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Bluelight Crew
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Greens policy backs illegal drugs
Gerard McManus
31 Aug 2004
ECSTASY and other illegal drugs would be supplied over the counter to young users in a radical policy framed by Senator Bob Brown's Greens.
The Greens manifesto backs official supply of the dangerous drug ecstasy as well as state-sanctioned heroin and marijuana sales at what it calls appropriate venues.
The ecstasy policy suggests distributing the drug to users while providing official information detailing the dangers of the drug.
About 15 people have died from ecstasy use since it hit Australia in the 1990s. The drug can cause severe psychological side-effects in some people.
A Herald Sun examination of Greens policies reveals other extraordinary plans for Australia including:
LAWS to force people to ride bicycles more often and eat less meat.
DRIVING farmers from their land.
MEDICARE funding for sex-change operations.
CAPITAL gains tax on the most expensive family homes.
AN OPEN door policy on asylum seekers.
With a chance to grab the balance of power in the Senate, the Greens have for the first time released a comprehensive set of policies beyond their environmental platform.
They want a welfare program that allows people to remain on higher dole payments indefinitely without any requirement to look for a job.
The Greens also want the population cut by two million, and for unspecified farms, roads and buildings to be turned back into nature.
With Senator Brown at its helm and two other MPs already in Federal Parliament, the Greens are aiming to treble their representation by installing a new senator in each state and picking up Lower House seats.
Senator Brown said yesterday he believed one million Australians would vote for the Greens at this election -- double the number of Green voters at the last election.
Senator Brown said the Greens hoped to unseat a sitting Liberal senator in the ACT, win the ALP seat of Melbourne held by Lindsay Tanner and hold the NSW seat of Cunningham.
Green critic Mike Nahan, of the Institute of Public Affairs, a Right-wing think tank, said the party was the most radical Australia had seen.
"The Greens are loopier than any party I've seen, and will be much worse than the Australian Democrats ever were," he said.
"It was OK while they were playing devil's advocate, with Bob Brown shouting from the sidelines, but now there is a real prospect of them winning the balance of power."
Prime Minister John Howard yesterday described the Greens' agenda as kooky.
"The Greens are not just about the environment," he said. "They have a whole lot of other very, very kooky policies in relation to things like drugs and all of that sort of stuff and new taxes and whatever, which people never talk about because they try and portray themselves as a one-issue party of just being warm and fuzzy about the environment."
Greens policies also include cutting Murray River irrigators by 3000 gigalitres -- or six times the size of the Sydney Harbour -- each year.
From the Herald Sun
Also:
Dual policy on drugs
Gerard McManus
31 Aug 2004
BOB Brown's Greens are advocating a dual policy on drugs going into the election - a crackdown on legal and prescription drugs but a loosening up on illegal drugs.
For the first time a major political party is advocating all personal use of illegal drugs to be moved outside the criminal framework.
Marijuana, ecstasy and other unnamed drugs would be available at "appropriate venues" and in "controlled environments", according to the party's policy.
While giving the green light to marijuana, ecstasy and other drugs, Senator Brown's party appears to be alarmed about GHB and date-rape drugs.
It describes these as "drugs of concern" and says there needs to be more research and public campaigns to warn about their dangers.
Pilot programs would be undertaken to examine controlled availability of heroin to registered users from approved clinics.
Cultivation of marijuana would be regulated and a probe undertaken into the nation's police forces to reduce drug-related corruption.
Senator Brown, a trained general practitioner, would at the same time have government agencies monitor the effects of decriminalisation on young people.
Legal products such as alcohol and tobacco would come in for heavy government regulation.
Promotion of tobacco products would be banned and alcohol advertising restricted.
The Greens would introduce mandatory labelling of all alcoholic drinks with health warnings together with the number of standard drinks each bottle or can contained.
According to the Greens, drugs and substance abuse are complex issues, but the public needed to be educated on prescription and non-prescription medication.
Also from the Herald Sun
There's also an editorial in the Herald Sun concerning this but it hasn't gone online yet so I'll link it when it does. Very negative as you'd expect.
This article is also showing on the front of News.com.au and also appears in the Australian in a modified form.
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