejudice and ignorance on the part of our decision makers denying many suffering New Zealanders the help and relief that medicinal marijuana use could provide? A mere whiff of the term seems enough to scatter the herd in the political fraternity.
The Misuse of Drugs (Medicinal Cannabis) Amendment Bill sponsored by Green Party Associate Health Spokesperson Metiria Turei would allow registered medical practitioners to prescribe cannabis to patients with specific serious medical conditions. The bill is due to be heard in Parliament in May.
Sarah Daniell looks at the issues around the legalising of medicinal marijuana and the arguments put forward by both advocates and opponents.
Ancient medicine, anecdotal evidence and widespread consensus suggests that medicinal cannabis has value in treating people with serious conditions who may not respond to other drugs.
It is known to have benefited people who have cancer, HIV/AIDS, MS and other neurodegenerative diseases. Studies have shown it also helps paraplegics prone to body wasting, and sufferers of Tourette’s syndrome, epilepsy and motor neurone disease.
New Zealand may lead the world in many areas, but advocates of legalising medicinal marijuana say we lag behind the rest of the world on the issue. In Canada, the United States, the Netherlands, Germany and New South Wales in Australia, it is legal to use cannabis for strictly medicinal purposes. Despite its C-class status here, prosecutors take a tough line on cannabis which is supplied to relieve pain. In just one high profile case in 1998, Neville Yates, was convicted of using medicinal cannabis.
The law may be emphatically in favour of teaching medicinal users a harsh lesson, but it would seem the public of New Zealand is behind Turei. In July 2006, a 3 News/TNS poll showed 63 percent of New Zealanders would support a law change allowing doctors to prescribe cannabis as a painkiller. And on 22 November 2006, Turei herself tabled in Parliament a 3000-signature petition organised by NORML in support of a law change to allow the use of medicinal cannabis.
In a survey of 225 doctors in 2003, 32 percent indicated they would consider prescribing medicinal cannabis products if it were legal. Six percent said they had prescribed medicinal use of cannabis.
The biggest obstacles to medicinal cannabis, according to advocates, are politicians and prejudice.
Bruce Kilmister, of Body Positive, an organisation which supports people suffering from HIV/AIDS, has had many years at the coalface of the issue.
“Over probably 20 years I have watched as the AIDS pandemic has raged through various countries, including New Zealand. I’ve lost a partner to AIDS, I’ve seen many people die from AIDS and I have questioned the legitimacy of withholding what could be a comfort to those people suffering the physical effects of AIDS. I’m referring to nausea, body wasting and pain – pain through every part of the body from cancers or pneumonia.
“I defy anybody to compare or put the morality of medicinal marijuana up against the pain and suffering that people have. This is not for recreational or social use. I’m advocating medically prescribed marijuana for a medical situation for which there is no other form of relief.”
Metiria Turei believes prejudice is at the heart of the issue.
“We have a potentially useful medicine here and we are denying sick people because we have a prejudice about the nature of cannabis and recreational drugs. The opposition to the use of cannabis is not based on research or evidence, it’s based on prejudice and that cannot be justified in a so-called modern, democratic, liberal society.”
She says scientific evidence increasingly supports the benefits of medicinal cannabis.
“It’s been demonstrated in a number of studies to be useful for some conditions, particularly muscle spasm control for those who are paraplegic, and control of nausea and maintenance of appetite for those who have cancer or HIV, or who are taking other drugs that are causing those kinds of symptoms.”
Turei also refuses to accept that the issue is too ‘hard-basket’.
“We’ve been through these kinds of debates before. Abortion is one example, homosexual law reform is another. We’ve just had the civil union debate. We can tackle these issues sensibly.
“Hopefully the bill, or the discussion around the bill, will help people see these issues more clearly.”
But proponents of medicinal marijuana may not only be up against politics and prejudice. In July last year, New Scientist reported that while there was clear anecdotal evidence that medicinal cannabis works in some cases, results of clinical trials have been mixed. The problem is there’s no way of targeting the drug to a particular place, it said.
