Discussion Random Discussion

[Drake Huggins]

Pretty easy to fix that. Legalising drugs obviously makes the purity known and reduces the prices/danger of getting them. That minimises harm. Not sure I'd legalise everything but just doing pot would be a good start. I'd investigate the possibility of doing ecstasy as well, maybe even heroin - very few people on those drugs damage others.

We may as well try domething different, Bergholt. Goodness knows the so called war on drugs was lost long ago . There is a belief amongst many coppers i worked with that legalisation won't happen because so many of the wealthy profit from it and indulge, themselves. Like any war, it's all about profit. The misdirection that politicians use for their advantage is based on the greatest motivator there is. Fear. Same for the gangs and any other issue you want to explore. Most people don't have the time and inclination to resesrch these things, so the pictures, three sentence grabs and screaming headlines are enough to "inform" most.

Legalisation and total decriminalisation in Portugal seems to be working a treat. The attendant drop in general crime is an interesting consequence. Correlation only at this stage, but i suspect it will be proven to be cause and effect, eventually. Killing two birds with one stone.

 

[Joffaboy]

Thanks for making it a racist issue

For what its worth.
I'd consider there are some pretty rough groups of Sudanese and sometimes Maori's round my area. I'm sorry if they don't group up like a TV sitcom, with 3 white guys, one of them gay, a token black and maybe an Asian for your super simple politically correct world.
I don't think there are any particular issues with dark skinned Australians, Indians, Americans. That's not to say that some of them aren't trash.

As was stated above the Sudanese are over-represented. There are well know reasons for it, mostly to do with the environment they came from, and its not because they are black. I do have issue with people not predicting that they were going to be trouble and we end up with them cruising the nearby suburbs looking to steal things and hurt people, and laughing at how soft our cops are compared to those back home.

Idiots like you telling people its not happening don't help. Now take your politics out of it.
If groups of Lithuanians were kicking in peoples doors and bashing them, I'd be racist against Lithuanians in your (partially closed ) eyes , for daring to mention it.

I made it a racial issue?

Ok.

I'll be off from this then as I see it has decended into assasine finger pointing.



On [device_name] using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[bergholt]

We may as well try domething different, Bergholt. Goodness knows the so called war on drugs was lost long ago . There is a belief amongst many coppers i worked with that legalisation won't happen because so many of the wealthy profit from it and indulge, themselves. Like any war, it's all about profit.

Last year I met a guy who owns/runs Australia's second biggest medicinal marijuana grower. He's a doctor, huge amount of family wealth, owns half of Toorak apparently. He said they've developed three different strains of pot ready for when it's legalised: a relaxing one, a trippy one, a talkative one. On the back of the legalisation in 10 US states he's very very confident it's only a matter of time. They're going to profit massively from it when it happens.

 

[Drake Huggins]

Last year I met a guy who owns/runs Australia's second biggest medicinal marijuana grower. He's a doctor, huge amount of family wealth, owns half of Toorak apparently. He said they've developed three different strains of pot ready for when it's legalised: a relaxing one, a trippy one, a talkative one. On the back of the legalisation in 10 US states he's very very confident it's only a matter of time. They're going to profit massively from it when it happens.

Not to mention the hemp industry that is already booming. Strains have very little THC and are now grown for food and hemp material. The medicinal marijuana market will be huge. Where do we invest, Bergholt?

 

[mightymalaka]

Last year I met a guy who owns/runs Australia's second biggest medicinal marijuana grower. He's a doctor, huge amount of family wealth, owns half of Toorak apparently. He said they've developed three different strains of pot ready for when it's legalised: a relaxing one, a trippy one, a talkative one. On the back of the legalisation in 10 US states he's very very confident it's only a matter of time. They're going to profit massively from it when it happens.

Put me down for one of each!

 

[SaintsSeptember]

The war on drugs has worked to an extent in Australia.
But.....
Because coke and Ecstasy are too expensive .... we get the crystal meth.
Not a "healthy" substitute.
Also people buying E , often get ice as a substitute or worse, a mixture of E and Ice.

 

[Ekomaira]

wasn't sure where to put this but the 1966 grand final will be on foxtel at 9:30am next Thursday (same day as the first test)

it'll be on that Wednesday night (technically Thursday I guess) at 1:00am if anyone wants to record it

 

[VDS66]

Put me down for one of each!

