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Invasion of privacy to aid in fighting crime or drugs?

8

88brenno

Greenlighter
Joined
Aug 7, 2010
Messages
628
The zombie apocolypse!

http://m.theage.com.au/technology/t...to-read-your-emails-texts-20120927-26ner.html

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission has called for sweeping powers so it can access phone call and internet data for its war on white-collar crime.

Not only does the authority want the powers to intercept the times, dates and details of telecommunications information, it also wants to access the contents of emails, social media chats and text messages.

This is more power than the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation have sought to assist the crime agencies in investigating terrorism and murder suspects.

A parliamentary inquiry has been set up to examine controversial proposals to force telecommunication companies to store details about every Australian's phone and internet use for up to two years. Some of that information, including telephone logs, could then be subject to law enforcement agencies with a warrant. Other information could be accessed without a warrant. Currently, it is up to telcos to determine how long they store that information.

A discussion paper put out by the Attorney-General's department stresses that the government only wanted so-called metadata – which includes times, locations and durations of phone and internet communication – stored by the telcos.

But ASIC commissioner Greg Tanzer told a parliamentary inquiry in Sydney today ASIC wanted the contents of communications stored, too.

"We want both," he told the inquiry.

In addition to this, Mr Tanzer said the authority had the power to seek warrants for stored data, but wanted the ability to intercept phone calls to help its investigations of white-collar crime.

Liberal Senator George Brandis suggested the move could be a "classic case of function creep", and questioned why it was more appropriate that investigations of white-collar crime have access to a range of comprehensive data that investigators of murder did not.

But Internet Society of Australia president Narelle Clark said metadata included a range of information about people's internet use beyond dates and times.

With access to the website URL a person had visited, she said, it was possible to in some cases access their login details and passwords, and information about where people had been on the web, for how long, and the contents of the web page visited.

Vodafone Agency Liaison Manager David Moss said the company currently only stored customer billing data.

This could include the times, dates and locations of calls made, and the locations of the person being called.

"There's no mystery about it; all businesses keep a record of their transactions for some time," he said.

But, he said, the company and other telcos were concerned at the cost and work involved with being forced to store huge troves of customers' data for two years.

Internet provider iiNet, which has about 820,000 customers, said the government had not provided enough detail for the company to understand how much data would need to be kept.

But, taken to the extreme, keeping all internet information of all its customers for two years would be "stupendous volumes of data, many of which will never be used".

iiNet carries about one million uniform resource locators per second on its network and said... attempt to help them in their war on people.
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I don't know about Australian law but I'm pretty sure it's already being done in the United States and probably England. The fact they are just now releasing the information suggests it's already being done but the info just can't be contained anymore. They put their own spin on it before media can. No,I'm not a conspiracy nut just a realist.
 
there is guaranteed to be a push for cctv on every street corner or whatever cause of that scummy maggot that killed the chick from ABC in Brunswick. look out for big brother hes coming!!

and what the fuck is the story with keeping everyones internet activity logged...its guilty until proven innocent now is it?

if you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to worry about is bullshit...corruption starts at the top!

this world is going backwards and people are getting more greedy, more selfish, and more stupid. 'fuck everybody else im doing fine...my inheritance is in the bank'

guilty until proven innocent...the new world order :(

ITS NOT A WAR ON DRUGS NOR TERRORISM... ITS A WAR ON PERSONAL FREEDOMS
 
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laugh said:
ITS NOT A WAR ON DRUGS NOR TERRORISM... ITS A WAR ON PERSONAL FREEDOMS
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Disagree, it's comments like this that make drug users look like conspiricy nuts. I agree that this is a MASSIVE infringement on peoples personal freedoms, but I don't believe that this is peoples intentions.
It's often great intentions that cause great failure. But this doesn't mean that politicians and police are trying to have a war on our personal freedoms. It means that their views towards what is and isn't in the general publics interests have gotten confused. In their eye's drug using and dealing is a dangerous big problem and this is the best way to deal with it.