Experts at the Federation of Neuroscience Societies meeting in Vienna last July said the human body had its own endocannabinoid system which helps regulate pain, hunger and anxiety. Medicinal cannabis interferes with that system.
Kilmister rejects the notion that medicinal cannabis is a blunt tool.
“Where HIV/AIDS people are concerned we have always been on the cutting edge of science. I can’t begin to tell you the number of people who have died more from medication in the very early days, than the virus itself. They became the willing guinea pigs of the pharmaceutical industry in an attempt to stay alive.
“All I can say is I see what actually works. I do see people who are using marijuana for medicinal reasons and it works where everything else has failed. Most of the physicians we work with have no difficulty seeing their patients use marijuana when they have identified nothing else seems to work.
“They will simply turn a blind eye or even sometimes suggest to the person, ‘Have you tried this?’ knowing full well that it is illegal and knowing full well it could be the only form of relief for that person.”
Currently in Britain the only cannabis-based product which can legally be used is a treatment for MS - a nasal spray called Sativex. Cannabis derivatives supplied in a synthetic form may be the ultimate compromise for those in the medical community who cannot countenance patients smoking it for medicinal purposes. A spokesperson for the New Zealand Medical Council said it supported research and debate on the issue, but didn’t support people being allowed to smoke the substance as that came with other health issues.
But the problems with synthetic derivatives, says Turei, are the expense and time involved in research and the issue of efficacy.
“My concern is that the government may be committed to looking at pharmaceutically tested products as opposed to whole plant extracts, and I think that’s a real shame because the whole plant extract is shown to be more effective, and we end up with a system where medicinal cannabis is made really expensive and really difficult to access.”
In The Netherlands there is a strictly regulated system where agents grow cannabis. It’s tested to make sure it’s clean and doesn’t contain any contaminants and the genus of the plant is assessed. They know through testing and anecdotal evidence what kinds of plants are suitable for certain conditions and supply them on that basis.
Kilmister says if the public needs reassurance, it needs only to look to the United States.
“If ever there was a bastion of conservative attitude in terms of the medicinal or morality aspects of marijuana, the United States would be the absolute heart of it. Yet the US has accepted the legitimate, legal use of marijuana. It is prescribed with a health card that allows the patient, under the very strictest control, to secure marijuana for medicinal purposes – much to allay some of the concerns I briefly mentioned, particularly pain.
“It helps a great deal with other things such as appetite. Nausea destroys appetite and causes body wasting – all of those things which contribute to the on-march of the AIDS virus through the body could be allayed with the use of medicinal marijuana.
“When you are taking a barrage of medication, morning, noon and night, just simply to stay alive, that affects the whole psychology of a person. And to simply shift aside from that briefly, with the support of medicinal marijuana, not only defers the symptoms they’re suffering at the time but also gives them some slight relief.”
So what’s the guts of Turei’s Bill?
“The Bill is set up to allow a doctor to decide whether a patient would be helped by cannabis. They decide the best dosage and the patient applies to the Ministry of Health for an ID card which has dosage, how many plants they can grow, what condition the marijuana is for and the name of the prescribing doctor.
“That information is all passed on to the police so they know who medicinal users are. If the person is unable to grow the plants themselves, they can designate someone to do that for them and that agent becomes registered with the Ministry and the police as well.
“The card provides protection but only to the level specified. It must be done under medical supervision. The patient can access the plant very easily and cheaply because they can grow it themselves.”
Turei accepts that some doctors are against people smoking cannabis, but says there are other alternatives, such as a tincture, a vaporiser or ingesting.
Bruce Kilmister says he is unconvinced by pharmaceutical derivatives.
“We’ve looked very closely at the [cannabis derived] pill but our concern is that it takes too long to work. When a person needs relief they need it immediately. You don’t want to take a pill and wait for an hour when simple marijuana provides instant relief.