Like those 6 pack sampler packs of beer.

 

[VDS66]

The war on drugs has worked to an extent in Australia.
But.....
Because coke and Ecstasy are too expensive .... we get the crystal meth.
Not a "healthy" substitute.
Also people buying E , often get ice as a substitute or worse, a mixture of E and Ice.

The war on drugs has been as effective as prohibition was.

Waste of time and resources because if someone wants it they'll find it.

Take the criminality out of it and you starve organised crime andcrelated criminal offences.

If people are free to drink alcohol, why shouldn't they be free to take other drugs?

 

[mightymalaka]

The war on drugs has been as effective as prohibition was.

Waste of time and resources because if someone wants it they'll find it.

Take the criminality out of it and you starve organised crime andcrelated criminal offences.

If people are free to drink alcohol, why shouldn't they be free to take other drugs?

Right on Brother

Now is it me maaaan, or are those teeth getting larger?

 

[Drake Huggins]

The war on drugs has worked to an extent in Australia.
But.....
Because coke and Ecstasy are too expensive .... we get the crystal meth.
Not a "healthy" substitute.
Also people buying E , often get ice as a substitute or worse, a mixture of E and Ice.

I think the number of casualties The war has claimed would suggest otherwise. 50,000 lives claimed by alcohol in the last year alone. Twice that number by prescription drugs. Add the illegal ones and we have an epidemic. That's without counting the cost of disability. Given the best estimates by Border Control, the Feds etc. tell us they intercept about 10% of illegal drug imports, and I believe there is strong evidence to support the notion we are a sick population. We've lost so comprehensively, all we've got left is denial and fearmongering. Ask any copper or paramedic, let alone doctors and nurses in EDs of hospitals.

 

[mightymalaka]

I think the number of casualties The war has claimed would suggest otherwise. 50,000 lives claimed by alcohol alone. Twice that number by prescription drugs. Add the illegal ones and we have an epidemic. That's without counting the cost of disability. Given the best estimates by Border Control, the Feds etc. tell us they intercept about 10% of illegal drug imports, and I believe there is strong evidence to support the notion we are a sick population. We've lost so comprehensively, all we've got left is denial and fearmongering. Ask amy vopper or paramedic, let alone doctors and nurses in EDs of hospitals.

Talk about Captain Buzz kill man!

Sadly it appears you may well be right in the main!
I'm choosing the denial category!

 

[Moral Decay]

This is a sort of difficult post, because it's about perspective, I often have difficulty understanding the content of other peoples posts, no body language, no tone of voice, no understanding a person's personality, their experience and exactly what their perspective is.
I find myself guessing at peoples' intent and guessing using my perspective, guessing at their perspective, that gap generated in understanding, the nature hatred, violence and drugs of my experience and the things you blokes are talking about in the society you live in.

So this my perspective, not right not wrong, not good or bad but just as it was, and I'll leave out the really bad bits.

1973 to 1977 age 8 - 12
I lived in England, Wolverhampton, Stafford and Birmingham. Yes the Midlands were depressed but not as bad as the North, the soccer riots, Molyneux Park, Wolves vs Liverpool, the houses in streets for miles around the ground were boarded up, the inhabitants cowering behind their defensive shields, every weekend. Fans separated by chain link fences, Police with German Shepherds overcome by the mob, rioting in the stands before the game has even started. Brixton Riots, Miners Strike. For the kids I went to school with, subsidized school meals, for many the only meat (leather) they ever ate, for some the only hot meal or the only meal in a day, Education according to class. Race violence on the streets of Birmingham. Vilified because I was different, -Australian, it wasn't personal, it was any one that was different, there was always a reason to lash out.

1978 to 1983.
Living in Essendon then Pascoe Vale, regular riots at railway stations, Pascoe Vale, Broad Meadows, Jacana, the Manager of the Pascoe Vale Hotel shot across the bar, High School was a den of sexual abuse, at least six students I knew were having affairs with teachers and the suspicion of many more, violence between teachers and students was common as was inter student violence and even occasionally inter teacher. A riot at a tech school left 6 dead, started with a Turkish boy pinching the bum of a Vietnamese girl, we sorted ourselves through race but that didn't mean we hated each other because of race it was just identity. I lost my first mate to an overdose at 14, (vale Rob), my best mate's sister was getting her stomach pumped at 15, we knew there were no drugs at school because the Principal assured us there were none, sadly it was his daughter shagging the local Station master and pushing them. The Broady boys hijacking a steam roller try to rob a bank with it, couldn't get it over the gutter into the front wall of the bank, rolled over a telephone box and parked it on a railway line thank God someone saw it on the line ran down the line at 4:30 am and stopped the first train. Someone stabbed to death in the toilets at Flinders Street Station, a man in his 50's kicked to death, by 6 private schools boys also at Flinders Street, a thrill killing. No one walked through the Foostcray mall after dark and the stall holders at the Footscray market kept shotguns under the counter. How any of my class mates did Turana then graduated to the Blue Stone College? Domestic Violence wasn't a crime that police dealt with.