The biggest problem with our society is that most people have that "I don't really care if people see what I'm doing and if it gets more drugs/terrorists off the streets, then I'm all for it" point of view. What needs to happen is the public needs to have a change of the common drug user. Only when us users are seen as the good, contributing people we are that this perception will change and drug's will become a lesser priority and then politicians and police commisioners who are trying to make a good name for themself won't be coming after drug affiliated people, but the real dangers to society such as muderers, rapist's even just people who start fights regularly for no reason when they're out clubbing.

The problem is I don't know how to make this happen, truth is most people don't want to hear about the good side of drugs, they don't want to be affiliated with it at all. Least the rest of the world is making some progress, "progress is slow, but I'm in it for the long run". Plus we've seen great things here from groups like Australia21 although Julia Gillard was quick to slam them down, but i re-itterate "progress is slow but I'm in it for the long run". I hate seeing personal freedoms being stamped on, but statements like "ITS NOT A WAR ON DRUGS NOR TERRORISM... ITS A WAR ON PERSONAL FREEDOMS " I find offensive and not helpful to our cause, you need to quit that attitude, because I guarentee you if you say this to your non-drug using friends, they'll think of you as an idiot, whilst our personal freedoms keep getting sacrificed to say it's a war is garbage. If the government and police really wanted to stamp out our personal freedoms they would've already done so.
 
^ I like your thinking student. I'm so tired of the 'fuck the man' attitudes that so many drug users have, the attitude is no better than somebody saying 'drug users are junkie criminals', both are symptoms of ignorance and hypocrisy. If we want the 'war on drugs' to end then we all have to stop acting like it is a war, if us users keep acting like angry teenagers then were going to get treated like them instead of the intelligent and valuable members of society most of us are. We're all products of the 'war on drugs' attitude that's been around since nixon and our parents time, both users and non users have inherited a warped idea on what drug use is, it's affected social attitudes so much that it's almost impossible for any of us to take a step back and look at it sensibly without falling back on some of the opinions that have been ingrained in us since we were born.

I don't like the sound of this new bill, forget the loss of privacy and personal freedom for a minute, at the bones of it it seems to be another wild misstep in drug and crime policy, we just seem to be running blind and desperate when it come to implementing drug laws and control. Instead of continuing to push shit uphill with new policies built upon on an existing policy (drug criminalisation) that is now plainly and provably not working how about we dedicate some time, money and research into working out how we can go about addressing this problem in a way that doesn't continue to destroy our society and waste all of our time?

As dire as the situation is now I really am starting to believe that attitudes on international drug policies are going to change and i hope we might see these changes to begin to happen in the coming decade. After 40 years of utter failure criminalising drugs and drug users, dealers and manufacturers it has become so plainly obvious that 'the war on drugs' isn't working that we are going to have to change the way we deal with the issue. I think we might start seeing some creative new ideas begin to be trialled, it'll be slow and probably pretty painful but man if 20 years from now I can safely buy and use drugs without worrying about going to jail or being ostricised for enjoying my chosen lifestyle it'll be so worth it.
 
O boo your so tired of the fuck the man sitch, where are you sitting atm probs pretty comfy? how about all the aboriginals and innocent people incarcerated? not our problem i guess, we are sitting pretty?
Yeh whatever take away the word drug in exchange for terrorism...big brother would be happy to have us all chipped and tattooed at birth, the easier it is for the fucks the better for the minority in power...forget drugs, fuck drugs it is a war on personal freedoms. There will be mass CCTV & drones before things improve...used to innocent until proven guilty seems to be heading towards guilty until proven innocent.
If you got nothing to hide you got nothing to worry about...here come the drones

Call me 12yrs young I couldn't give a shit. I'm sick of people defending corporate and police corruption and selfish greed. Good day
 