“If Turei’s Bill is adopted it would reduce the abuse of our members, many of whom are already living in poverty, purely on a pension. They cannot absorb the exorbitant costs that fuel the profits of the inappropriate growers and dealers. If legislation was passed that allowed for medicinal use only, and it was strictly controlled, I think it would improve the situation for many so that they would not be put further into the clutches of poverty, or risk real violence in dealing with people they would never normally associate with.
“The biggest obstacle is finding sufficient politicians with the fortitude and moral responsibility to meet this debate honestly and sincerely.”
Sarah Daniell is a freelance journalist based in Auckland.
Joined: Nov 16, 2005 Posts: 464 Location: New Zealand
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 9:24 am
paula wrote:
no, here it is. And I was wrong. She nearly got it rignt on several aspects, but completely blew it on others. Ho hum . . .
CANNABIS: GOOD AND BAD NEWS 6 Jan, p A7
JUST HALF a joint can trigger short-term symptoms similar to schizophrenia; small amounts of the drug can cause paranoia, hallucinations and delusions associated with other mental illnesses. Schizophrenics' psychotic symptoms worsen with cannabis use.
BUT other research found that one active ingredient in cannabis inhibits psychotic symptoms in schizophrenics.
Aids patients with debilitating nerve pain get as much pain relief from cannabis as from prescription medications, and with fewer side effects.
Occasional use of cannabis is not harmful to teenagers, but those who smoke cigarettes as well develop problems, and are likely to be heavier cannabis users.
Smoking cannabis eased pain induced in healthy volunteers - but less was more.
Marijuana skin cream could help with allergies.
Experienced cannabis smokers perform tasks as accuragely when stoned as when they're sober.
An ingredient in cannabis may help prevent mad cow disease.
A single joint has the same effect on the smoker's lungs as smoking up to five cigarettes in one go.
Heavy cannabis use among vulmerable young people leads to more social problems.
The greatest number of social problems is found among the heaviest users.
Driving under the influence of cannabis is more common than previously thought, and more dangerous than driving under the influence of alcohol.
For a while I've referred to Rosemary Mcleod as a "wizened tit" and as a long time proponet of the mean spirited point of view, she deserves it.
Prohibitionists REPENT or DIE (from your obtuseness)!
Joined: Sep 24, 2005 Posts: 504 Location: new zealand
Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 8:26 am
..................I've more thought of rosemary as a 'bitter old frump' or a 'sour faced nay-sayer'.
She's one of those old 'big boned' women like pauline gardiner who thinks she knows it all and feels a need to tell us how to live OUR lives according to her prejudices.
Shes the old gin drinking bore who none of the young people in her family have any time for and stay away from at family gatherings ........................................
and same article under another title
Life-changing effects of dope
BROADSIDE - ROSEMARY McLEOD
The Dominion Post | Thursday, 06 March 2008
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4428154a16077.html
Faced with the choice of cannabis or champagne, I'd always grab champagne.
Champagne is a cheerful tipple. It makes you flirtatious and sociable, tastes good and feels celebratory. Two glasses, and you are pleasantly high; three, and everyone in the room becomes gloriously witty and good-looking, including yourself. The effect fades fast enough to keep you from seeing through any discovery of instant new love, and leaves you without a hangover. So it is expensive. What isn't?
Cannabis, on the other hand, makes you inward-looking, edgy and somnolent. It is more an anaesthetic than a cheerful high. It may make you beam munificently, believing you are the source of all the world's wonders, or even giggle, but it is ultimately all about you. The best thing going for it is that it helps insomniacs to sleep and eases some people's physical pain – but where is the fun in that? I spent too many years among stoned people, bored stiff, listening to dreary music, to believe it adds any quality to life.