1987 to 1990.
Living in Hawthorn, black magic, gang violence in Richmond, Vietnamese youth with swords, the Bridge Club, the Richmond pubs, The Great Britain, The Corner Hotel, The All Nations, there was always punchups, stopped going out Friday nights, left too many parties walking backwards, ducking and weaving, hell of a laugh...…..at the time. The Victoria Hotel in Brunswick a young Gangitano and the Carlton crew, the young men, in their shiny Armani suits fighting each other at the bar to buy the old men drinks, rampant Police violence and corruption. A nationally recognised trucking company making millions by carting drugs for the bikies. Uncle Ball Bearing visiting next door. No one went to King St. after 12pm. too dangerous. Clubs segregated by race, any skip brave enough to go to the Bombay Rock?

1995 to 2001
Taxi driving in Melbourne and truly I was an innocent until then, the unremitting, drugs, alcohol, violence and sexual assaults, there's a reason most taxi drivers only did the job for 3 months and any that have done it for more than 4 years have breakdowns. Good middle and upper class people shitting themselves because it was funny, the women boasting about raping men, if you wanted drugs of any sort or sex of any persuasion, legal or otherwise I knew here to find it. Most of what we understand as more polite society is more vicious by far than the ferals, the scum, becuse it's entitled, you just have to be there when it explodes. How much of it is perspective? I once gave an underage street walker a lift home, she was selling her body to support her drug habit instead of stealing, she had been r*ped by her step father from the age of 5 left home at 14 and was back with mum in Glen Waverly living in the garage because her private school boyfriend beat her with a jemmy bar, she wanted me to come in with her for sex, because I had been nice to her. Three days later Diana died, and all over the CBD women were breaking down in tears, I know I was giving them lifts home so distraught were they, one woman deeply distressed and on St.Kilda Rd, through tears wanted to know why I wasn't upset, I told her about that young girl and how I thought that her life, this person I had met and touched, I had talked to, how her life was a human tragedy and how it had affected me, how the death of a woman on the other side of the world who in my eyes had every advantage, that I would never know had little effect. But not according to the delicate Hebe who rounded on me in disgust and fury and dismissed that girl as a dirty little ****.

The difference between now and then, now, we see it in the papers, or online or in the news, now everyone knows; then, these things were private, the criminal under world was a separate society that prided itself on it's separation. Then we were told how good we had it and sure we knew different, we knew because we experienced it, but we still believed that someone other than us was doing it a lot better, now we strive for indignation and victim status, for self righteous rage to justify our beliefs.

This is my perspective, it was bad when I was young and it was worse before that too, it really does seem better now, that doesn't mean it's not bad it's just different, but then I often don't understand what people are writing here or even why they are writing it, I struggle with their condemnation of others, because there but for the grace of something, some chance event go I, still it's an education.

 

[Sadsainter]

This is a sort of difficult post, because it's about perspective, I often have difficulty understanding the content of other peoples posts, no body language, no tone of voice, no understanding a person's personality, their experience and exactly what their perspective is.
I find myself guessing at peoples' intent and guessing using my perspective, guessing at their perspective, that gap generated in understanding, the nature hatred, violence and drugs of my experience and the things you blokes are talking about in the society you live in.

So this my perspective, not right not wrong, not good or bad but just as it was, and I'll leave out the really bad bits.