Do you do anything to try and change these things that you're not happy with or do you just sit and seeth and complain? If you do then your argument has validity but if not you're just as bad as the people you are complaining about. We all have the ability to help or at least genuinely try to help by showing support for things we do agree with and protesting against things we don't agree with, we are all people with the ability to change things, it's frustrating and sometimes is really hard to do but if you want change you have to try. Whining about how big brother is taking away your personal freedom but not doing anything about it is stupid and pointless. Do you have any evidence that big brother wants to put CCTV on every corner and fly drones over the city to watch us or are you just pissed off and feel like you need to justify your anger by taking it out on somebody else? If you're angry at the world you also arent willing to change what the hell do you expect? This is the kind of 'fuck the man' attitude I have a problem with, if you spend some of your time organising protests and starting petitions and are involved in trying to change something then yes you have the right to be angry, if you just bitch about things you dont like and dont even really understand then you're just a hypocrite. Were all in this together so we need to come together to find what we can do to make the best decision for everybody and the only way we can do that is by being reasonable, putting our differences aside, educating ourselves and each other, researching ideas and outcomes and having objective and sensible debate. Blindly hating things is totally pointless and totally counter productive and is what got us into this mess in the first place.
 
Nothing is going to change unless the people in power decide so (the ones behind the curtain, not puppets like gillard) which isn't going to happen, petitions and protests don't mean shit, they don't change anything, the drug trade is too profitable for it to be legalized.
 
cassandragemini said:
Do you do anything to try and change these things that you're not happy with or do you just sit and seeth and complain? If you do then your argument has validity but if not you're just as bad as the people you are complaining about. We all have the ability to help or at least genuinely try to help by showing support for things we do agree with and protesting against things we don't agree with, we are all people with the ability to change things, it's frustrating and sometimes is really hard to do but if you want change you have to try. Whining about how big brother is taking away your personal freedom but not doing anything about it is stupid and pointless. Do you have any evidence that big brother wants to put CCTV on every corner and fly drones over the city to watch us or are you just pissed off and feel like you need to justify your anger by taking it out on somebody else? If you're angry at the world you also arent willing to change what the hell do you expect? This is the kind of 'fuck the man' attitude I have a problem with, if you spend some of your time organising protests and starting petitions and are involved in trying to change something then yes you have the right to be angry, if you just bitch about things you dont like and dont even really understand then you're just a hypocrite. Were all in this together so we need to come together to find what we can do to make the best decision for everybody and the only way we can do that is by being reasonable, putting our differences aside, educating ourselves and each other, researching ideas and outcomes and having objective and sensible debate. Blindly hating things is totally pointless and totally counter productive and is what got us into this mess in the first place.
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Couldn't agree more

AcidAttack said:
Nothing is going to change unless the people in power decide so (the ones behind the curtain, not puppets like gillard) which isn't going to happen, petitions and protests don't mean shit, they don't change anything, the drug trade is too profitable for it to be legalized.
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You see I hear people say this sort of shit but I think that's a crock of shit. Not only do I believe that drugs very much could be profitable all things taken into account (Taxable cannabis would generate huge revenue and cost little, this is already evident in American states and thats only medicinal (even if it is being handed out to far more then the people who need it, or ecstasy which obviously would have a massive market and I suspect would drastically reduce street violence and vandalism). But even if this wasn't the case, people say cigarette's are only legal because of how much money the government makes of them. But NO in fact with our health system the costs of people smoking well and truly outweigh's the profits they make from the tax on them.
So I think your point in invalid.