I do not support legalising cannabis. I think it would create more problems than it would solve. The Greens have always disagreed, despite their quest for purity in other ingested substances, and despite the imminent departure, next election, of advocate Nandor Tanczos, this has not changed. I guess that policy attracts young voters, but the Greens have been quiet about cannabis lately.
The cannabis lobby has always been vigorous, and writes wonderfully nasty letters. It is a bit like the tobacco lobby, which was better funded and organised, but which was equally determined to fight any evidence of the ill-effects of smoking, out of self-interest.
I remember cigarette companies making regular visits to hand out fags to chain-smoking reporters. While we stayed addicted, and our hacking coughs racked the newsroom, we would presumably pay less attention to health research. Meanwhile, in America tobacco companies were fighting to insist that the link between lung cancer and smoking was not conclusive – a lie, as it turned out.
It won't be in my lifetime that the whole truth is known about cannabis; it took the better part of a century to shut the tobacco lobby up, after all. But there is scientific evidence if you choose to look for it and social evidence as well. Prisons are packed with habitual dope users and they are not just there because dope is illegal. They are there because of how drugs affect their behaviour – and in short because cannabis is not the peace-and-love product advocates make it out to be.
TV news last weekend screened historic footage of a cannabis advocate pushing this position. His words came back to haunt him.
"To my knowledge people who smoke cannabis tend to be less violent than those who drink alcohol," said Dave Moore, former president of the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party. How he must wish he could take those words back.
Moore's 23-year-old son Daniel has raised a big question mark over his father's assertion. Daniel's been found guilty of murdering a drug dealer, 62-year-old Tony Stanlake, who he had been working with, growing and selling dope, before he killed him. But Daniel did not just kill Stanlake, the jury found. He bashed him, cut his throat, then chopped his hands off and threw his body into the sea.
No, cannabis did not commit this violence, any more than drugs have committed other appalling crimes – but without drugs, would they have been committed at all? Researchers have established a link between dope and psychosis in vulnerable people, this crime was lunacy and Daniel had been around dope with his father and Stanlake for years, the court heard. Could anyone be sure that did not affect him? This is yet another tragic story that should never have happened. It is tragic that Daniel killed another human being, and tragic that he was so far gone – as was his victim, heavily into pornography, and advertising for group sex – that the idea made sense to him. Something made him yet another blank-eyed young New Zealander, barely reacting to his own guilty verdict, and apparently lacking any moral compass to speak of.
I feel for Daniel's mother most over this worst of all possible outcomes for her son.
She broke up with his father years ago and works as a drug and alcohol counsellor.
In all the ghastliness the trial revealed, that is the one thing that makes perfect sense.
Joined: Feb 19, 2004 Posts: 1347 Location: Nelson area
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:06 pm
Rose-ay-mary wrote:
The cannabis lobby has always been vigorous, and writes wonderfully nasty letters.
I wonder if she's referring to this letter?
Dear Sir,
Could Rosemary Mcleod step-out from behind her promotional photo, and supply her source's for her outrageous claims against cannabis. Her facts just don't hold up.
Her ilk (prohibitionists) can no longer claim cannabis causes cancer, when medical studies (UCLA, 2006), have proved the opposite. All that's left for them is "psychotic episodes" had by schizophrenics. New Scientist (August 04) ran an article showing "psychotic episodes" were less severe and frequent for those medicating with cannabis. Millions smoke cannabis daily, without getting a mental illness, and our hospitals and morgues are not overflowing with cannabis victims.
Her claims about a "Super-Strength" cannabis is just ridiculous. Hashish is about 90 percent THC. That's been around since before Rosemary was puffing "on weedy cannabis..". The less smoke in your lungs, the healthier it is.
I wonder if when Ms Mcleod was young, she was the "plain-girl at parties. Staring at the pot-smoking, long-haired boy. Wishing that he'd notice her, and see the "real" her. Sigh".
After reading her chaotic diatribe, my advice to your stressed columnist (stress being one of the largest causes of psychosis), is to cut back on the ciggies and red wine, take time, have a toke, and chill out.
