Wattle ban madness

[webbykevin]

MILLIONS OF AUSTRALIANS WILL SOON BE BREAKING THE LAW BY HAVING WATTLE TREES GROWING IN THEIR GARDEN. A bill before the NSW parliament this week will make it illegal to possess or sell any live plant that contains mescaline, harmaline, DMT, ephedrine, cathinone or structural analogues. More than half the cactus and wattle species contain such compounds in trace amounts, but the law makes no distinction between trace amounts and usable drug amounts." Basically, thousands of garden plants including all types of herbs, collectible cacti and wattle trees- including the national floral emblem- will become illegal to grow in your garden. What are they going to do, go around forcing millions of people to hack up their lovingly tended gardens and natural bush blocks? Are they going to remove every single wattle species on GOVERNMENT land first???????

http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/nswbills.nsf/0/380e2bd2df6e05aeca257be2001dfa34/$FILE/b2013-113-d14-House.pdf

The bill has already had its first reading and is moving to second reading in the next few days. This will be law by the end of this month unless a lot of people make a lot of noise. Any letter writing should now go to local state members or to the sponsor of the bill, the Minister for Fair Trading. Please also contact the NSW Attorney General to voice your concern.

 

[Mudshark]

Ludicrous .
I thought the Feds gave up on this last year ...
such laws can never work .

 

[poledriver]

Yeah, like this could really be enforced. How insane.

 

[mister]

welcome to the brave new world. What a ridiculous law!.
When are we going to get politicians that are forward thinking and get rid of these conservative, grey haired, self serving Neanderthals that think its still the 1950's. They seriously make me fucking sick!

 

[catching fish]

2 + 2 =

 

[spacejunk]

^mister, I guess we wait til the baby boomers die out, and see if their kids are any less conservative.
:-/

Get writing, NSW BLers!
This is just another law to be used at the state's discretion....unless all police will suddenly be trained in horticulture, biology and ethnobotany?

 

[RedRum OG]

I thought every living thing contained minuscule amounts of DMT, some so minuscule to be pointless, but yeah

 

[Captain Brewster]

^ me too.

Simply put, I'm sure humans contain DMT too.

This is so broad. I hope other states don't decide to follow suit eventually.

 

[Yeetbeat]

^ me too.

Simply put, I'm sure humans contain DMT too.

This is so broad. I hope other states don't decide to follow suit eventually.

DMT has been found in the pineal gland of many many mammals, and is subsequently speculated to be contained (and produced?) within the pineal gland of humans as well. That's just from the Wikipedia page for DMT, so I'm sure there's much more detailed papers on it to be found with some basic Google searches

Does that mean I can be gaoled just for....well, existing? hahaha....fuck

 

[Yeetbeat]

Does this mean our national coat of arms is now some kind of drug paraphernalia? 8(

 

[spacejunk]

Does that mean I can be gaoled just for....well, existing?

Wouldn't be the first time such a thing has happened.
You can get done for "internal possession" in some less enlightened parts of the globe - and hey, as Terrence McKenna used to say, "when it comes to DMT, we're all carrying" (i'm paraphrasing, but you get the point).

Basically laws like this can (and will - if passed) be used against selectively against people. Where does the burden of proof lie, in determining the illegality of cultivating these plants?
Must there be evidence of intent to perform an extraction?

Will the rangers patrolling National Parks full of acacias be charged for growing illicit crops on a commercial scale?

What about old ladies with a cactus garden or a patch of native plants on their property?

We all know that this sort of legislation exists to persecute people who take drugs - first it's talk of a blanket ban on so-called "synthetic drugs" - then we go after the "natural" ones?
How absolutely ludicrous.
Will we stage a mass eradication and deliberate extinction of certain native flora?
If not...why not? It seems to be the "logical" (ha ha ha) extension of such laws.

Seems like a very messy and complicated law, especially for native species.
How many police officers will be well informed enough to identify the species in question?

I imagine that people will be profiled regarding their demographic, their Internet usage and the sort of literature in their possession - evidence of viewing or possessing extraction teks may make all the difference - or perhaps just a policeman not liking the cut of your jib.
Some hippie not giving police the kind of information/evidence they are looking for?
Call in the Ethnobotanical Crime Squad and see if we can't stitch the bastard up.
oh look - they're growing lawn! There's DMT in that - we've got you this time, dastardly crook!
A very slippery slope to be heading down.