And saying nothing is gonna change unless the people in power decide so, who do you think are the people that make the people in power change their mind? Your attitude is useless, and nothing will change if we all roll over and wait for someone else to do something. Things aren't going to change today nor tomorrow, probably not this decade, but I still believe we're making progress.
 
cassandragemini said:
Do you do anything to try and change these things that you're not happy with or do you just sit and seeth and complain? If you do then your argument has validity but if not you're just as bad as the people you are complaining about. We all have the ability to help or at least genuinely try to help by showing support for things we do agree with and protesting against things we don't agree with, we are all people with the ability to change things, it's frustrating and sometimes is really hard to do but if you want change you have to try. Whining about how big brother is taking away your personal freedom but not doing anything about it is stupid and pointless. Do you have any evidence that big brother wants to put CCTV on every corner and fly drones over the city to watch us or are you just pissed off and feel like you need to justify your anger by taking it out on somebody else? If you're angry at the world you also arent willing to change what the hell do you expect? This is the kind of 'fuck the man' attitude I have a problem with, if you spend some of your time organising protests and starting petitions and are involved in trying to change something then yes you have the right to be angry, if you just bitch about things you dont like and dont even really understand then you're just a hypocrite. Were all in this together so we need to come together to find what we can do to make the best decision for everybody and the only way we can do that is by being reasonable, putting our differences aside, educating ourselves and each other, researching ideas and outcomes and having objective and sensible debate. Blindly hating things is totally pointless and totally counter productive and is what got us into this mess in the first place.
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thats cool im studying to become a mental health care professional atm (how many mentally ill people are incarcerated in this filthy society instead of getting health care? too many!) excuse my poor grammar etc not that it really fucking matters about a university education...i feel sorry for all the kids attending shitty public school where there yr 10 drop out rate is amazingly high...here in the country girls generally find it easier to pop out a child because they see no pathway to uni or higher education...im glad you and the student are getting a good education thats great! but dont forget about the less fortunate when you have your paid for piece of paper and are earning a decent wage above the minimum wage...sorry im rambling here...its people like you that make it all out to be so easy that pisses me off id bet youve had a pretty easy go thus far in life...who really gives a fuck about a university education anyway...good on you for going but your not the only one
personal attack??? you can call me a hypocrite and say that i blindly hate all you like...i dont see how you can justify those remarks though? im sorry if i have upset you with some of my past comments regarding police but i have never had anything good come from an officer of the law...every pig i have come into contact with has lied, or cheated, or stolen....thats the truth im not just hating for the fun of it (rolls eyes) the whole legal system is a joke...if you have the money its an easy game to play...and thats all the legal system is is a big pathetic childish game...its a joke seriously. policing is now a business...speed cameras dont stop deaths but do raise revenue...double demerits only on long weekends? the list goes on...its a money making exercise not out to help the average Joe on the street at all. there is a court case in Sydney today from the young brazilian guy murdered by police over a packet of biscuits...shit like that hasnt changed since convicts got sent over here on the first fleet for stealing a loaf of bread...the police are thugs, they are a gang of thugs...its frightening people of their intelligence walk around our streets with guns, pepper spray, and all the rest...maybe not all but every single one that iv have ever met! maybe if i met your mum my opinions would change but i highly doubt it. your mum probably joined the farce to do good but the police environment is sickly thuggish & just plain stupid...i mean they dont agree with the laws and no doubt break the laws themselves at any opportunity yet they will lock other people up just cause its there job...that to me is sick...where are the ethics and morals there? i honestly feel sorry for your mum having to work in that environment...its just a bully game to police they bully the stupid crims...must make themselves feel good?

i have no idea where you got the idea i am blindly hating? on who? in your eyes what do i need to change, who do i need to change?

by the way who have i directly taken my anger out on? i have not attacked you in any way on here have i? so why are you hating on me? can i not voice my feelings and experiences on here? is there to political correctness at stake?

the only person you can control in this life is yourself...im not into organising protests or whatever im not into controlling others...people can think for themselves (not that we are taught to think for ourselves, yes sir no sir 3 bags full of shit sir). i do agree that education is the key so why do we have a two tier education system where the rich get educated and the plebs get child minding? why should private education get government hand outs while the public education system is in decline? why do we spend so much on defence rather than education?