Steven Wilkinson
When the Sunday Star Times failed to print my letter I sent a copy directly to the old troll
In a way this is a good sign. It means we are considered a threat (which means we are getting the message through), so they are using people like Rose-ay-mary (Social media - not worth serious media - yet) and people like C Kerby (concerned public fighting the falsehood of the cannabis law reformer through letters to the editor)
All they are trying to do is to discredit the movement.
This is an election year and we are becoming the more vocal, more than that has been for a while I think 1999 might have been the last time (any thoughts guys?) and we were all complacent coz we were placing our trust in the greens.
So lets see this attack as a challenge. A challenge to do more, to convince more people to vote (that's what they are scared of), A challenge to shake their foundations. A challenge to free the weed.
Freedom's just a TICK away
Steven _________________ Regulation will set cannabis free
Joined: Dec 01, 2003 Posts: 3278 Location: Christchurch, NZ
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:18 pm
Quote:
I wonder if when Ms Mcleod was young, she was the "plain-girl at parties. Staring at the pot-smoking, long-haired boy. Wishing that he'd notice her, and see the "real" her. Sigh".
That crossed my mind when she says she spent lots of time around 'boring' stoners. I wondered why she hung around so long. There appears to be a subtext there. You could definately be right
Unfortunately I am only 58 yrs old so would be far to young to have been round when she was going to parties and getting the hots for the long haired hippies. ( thank goodness ) more Jim Andertons era I guess , could explain a few things.
Joined: Aug 20, 2006 Posts: 958 Location: h=6.626x10‾34 Mood: sisyphustic
Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 11:03 am
Rosemary "gross inaccuracies" McLeod cost her publisher one of the largest defamation settlements in NZ history. Which is why her reactionary opinion pieces usually go for soft targets that are safe to scapegoat, such as minorities like homo's and pothead's. To sell newspapers/magazines, her articles don't always need to be correct, just titilating and (allegedly) humourous in "cantankerous" way. _________________ IF 25 YEARS OF SMOKING DOPE HAS ADDLED MY BRAIN, I MUST HAVE BEEN AN INTELLECTUAL GIANT IN MY YOUTH ~Tim Shadbolt
LTE sent to The Press Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:18 am
Quote:
Dear Editor,
In her latest diatribe against cannabis and its users, Rosemary McLeod said that she does not support legalising cannabis because she thinks it would create more problems than it would solve (March 6). I find that very hard to believe because legalising cannabis would in fact solve a great many problems.
Legalisation would free up the Police, court and prison resources wasted persecuting cannabis uses to tackle real crime. It would remove a source of revenue from organised criminals and provide a source of taxation for the Government. It would allow for the regulation of cannabis use eg making it R18. It would free many otherwise law abiding citizens from being stigmatised as criminals. It would enable medical marijuana users to concentrate on getting well. Legalisation would also put an end to the needless murder of people like Mr Stanlake due to the unjustified prohibition of a very useful plant.
Was a bit disappointed that The Press decided not to publish the above letter that I sent them (on 10/3/08 ) because I felt it was a really good one.
Thread_Killer wrote:
To sell newspapers/magazines, her articles don't always need to be correct, just titilating and (allegedly) humourous in "cantankerous" way.
"Provocative" is the expression that the media use. IMO it's just a euphemism for "obnoxious". That's why I call her Rosemary McLoud.
Joined: Feb 19, 2004 Posts: 1347 Location: Nelson area
Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:27 am
Great letter potshots, I can not see why they wouldn't publish it, besides being on the same agenda as "granny Rose-ay-mary" which is to debunk the pro-cannabis campaign.
Like I said "they" cannot use the serious media as they have no facts/ammunition - Their cupboard is bare, we know that they know that it's up to us to get the message out to the public.
Send the letter to the Dom (didn't she post the same item there?)
Steven _________________ Regulation will set cannabis free
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I wonder if she's referring to this letter?