Rather than a law created to solve a problem in society, this reeks of targeting a relatively small group of people using/extracting a particularly benign family of drugs for small scale/personal use.
Who has ever yielded a commercial quantity of mescaline from cacti in this country? It is a substance that is so rare on the black market, that "cracking down" on plants that bare this alkaloid (or any of the others in question) is illogical.

Surely a distraction from some other issue or controversy? I don't follow NSW state politics...but this is a total PR exercise or selectively prosecuted witch-hunt in the making.

We're not talking about drugs of addiction or of great black market potential.

The insanity of making plants that grow naturally upon the earth illegal is hardly worth mentioning.
Sometimes I think this country just regresses further and further into the dark ages as time rolls on.

 

[junkie skumbag]

They tried to do this a few years ago... When I was working for green corps ( and was unaware at the time that acacias contained DMT.i hadn't even tried it yet)our soul job was to go around cutting down acacia.while givin the odd job to distract us from what our job REALLY was

 

[oldirtybizza]

^Don't forget though that many acacia species are quite invasive , it pretty standard conservation practice to remove invasive species from areas in which it isn't native. Ive been involved with acacia removal and I don't think there has been any drug related motive to remove the species.

Really tho the market for DMT is tiny , the people who make these laws are so out of touch, they must just think drugs are drugs and someone would be as likely to take a DMT trip as take an E or a spliff.

 

[The_horz]

The link is broken and I cant find the bill. Does anybody have a link?

 

[poledriver]

I think this is it, start halfway down or so -

http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/hansart.nsf/V3Key/LC20130918052

So it is not intended to capture, for example, somebody saying that passionflower tea is a relaxing tea to have at night. There are so many different products that are sold on that basis. The biggest problem with this legislation is that plants are exempt unless they contain a drug that is included in schedule 1 of the Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act. Proposed section 36ZE of the bill lists the substances that the bill will not apply to. It includes:

(h) any plant or fungus, or extract from a plant or fungus, that is not, or does not contain, a substance specified in Schedule 1,

The problem is the plants captured as having ingredients included in schedule 1. It is quite amazing. For example, mescaline is included in schedule 1. Like a lot of people in New South Wales, across the country and globally, I grow cacti and succulents. Virtually every type of cacti has mescaline in it. The simple fact is that only a few types of cacti—I think there are three—have enough mescaline in them to make it worthwhile to produce mescaline. However, mescaline analogues are present in almost all cactus species in minute traces. So in effect anybody who sold a cactus or swapped a cactus with a friend would fall under this legislation.

The Hon. Marie Ficarra: Swapped a cactus with a friend.

The Hon. AMANDA FAZIO: I hear the disdain coming from the Hon. Marie Ficarra. She obviously has never been to one of the fairs held every year by the Cactus and Succulent Society of New South Wales where you can go and swap plants with other people. The simple fact is that that society would be equated with a cartel of drug dealers because of the stupid way in which this legislation has been drafted. There are a number of other common plants that contain substances that are deemed to be a schedule 1 drug. There is dimethyltryptamine [DMT]. About 10 per cent of all native wattle species contain DMT, including the most common ones like Acacia longifolia—which is used extensively by Government agencies as a highway planting—and Acacia sophorae, which has been planted to help dune rehabilitation on beaches in New South Wales.
Banning commercial cultivation of Acacia courtii would complicate its status as an endangered species. Acacia is but one of the species with problems in this regard. DMT is also found in many legume fodder plants and ornamentals. They contain DMT or analogues of DMT. Phalaris grass also contains DMT. It is the main pasture grass grown in drier parts of New South Wales from Albury to the Queensland border and it is rich in DMT. Criminalising supply of this pasture grass would affect most graziers in New South Wales. I notice that nobody in the National Party is interested in this issue; instead they have all thought, "Wow, we can claim in the headlines that we are banning synthetic drugs with this bill."