1973 to 1977 age 8 - 12
I lived in England, Wolverhampton, Stafford and Birmingham. Yes the Midlands were depressed but not as bad as the North, the soccer riots, Molyneux Park, Wolves vs Liverpool, the houses in streets for miles around the ground were boarded up, the inhabitants cowering behind their defensive shields, every weekend. Fans separated by chain link fences, Police with German Shepherds overcome by the mob, rioting in the stands before the game has even started. Brixton Riots, Miners Strike. For the kids I went to school with, subsidized school meals, for many the only meat (leather) they ever ate, for some the only hot meal or the only meal in a day, Education according to class. Race violence on the streets of Birmingham. Vilified because I was different, -Australian, it wasn't personal, it was any one that was different, there was always a reason to lash out.

1978 to 1983.
Living in Essendon then Pascoe Vale, regular riots at railway stations, Pascoe Vale, Broad Meadows, Jacana, the Manager of the Pascoe Vale Hotel shot across the bar, High School was a den of sexual abuse, at least six students I knew were having affairs with teachers and the suspicion of many more, violence between teachers and students was common as was inter student violence and even occasionally inter teacher. A riot at a tech school left 6 dead, started with a Turkish boy pinching the bum of a Vietnamese girl, we sorted ourselves through race but that didn't mean we hated each other because of race it was just identity. I lost my first mate to an overdose at 14, (vale Rob), my best mate's sister was getting her stomach pumped at 15, we knew there were no drugs at school because the Principal assured us there were none, sadly it was his daughter shagging the local Station master and pushing them. The Broady boys hijacking a steam roller try to rob a bank with it, couldn't get it over the gutter into the front wall of the bank, rolled over a telephone box and parked it on a railway line thank God someone saw it on the line ran down the line at 4:30 am and stopped the first train. Someone stabbed to death in the toilets at Flinders Street Station, a man in his 50's kicked to death, by 6 private schools boys also at Flinders Street, a thrill killing. No one walked through the Foostcray mall after dark and the stall holders at the Footscray market kept shotguns under the counter. How any of my class mates did Turana then graduated to the Blue Stone College? Domestic Violence wasn't a crime that police dealt with.

1987 to 1990.
Living in Hawthorn, black magic, gang violence in Richmond, Vietnamese youth with swords, the Bridge Club, the Richmond pubs, The Great Britain, The Corner Hotel, The All Nations, there was always punchups, stopped going out Friday nights, left too many parties walking backwards, ducking and weaving, hell of a laugh...…..at the time. The Victoria Hotel in Brunswick a young Gangitano and the Carlton crew, the young men, in their shiny Armani suits fighting each other at the bar to buy the old men drinks, rampant Police violence and corruption. A nationally recognised trucking company making millions by carting drugs for the bikies. Uncle Ball Bearing visiting next door. No one went to King St. after 12pm. too dangerous. Clubs segregated by race, any skip brave enough to go to the Bombay Rock?

1995 to 2001
Taxi driving in Melbourne and truly I was an innocent until then, the unremitting, drugs, alcohol, violence and sexual assaults, there's a reason most taxi drivers only did the job for 3 months and any that have done it for more than 4 years have breakdowns. Good middle and upper class people shitting themselves because it was funny, the women boasting about raping men, if you wanted drugs of any sort or sex of any persuasion, legal or otherwise I knew here to find it. Most of what we understand as more polite society is more vicious by far than the ferals, the scum, becuse it's entitled, you just have to be there when it explodes. How much of it is perspective? I once gave an underage street walker a lift home, she was selling her body to support her drug habit instead of stealing, she had been r*ped by her step father from the age of 5 left home at 14 and was back with mum in Glen Waverly living in the garage because her private school boyfriend beat her with a jemmy bar, she wanted me to come in with her for sex, because I had been nice to her. Three days later Diana died, and all over the CBD women were breaking down in tears, I know I was giving them lifts home so distraught were they, one woman deeply distressed and on St.Kilda Rd, through tears wanted to know why I wasn't upset, I told her about that young girl and how I thought that her life, this person I had met and touched, I had talked to, how her life was a human tragedy and how it had affected me, how the death of a woman on the other side of the world who in my eyes had every advantage, that I would never know had little effect. But not according to the delicate Hebe who rounded on me in disgust and fury and dismissed that girl as a dirty little ****.

The difference between now and then, now, we see it in the papers, or online or in the news, now everyone knows; then, these things were private, the criminal under world was a separate society that prided itself on it's separation. Then we were told how good we had it and sure we knew different, we knew because we experienced it, but we still believed that someone other than us was doing it a lot better, now we strive for indignation and victim status, for self righteous rage to justify our beliefs.