i 100% agree with AcidAttack... its the same families that own all the wealth going back centuries
imo you and thestudent are blind...im happy that you are living well and enjoying your university education but really open your eyes to the world around you...im not trying to bring yous down with negativity but fuck me lifeless things could be a hell of a lot better (true here in aus they arent all that bad but things could be a whole lot better) just out of interest how was your upbringing & education pretty decent hey? put yourself in someone less fortunate shoes just for a minute

@ thestudent what is this progress you speak of, where is it? all i can see is rich getting richer while the poor get poorer, maybe i need to get out of the mish? this life is apparently all about the dollar, you cant nothing without it...that to me fake and broken in its most basic!!! anything and everything can be justified by the dollar and i just dont believe in that...

btw heres a link to the drones...its just the beginning things are going to get a lot worse...(for our own benefit, our own safety christ all mighty where are we heading?) i heard you student mention aldous huxley somewhere have you read Brave New World? or 1984 by Orwell by any chance? i would be thoroughly interested on your take of both those pieces??

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-25/abbott-to-outline-defence-priorities/4278684
 
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dude i dont hate you or anything, actually i quite like you, you're annoying but at least you give a shit. sorry if i came across harshly, i meant to be honest but not to be a cunt, im in the middle of opiate withdrawals so im not in a very good mood and this happens to be a subject that i care about. i havent come from a priviledged background at all, we were extremely poor when i was young, i remember when i lost my shoes in a dam and my parents had to ask a family friend for a spare pair for me until pay day, that poor. it was only due to my parents incredibly hard work we started doing ok. the only reason i went to uni (and did a diploma not a degree) was because i worked in the mines for a year to pay for it, no student loan, no financial support whatsoever. i went through a long angsty stage like you seem to be in when i was in my late teens -early twenties but i eventually woke up to the fact that complaining and carrying on while not doing shit is a total waste of everybodies time. i agree with you the world isnt a great place, there sure is a lot of corruption in the police and goverment and big business does hold far too much influence over what we do but what does getting worked up and angry about it achieve? it puts me in a shit mood, makes me focus on the negative shit in life and does nothing to help my situation. in my experience if you want to try and change someones mind insulting or arguing with them straight off the bat gets you nowhere. it just creates animosity and makes me personally feel like a dick and i dont want to "win" an argument like that.

to be continued, i have to go back to my low paying unskilled job! sigh.
 
yeh i see what your saying about the negative angsty energy and i hate that in others so il give myself an uppercut and try to refrain...hell the last thing i want to do is bring others down so to speak...theres plenty of people in wigs or with badges that get paid for doing that, sad thing is a lot of them actually enjoy bringing others down to their level...oops there i go

your background actually sounds not dissimilar to mine...im all for working hard but it just seems to me the whole system is about kicking you while your down and taxing the poor...i bet your parents lost a shit load of super and that to me is the epitome of our system the workers (you, me, my parents, your parents, majority of bl) pay for the rich...the whole financial system is rigged , insider trading is rampart, the stock market is easily manipulated, while us plebs pick up the slack...

attend any local country court day and have a look at the cattle sorry people herding through the gates for their branding sorry taxing...it really makes my skin crawl, the vast majority of these 'criminals' need help, they education and they need a pathway, a means to an end, a way up and out...not just pay your bill/fine and we will see you again in a few months when you fuck up again...wheres all the educated university minds sorting shit out??? and its only going to get worse, country towns with slums, teenagers having 2,3,4,5, kids with no education themselves...where are their kids going to end up if the parents themselves couldn't get off the bottom rung...its gonna compound. in places like this i fail to see how our high & mighty untouchable capitalist system works...surely these people would be better off 150 yrs ago...i mean wow they got gas, electricity, blah blah but how are they to pay for it...i dont see the point in spending majority of our time doing work/jobs we hate just to earn a fake symbol emblem token to trade to keep ourselves out of jail...sorry disjointed rambling again

conspiracy theories like ufos are one thing but i dunno the whole economic, financial, social system to me is a conspiracy or an out right scam!!!

