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NEWS: Herald Sun - 10/06/07 'Greens cannabis shame'

hoptis

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Greens' cannabis shame
Chris Tinkler and Liam Houlihan
June 10, 2007 12:00am

THE GREENS' chief policy strategist in Victoria has admitted she helped organise a cannabis festival.

Freja Leonard, chief of staff to Victorian Greens MP Greg Barber, used to be a coordinator at Mardi Grass, Nimbin's pot celebration.

Mothers of overdose victims are calling for Ms Leonard to resign and say the revelation raises major questions over Mr Barber's judgment.

The illegal festival features widespread drug-taking, nudity and the Hemp Cup - a judging section designed to find the best marijuana.

Ms Leonard refused to say whether she had taken any illegal drugs during her stay in Nimbin.

"The lifestyle choices I have made in the past are irrelevant. That is none of your business," she said.

It has also emerged that Ms Leonard was a speaker at a rally outside a court in Lismore, NSW, calling for anti-drug laws to be scrapped.

Her appearance was heralded in a 2001 issue of the online magazine Weed Witches.

Jillian Parker, whose daughter Janelle died of a drug overdose at 15, said: "This woman should be dismissed.

"Drugs ruin lives and those of the drug users' extended families, and cannabis is rightly illegal.

"They must have known her background. It really raises questions about the Green Party."

Sunday Herald Sun
 
hoptis said:
Sunday Herald Sun"The illegal festival features widespread drug-taking, nudity and the Hemp Cup - a judging section designed to find the best marijuana."


Mardi Grass organisers actually get Development Application approval through the Lismore City Council, therefore it's quite legal, even the police, yes the police support it, or at least they say they do in their press release.

As far as drug policies the Greens are the only party who have tried to base their policies on harm reduction measures.
 
Mothers of overdose victims are calling for Ms Leonard to resign and say the revelation raises major questions over Mr Barber's judgment.

Cos marijuana was to blame for their kid's overdoses
 
The reality is the greens are far too out there in their policies, if given control of this country (which will likely never happen) i think Australia would fall into an economic struggle of epic proportion.

Weed is as responsible for problems as any drug in my opinion, from what i have witnessed in my lifetime, Marijuana is by far the hardest, most widely abused drug known to mankind. And always, from pot smokers - i hear the same ignorant excuse; "at least it comes from the ground"... Does that make it less of a drug?

Although i do support the greens HR policies, i can't see many of their other policies doing this country any favors. And honestly, leave that woman to her opinion about drugs, they claimed her daughters life - one could only imagine how you would feel if you were still ignorant to the whole realm/world of drug use/abuse and knowledge. To a non drug users, drugs are drugs, and ignorance is bliss - if a doctor gives you something that makes you feel 'high' there is nothing wrong with that.
 
How about the global environment policies? I think Labor joined with Greens would be an alright party to run Australia before we turn into George Bush's third ass cheek, as if we're not already cos of lil Johnny.
 
The most largely abused drugs in this world today are DMT and GHB! They're in everybodies brains or blood streams as we speak. Not one single human on this earth is void of those chemicals. The whole world should be ashamed.
 
^lol... so true.. but you can't consider that 'abuse' because ghb is present in such small amounts considered to a 'recreational' dose. and DMT could hardly be called abuse, its only released like max 1-3 times in a lifetime.
 
Whats it got to do with this 15 y.o who died from smack or something like that?

Mums aye...
 
Despite the article title, theres nothing shameful about marijuana use. Atleast, not in comparison to the 8 people that die everyday from alcohol in Australia. A child (as in, an under 18 yr old) dies every week from alcohol. We all know how many people have died from cannabis (i.e. none).

It's not like cannabis is 100% harmless, but if it can't kill you, and alcohol can, then in my mind that makes it infinitely safer. It's a shame the general media and right wing politicians are too gutless to face the issue and instead prefer to scapegoat it for their own financial gains.
 
peaked said:
Despite the article title, theres nothing shameful about marijuana use. Atleast, not in comparison to the 8 people that die everyday from alcohol in Australia. A child (as in, an under 18 yr old) dies every week from alcohol. We all know how many people have died from cannabis (i.e. none).

It's not like cannabis is 100% harmless, but if it can't kill you, and alcohol can, then in my mind that makes it infinitely safer. It's a shame the general media and right wing politicians are too gutless to face the issue and instead prefer to scapegoat it for their own financial gains.

Well said!
 
A little about Jillian Parker...

Fair enough, the mother in this story has obviously had a seriously hard time with her daughter, but a little back story is in order.
Check out this link.

Her daughter died of an overdose of the prescription drugs temazepam and quinine.
 
^The link doesn't say much at all...
 
Jillian Parker, whose daughter Janelle died of a drug overdose at 15, said: "This woman should be dismissed.

I think the key point of the article posted by frank_frink was that she died from prescription drugs, even though the initial article seems to infer that she died from illicit substances.

I find it disgusting that Jillian is exploiting her daughters death as a means of spreading her moral beliefs about illicit substances.
 
Theres been cannabis related deaths, but I think they always hid the fact other substances had been used or they were just very ill. There was the case in the UK a couple of years ago, very high levels of THC in his blood, bnut was there more to it....
 
That's right peaked, that's exactly what I was getting at.
The woman supposedly calling for Ms Leonard's resignation (almost certainly set up by the Murdoch journalists) has a sad story, but her daughter did not overdose on illicit drugs, let alone cannabis.

This article is a blatant political move and has no substance. It is a classic beatup by the Murdoch press.

On the subject of the possibility of overdosing on weed, here is another link for you.

"the Domestic Dog, would have to consume roughly one third of a pound (150 g) of pure THC in order to experience fatality. "

... but this is beside the point. Drug addiction, to drugs both legal and not, is a problem all societies face. The greens advocate harm minimisation strategies and this appears to be all Ms Leonard is guilty of doing. Nowhere can I find her suggesting that she promotes pot smoking.

The article was pure propaganda, and apparently the Australian Liberal Party (the major conservative party in Oz, for those who don't know) have been using it in letterbox drops as part of their federal election campaign in recent weeks.

Sad.
 
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