Ergotamine is another drug that is included. People who get migraines will know that is one of the major ingredients in migraine medication. It is also commonly found in most species of the Convolvulaceae family. That includes the common morning glory vines that grow along railway tracks and riverbanks in New South Wales, which once again makes the Government the main cultivator of this drug. Sweet potatoes contain traces of ergotamine analogues in their leaves. All ornamental species in the family, which include about 20 common commercial plants in New South Wales, would also be captured by this legislation. Harmaline is of concern to the industry because it is found in passionflower tea. Traces of that drug are present in passionfruit vines, including those used for commercial fruit production as well as rare native species.

From my reading of it, no minimum allowable amount of a schedule 1 drug is included in this legislation. There is no way of knowing whether somebody who has in their backyard a passionfruit vine, some acacias and a greenhouse full of cacti will be treated like a drug dealer. If Government members say in this House that of course this bill will not apply to them even though schedule 1 drugs are prohibited that will mean that we are passing a piece of rubbish legislation. This will be a piece of bad and stupid legislation and I would expect the Government Whip, who is well known for opposing unnecessary and stupid legislation, to have a say on this.

As a legislator, this is the type of bill that I find to be just plain stupid. This Government deserves to be condemned if it does not put forward legislation that works and adequately covers all unintended consequences. An assurance from the Government that a minimum amount of schedule 1 drugs by volume in plants will be specified will provide some comfort to the nursery industry and people who grow cacti that they will not be caught by this legislation. Everyone knows that it is illegal to grow mescaline cactus, but this bill would make growing any other variety of cacti equally as bad and illegal. Unless we get an assurance that that is not the case it shows that the Government has rushed this bill.

I know that a government makes a political decision when it decides the approach it will take to deal with synthetic drugs. I have already said that I think the approach this Government has taken is wrong. It will do nothing to make our young people safer. It also will do nothing to ensure that these drugs have a regulated market. As long as all of these drugs are illegal there is no possible way in which we can ensure we remove from the marketplace any substance that we know is making people sick, causing them to overdose or—even worse—killing them. The Government has decided to proceed in this way and, from my perspective, it is a wrong decision. I admit that the community wants something done about synthetic drugs.

If the Government had been a bit more adventurous and responsive to the reality that we cannot stop people from taking illegal drugs it would have taken a different approach and recognised that what it ought to do is provide drug takers with the safest possible environment. The Government is introducing legislation that will potentially criminalise people who simply want to grow plants which up until now have been legal to grow, display and take to plant shows. This legislation will criminalise the Botanic Gardens Trust. Will it have to bulldoze its beautiful cactus garden?

The Hon. Marie Ficarra: Are you crazy or what?

The Hon. AMANDA FAZIO: I am not crazy; this legislation is crazy. Unless the bill provides a minimum amount of schedule 1 drugs per volume by plant, this bill will criminalise gardeners. Members opposite might say it is all right because the bill will not be implemented in that way. What sort of example does it set for the community if the Government says it will put legislation in place that is stupid and unworkable but not implement it? That tells the community that if they do not like a law they do not have to implement it. That is a wrong example to set. We should not proceed to the third reading of this bill until these issues have been properly considered and amendments are put forward by the Government to ensure that these unintended consequences are nullified. As it stands, this bill does not achieve what the Government intends it to. In fact, it will criminalise a bunch of law abiding gardeners in New South Wales. That would be shameful.

 

[The_horz]

Thanks for the post. Amanda Fazio has hit the nail on the head.

 

[Mysterie]

They tried to do this a few years ago... When I was working for green corps ( and was unaware at the time that acacias contained DMT.i hadn't even tried it yet)our soul job was to go around cutting down acacia.while givin the odd job to distract us from what our job REALLY was

thats atrocious, arent green corps supposed to protect the environment ?

the govt is probly implementing this law just so they can eventually boast to all the other democratic countries how they succeeded in stripping us of all our rights

 

[spacejunk]

^ removing invasive species (not native to that area) does protect the ecosystem in question...counter-intuitive though it may seem...

I love the quote from parliament, above: "are you crazy or what?"
On the contrary...it's amazing how "crazy" the proposed legislation is IMO. Just a tad hypocritical, eh?
A bit like eroding civil liberties in the name of 'security', or whatever the excuse of the month happens to be...

 

[laugh]

Funny how shit like this usually happens under the right wing cock suckers.

Release the drones.

Happy Friday fellow Australiens!

 

[justsayknow]

Nice to hear someone from one of the major parties speaking up against prohibition. It seems like she might be a bit of a rebel.