i sincerely hope you kick the shit proper this time and that your feeling human again soon!!! its like what are we running from when we get addicted, is reality so fucked we need to run and hide? im trying to look at society from a wider perspective and its just a fucking mess...then we got people like thestudent telling us things are getting better...really?, id love to live in them shoes just for an hour or two...

again, i hope your feeling better sooner rather than later, all the best...peace and love
 
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there is a court case in Sydney today from the young brazilian guy murdered by police over a packet of biscuits...
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http://www.news.com.au/national/police-tried-to-taser-man-14-times/story-fndo4bst-1226490633249

Mr Curti had earlier shared a tab of LSD with two friends during a night out in the city and had apparently entered a "psychotic state" in the early hours of the morning, the inquest heard.

About 90 minutes before his death he called his sister Ana Luisa Laudisio, who he had been living with in Sydney, in what Mr Gormly described as an "exceptionally uncharacteristic" conversation.

"He said something (to her) like 'why do you want to kill me?'," he said.

Mr Curti was later seen on CCTV footage behaving increasingly erratically before he walked into a King St convenience store claiming to be a "messenger from God".

"He thought people were trying to kill him ... thoughts and language of that type formed no prior part of Roberto's medical history," Mr Gormly said.

The 21-year-old climbed over the counter's security screen and bailed up the terrified shop assistant before fleeing the store with two packets of biscuits, saying to the staff member: "Don't tell anyone".
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BRAZILIAN student Roberto Laudisio Curti was an "impressive and promising young man" - who died after police tried to taser him 14 times as he ran in fear through the Sydney CBD, a coroner was told this morning.

The 21-year-old, originally from São Paulo, died on March 18 after up to 10 police wrestled with the shirtless and shoeless man following a chase down Pitt St about 6am.

An inquest into Mr Curti's death, in front of an overflowing Glebe Coroner's Court, today heard the student was subjected to repeated "drive stunning" with police tasers after he had been brought to the ground with a shot in the back from the weapon.
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its pack or gang mentality...its a human being fail! men are wild crazed animals in groups larger than 3...alcohol helps though

It's always been too slow for me. Playing. The pace of things. I'm a fast sprinter. The trouble was, after playing in the group for a few months, I couldn't reach that point.
Syd Barrett
 
Yikes that thing with the Brazilian guy is a real sad mess. I don't like these taser things, it's better than shooting someone and in some circumstances id rather a cop have one to use than not have one at all and get killed himself or have to shoot someone who is violent and out of control but just needs to be taken out of action, you kind of have to look at the lesser evil I guess. I was actually at the scene when cops shot that 15 year old kid at northcote skatepark a few years ago, it was fucking horrible. The kid was truly out of control and really looked like he wanted to use those knives. The cops tried to calm him down at first, they didnt just go in blazing, when that didnt work they warned him several times, backed off, pepper sprayed him 2 or 3 times but he was in such a rage it didn't even slow him down from what I could see. Then it got real chaotic and messy, the cops were backing off and screaming at him to stop or they'd shoot but he just kept coming and it looked like he made a lunge for one of them and they just shot him. It's was unreal and fucking horrible to witness, ill never forgot the look on my flatmates face when he looked at me after they shot him. After a couple of minutes we went down closer and shouted if everything was ok and one of the cops was shaking so violently that I could hear his belt rattling and they were all so visibly upset, one of them yelled at us to get back and his voice was cracking, it was obvious they didn't want to shoot him but it got so out of hand so quickly they didn't know what else to do. I don't know why that's really relevant to all of this but I guess I want to make the point that cops usually don't want to have to do shit like that, they get put in danger and sometimes shit gets real messy real fast and like anyone would they just panic or have to make a tough decision to stop someone before other people get hurt. Cops are just people and they have really tough jobs at times, calling them pigs just isn't fair in my opinion. It's totally true that some of them are scum bags, my friend and I got arrested and treated really badly by cops in nz a few years ago when they caught us pissing out the back of a pub, I was shocked by their behaviour and it definitely wasn't ok for them to throw us around like that when we weren't resisting but not all cops are like that, most aren't actually.