This is my perspective, it was bad when I was young and it was worse before that too, it really does seem better now, that doesn't mean it's not bad it's just different, but then I often don't understand what people are writing here or even why they are writing it, I struggle with their condemnation of others, because there but for the grace of something, some chance event go I, still it's an education.

Pretty comprehensive - you have lived

 

[mightymalaka]

This is a sort of difficult post, because it's about perspective, I often have difficulty understanding the content of other peoples posts, no body language, no tone of voice, no understanding a person's personality, their experience and exactly what their perspective is.
I find myself guessing at peoples' intent and guessing using my perspective, guessing at their perspective, that gap generated in understanding, the nature hatred, violence and drugs of my experience and the things you blokes are talking about in the society you live in.

So this my perspective, not right not wrong, not good or bad but just as it was, and I'll leave out the really bad bits.

1973 to 1977 age 8 - 12
I lived in England, Wolverhampton, Stafford and Birmingham. Yes the Midlands were depressed but not as bad as the North, the soccer riots, Molyneux Park, Wolves vs Liverpool, the houses in streets for miles around the ground were boarded up, the inhabitants cowering behind their defensive shields, every weekend. Fans separated by chain link fences, Police with German Shepherds overcome by the mob, rioting in the stands before the game has even started. Brixton Riots, Miners Strike. For the kids I went to school with, subsidized school meals, for many the only meat (leather) they ever ate, for some the only hot meal or the only meal in a day, Education according to class. Race violence on the streets of Birmingham. Vilified because I was different, -Australian, it wasn't personal, it was any one that was different, there was always a reason to lash out.

1978 to 1983.
Living in Essendon then Pascoe Vale, regular riots at railway stations, Pascoe Vale, Broad Meadows, Jacana, the Manager of the Pascoe Vale Hotel shot across the bar, High School was a den of sexual abuse, at least six students I knew were having affairs with teachers and the suspicion of many more, violence between teachers and students was common as was inter student violence and even occasionally inter teacher. A riot at a tech school left 6 dead, started with a Turkish boy pinching the bum of a Vietnamese girl, we sorted ourselves through race but that didn't mean we hated each other because of race it was just identity. I lost my first mate to an overdose at 14, (vale Rob), my best mate's sister was getting her stomach pumped at 15, we knew there were no drugs at school because the Principal assured us there were none, sadly it was his daughter shagging the local Station master and pushing them. The Broady boys hijacking a steam roller try to rob a bank with it, couldn't get it over the gutter into the front wall of the bank, rolled over a telephone box and parked it on a railway line thank God someone saw it on the line ran down the line at 4:30 am and stopped the first train. Someone stabbed to death in the toilets at Flinders Street Station, a man in his 50's kicked to death, by 6 private schools boys also at Flinders Street, a thrill killing. No one walked through the Foostcray mall after dark and the stall holders at the Footscray market kept shotguns under the counter. How any of my class mates did Turana then graduated to the Blue Stone College? Domestic Violence wasn't a crime that police dealt with.

1987 to 1990.
Living in Hawthorn, black magic, gang violence in Richmond, Vietnamese youth with swords, the Bridge Club, the Richmond pubs, The Great Britain, The Corner Hotel, The All Nations, there was always punchups, stopped going out Friday nights, left too many parties walking backwards, ducking and weaving, hell of a laugh...…..at the time. The Victoria Hotel in Brunswick a young Gangitano and the Carlton crew, the young men, in their shiny Armani suits fighting each other at the bar to buy the old men drinks, rampant Police violence and corruption. A nationally recognised trucking company making millions by carting drugs for the bikies. Uncle Ball Bearing visiting next door. No one went to King St. after 12pm. too dangerous. Clubs segregated by race, any skip brave enough to go to the Bombay Rock?