Thanks for the nice words laugh, withdrawal blows and I'm having a hell of a time just trying to stay sane and not call my dealer to score. I don't know why I try to escape all the time, it's not like I'm depressed or anything really, I just feel like something is missing when I'm sober I think. My parents live in nz and we don't have a super scheme there at all so they were fine in that respect but my dad had a tough time trying to keep his motorbike shop above water for a while with the whole GFC, he seems to be in the clear now but he was seriously considering selling for a while. I totally agree with you that many aspects of our society are fucked, it's not a fair world and capitalism is clearly not working, we wouldn't have a lot of the things we have without it but it does definitely work in favour of the haves to the disadvantage of the have nots. People from a poor background have it tough, I think they always hav but with how capitalism works it seems to be getting worse and worse, the wealthy can survive major upsets like the GFC where poorer people just cant. I am of the opinion that no matter what your background and upbringing there is never an excuse to be a scumbag, the wealthy may abuse power and be able to get themselves out of trouble which I don't agree with at all but using the excuse of being from a disadvantaged family to get out of trouble when youre being a cunt is equally uncool. Unfortunately we haven't got things worked out in this world and I doubt we ever will, someone always seems to have to be at the bottom but like student said I think some things are going to change for the better. With the ability to be able to communicate and share information easy using the net many people are getting more wise to what's going on and with that information we are able to find out about things we do and don't agree with and have our voices heard. Some things may get worse, these illegal wars are definitely having a detrimental effect on our personal freedom and some of the very corrupt popular media is more adept than ever at spreading disinformation and scaring people into doing things they otherwise wouldn't however not everyone is fooled and many people have the sense to see through the lies and through the hard work of some corruption is getting harder and harder to hide. Hopefully we can utilise this ability to obtain truth and use it to influence the people who are in the controllers seat, they are elected by us (in this country at least) and we as the people have enormous influence over what gets done in parliament, we just have to make sure we stay involved.

Rant over, I hope that made sense, I'm not feeling on top of my game today.
 
@laugh
Maybe I did come across a bit harsh at first, I just get frustrated when I see people make claims that I find ridiculous and are often un-informed. I pry myself on learning facts and putting the pieces together of what is and isn't related and this is a topic that interests me greatly. If you want to know more about my childhood, I went to a poor primary school and a below average highschool. My parents whilst both very intelligent people, my Mum suffered from a serious gambling addiction so don't think for a second that my family would be richer then you. This was not the type of gambling problem of a couple hundred dollars a week.
This was a gambling problem that cost us everything, our house, our cars, any valuable assets, and more importantly My dad will be paying off my Mothers bills for the rest of his life (more money then I care to share telling) so don't think for a second that I'm someone who's had life handed over to me easily.

I currently work two jobs and attend uni full time, it's not easy, it's fucking hard underpaid work. But I want to be an Engineer, truth be told one of the only things I care about more then Drug Reform is the environment. I hope to one day be in a position to make changes to our policy's with air and solar energy and if possible nuclear.

Becoming a mental health care professional is a really good job and it's definitely something I admire people who choose to work in that field.

The reason I got so annoyed before was because I see people's rants, and I just don't think their helpful and I actually believe them to be counter-productive. Having said that I stand for freedom of speech first before all else so I'll always support your right to say what you want to say and as a rule I try not to be judgemental. I've seen small freedoms get taken away over the last decade, things like people being able to smoke on the streets of Brisbane, or the police having the ability to give you a fine for swearing in public (AFAIK this has never been enforced but I don't believe that they should have this power),or the fact that heaps of beach's you can no longer walk your dog or fly a kite at (even though nothing ever goes wrong) or the fact that the police in Victoria can search whats on your person any where at any time to look for weapons (which I have no doubt is being abused to bust people for small amounts of drugs.

I hate the idea that our country will be able to look into everyones computers or phones and see what we've been saying. The idea is scary.

But I don't believe that most of the people in power are actively trying to take freedoms away, they see them as answers to problems without looking at the bigger picture and with a whole generation of people who were brought up with propaganda saying "Just Say No!" they're views have become skewed because they believe drugs to be a bigger threat than what they are.

I brought up those examples before to show that my eye's are very open and pay a hell of a lot of attention to the world around us. But you have to look at whats happening all around the world to see where Australia is headed. We're a vastly isolated country from most of the first world countries, it means targeting things like our internet connections and phone connections in their eyes is going to be a way of getting a step ahead. If they ever did get to a point like this though, any criminal who had files to hide I'm sure they could find a way around it, or as any smart person would do talk in code on their phones. But the progress I see doesn't start here, or the other side of the world, it's already starting everywhere. Each year country's get more acceptant of cannabis, and I suspect Ecstasy will soon follow into a more mainstream discussion (where cannabis has been for about 30 years).
With the success that I believe the legalisation of that drug will bring other country's will follow, it's already been starting. Sure at the moment it's still too unpopular in Australia on a political level to suggest such a thing, but as the next generation starts to grow up the hate of drugs is decreasing and the love of freedoms will become a more popular agenda again.

A huge part of politics is people not wanting to upset the mass's, and often that means coming down harder on the minority. But as times change and drugs start being treated as medical issues you will have to see a change in the way politician's prioritise their goals, and whilst sometimes tragedy's do occur like
Mr Curti
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. I still believe that a lot of people are starting to see them as medical issues. When there is something that is strange to someone and has a potential for harm their instincts is to ban it and stop it. But in these days and times, methods of keeping true statistics hidden from the general public are a thing of the past because of social media or websites like erowid and bluelight. And finally the Drug War has been going for 40 years, it seems like forever but it's also only one generation, we may not see a huge change over the next 20 years, but once our kids generation are Adults I can't see how they would want something that has failed as badly as The Drug War to keep on going.

I have more, but if I wanted to keep writing I should write a blog entry instead.
 
apologies for the short responses...i just wanted to say respect yo...& could you perhaps do my math assignment (engineers are good at math, no?) for a carton or something? :)
 
thestudent14 said:
The biggest problem with our society is that most people have that "I don't really care if people see what I'm doing and if it gets more drugs/terrorists off the streets, then I'm all for it" point of view. What needs to happen is the public needs to have a change of the common drug user. Only when us users are seen as the good, contributing people we are that this perception will change and drug's will become a lesser priority and then politicians and police commisioners who are trying to make a good name for themself won't be coming after drug affiliated people, but the real dangers to society such as muderers, rapist's even just people who start fights regularly for no reason when they're out clubbing.
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The majority of drug users are silent and harming no one. I think you underestimate the power of the vast propaganda machine that has been created to demonize the use of alterants. Even as cutting edge science is able to aptly and succinctly demonstrate the effects of some drugs as being relatively harmless to actually beneficial, you still see the media making blanket statements blaming drug use for all sorts of things.

Drug users have a bad reputation because of the authoritative efforts put into the war on drugs, and not because of the drug users themselves. Think about all the law enforcement and security technology companies that would be out of business if the war on drugs were ended tomorrow. Their livelihood and control over our lives all depends on drug users continuing to be demonized.

As for the bit about clubbing... I have seen people do FAR MORE damage while on alcohol than anything else. There is simply no excuse for something as addictive and destructive as alcohol to be permissible while other things will land you in jail and ruin your life forever.

The continued government expansion of power without the consent of the People is unwarranted and uncalled for. The government does not need further ability to invade my freedoms; what it needs is to re-examine its failed social policy.
 
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