1995 to 2001
Taxi driving in Melbourne and truly I was an innocent until then, the unremitting, drugs, alcohol, violence and sexual assaults, there's a reason most taxi drivers only did the job for 3 months and any that have done it for more than 4 years have breakdowns. Good middle and upper class people shitting themselves because it was funny, the women boasting about raping men, if you wanted drugs of any sort or sex of any persuasion, legal or otherwise I knew here to find it. Most of what we understand as more polite society is more vicious by far than the ferals, the scum, becuse it's entitled, you just have to be there when it explodes. How much of it is perspective? I once gave an underage street walker a lift home, she was selling her body to support her drug habit instead of stealing, she had been r*ped by her step father from the age of 5 left home at 14 and was back with mum in Glen Waverly living in the garage because her private school boyfriend beat her with a jemmy bar, she wanted me to come in with her for sex, because I had been nice to her. Three days later Diana died, and all over the CBD women were breaking down in tears, I know I was giving them lifts home so distraught were they, one woman deeply distressed and on St.Kilda Rd, through tears wanted to know why I wasn't upset, I told her about that young girl and how I thought that her life, this person I had met and touched, I had talked to, how her life was a human tragedy and how it had affected me, how the death of a woman on the other side of the world who in my eyes had every advantage, that I would never know had little effect. But not according to the delicate Hebe who rounded on me in disgust and fury and dismissed that girl as a dirty little ****.

The difference between now and then, now, we see it in the papers, or online or in the news, now everyone knows; then, these things were private, the criminal under world was a separate society that prided itself on it's separation. Then we were told how good we had it and sure we knew different, we knew because we experienced it, but we still believed that someone other than us was doing it a lot better, now we strive for indignation and victim status, for self righteous rage to justify our beliefs.

This is my perspective, it was bad when I was young and it was worse before that too, it really does seem better now, that doesn't mean it's not bad it's just different, but then I often don't understand what people are writing here or even why they are writing it, I struggle with their condemnation of others, because there but for the grace of something, some chance event go I, still it's an education.

You don't need to read my body language to know
This post has moved me!
Brutally honest and struck a chord or two!

Kudos to you fine sir!

 

[bergholt]

The war on drugs has worked to an extent in Australia.
But.....
Because coke and Ecstasy are too expensive .... we get the crystal meth.
Not a "healthy" substitute.
Also people buying E , often get ice as a substitute or worse, a mixture of E and Ice.

I would say that means the war on drugs hasn't worked. It shouldn't be about reducing the amount of particular drugs on the street, but reducing the harm caused by them. Clearly based on what you've said that isn't happening.

 

[bergholt]

I often don't understand what people are writing here or even why they are writing it, I struggle with their condemnation of others, because there but for the grace of something, some chance event go I, still it's an education.

Fantastic post. I haven't seen 1% of what you've seen. Sympathies and thanks for bringing it to us. I think the part quoted above is especially important.

 

[gringo2011]

The war on drugs has worked to an extent in Australia.
But.....
Because coke and Ecstasy are too expensive .... we get the crystal meth.
Not a "healthy" substitute.
Also people buying E , often get ice as a substitute or worse, a mixture of E and Ice.

I went to a funeral for a family friends son who overdosed on heroin last year, he grew up going to good schools etc but lost his way. His family probably spent $100,000 plus on treatment programs because the public ones are too hard to get into. The private ones are scams IMO. To jail someone costs $110,000 per year, if you spent the money on health and treatment and made it possible to get hold of in safe quantities and qualities it would treat the problem not the outcome.

I don't think we are winning much at all, lots of people flout the law and use drugs.

 

[Yawkey way]

I think the number of casualties The war has claimed would suggest otherwise. 50,000 lives claimed by alcohol alone. Twice that number by prescription drugs. Add the illegal ones and we have an epidemic. That's without counting the cost of disability. Given the best estimates by Border Control, the Feds etc. tell us they intercept about 10% of illegal drug imports, and I believe there is strong evidence to support the notion we are a sick population. We've lost so comprehensively, all we've got left is denial and fearmongering. Ask amy vopper or paramedic, let alone doctors and nurses in EDs of hospitals.

Drake where did you get the 50,000 stat from, is it over a number of years or countries?.

 

[Yawkey way]

I went to a funeral for a family friends son who overdosed on heroin last year, he grew up going to good schools etc but lost his way. His family probably spent $100,000 plus on treatment programs because the public ones are too hard to get into. The private ones are scams IMO. To jail someone costs $110,000 per year, if you spent the money on health and treatment and made it possible to get hold of in safe quantities and qualities it would treat the problem not the outcome.

I don't think we are winning much at all, lots of people flout the law and use drugs.

It’s sadly something that all too often touches the lives of us all directly or otherwise, very sad.

 

[Yawkey way]

This is a sort of difficult post, because it's about perspective, I often have difficulty understanding the content of other peoples posts, no body language, no tone of voice, no understanding a person's personality, their experience and exactly what their perspective is.
I find myself guessing at peoples' intent and guessing using my perspective, guessing at their perspective, that gap generated in understanding, the nature hatred, violence and drugs of my experience and the things you blokes are talking about in the society you live in.

So this my perspective, not right not wrong, not good or bad but just as it was, and I'll leave out the really bad bits.

1973 to 1977 age 8 - 12
I lived in England, Wolverhampton, Stafford and Birmingham. Yes the Midlands were depressed but not as bad as the North, the soccer riots, Molyneux Park, Wolves vs Liverpool, the houses in streets for miles around the ground were boarded up, the inhabitants cowering behind their defensive shields, every weekend. Fans separated by chain link fences, Police with German Shepherds overcome by the mob, rioting in the stands before the game has even started. Brixton Riots, Miners Strike. For the kids I went to school with, subsidized school meals, for many the only meat (leather) they ever ate, for some the only hot meal or the only meal in a day, Education according to class. Race violence on the streets of Birmingham. Vilified because I was different, -Australian, it wasn't personal, it was any one that was different, there was always a reason to lash out.

1978 to 1983.
Living in Essendon then Pascoe Vale, regular riots at railway stations, Pascoe Vale, Broad Meadows, Jacana, the Manager of the Pascoe Vale Hotel shot across the bar, High School was a den of sexual abuse, at least six students I knew were having affairs with teachers and the suspicion of many more, violence between teachers and students was common as was inter student violence and even occasionally inter teacher. A riot at a tech school left 6 dead, started with a Turkish boy pinching the bum of a Vietnamese girl, we sorted ourselves through race but that didn't mean we hated each other because of race it was just identity. I lost my first mate to an overdose at 14, (vale Rob), my best mate's sister was getting her stomach pumped at 15, we knew there were no drugs at school because the Principal assured us there were none, sadly it was his daughter shagging the local Station master and pushing them. The Broady boys hijacking a steam roller try to rob a bank with it, couldn't get it over the gutter into the front wall of the bank, rolled over a telephone box and parked it on a railway line thank God someone saw it on the line ran down the line at 4:30 am and stopped the first train. Someone stabbed to death in the toilets at Flinders Street Station, a man in his 50's kicked to death, by 6 private schools boys also at Flinders Street, a thrill killing. No one walked through the Foostcray mall after dark and the stall holders at the Footscray market kept shotguns under the counter. How any of my class mates did Turana then graduated to the Blue Stone College? Domestic Violence wasn't a crime that police dealt with.

1987 to 1990.
Living in Hawthorn, black magic, gang violence in Richmond, Vietnamese youth with swords, the Bridge Club, the Richmond pubs, The Great Britain, The Corner Hotel, The All Nations, there was always punchups, stopped going out Friday nights, left too many parties walking backwards, ducking and weaving, hell of a laugh...…..at the time. The Victoria Hotel in Brunswick a young Gangitano and the Carlton crew, the young men, in their shiny Armani suits fighting each other at the bar to buy the old men drinks, rampant Police violence and corruption. A nationally recognised trucking company making millions by carting drugs for the bikies. Uncle Ball Bearing visiting next door. No one went to King St. after 12pm. too dangerous. Clubs segregated by race, any skip brave enough to go to the Bombay Rock?

1995 to 2001
Taxi driving in Melbourne and truly I was an innocent until then, the unremitting, drugs, alcohol, violence and sexual assaults, there's a reason most taxi drivers only did the job for 3 months and any that have done it for more than 4 years have breakdowns. Good middle and upper class people shitting themselves because it was funny, the women boasting about raping men, if you wanted drugs of any sort or sex of any persuasion, legal or otherwise I knew here to find it. Most of what we understand as more polite society is more vicious by far than the ferals, the scum, becuse it's entitled, you just have to be there when it explodes. How much of it is perspective? I once gave an underage street walker a lift home, she was selling her body to support her drug habit instead of stealing, she had been r*ped by her step father from the age of 5 left home at 14 and was back with mum in Glen Waverly living in the garage because her private school boyfriend beat her with a jemmy bar, she wanted me to come in with her for sex, because I had been nice to her. Three days later Diana died, and all over the CBD women were breaking down in tears, I know I was giving them lifts home so distraught were they, one woman deeply distressed and on St.Kilda Rd, through tears wanted to know why I wasn't upset, I told her about that young girl and how I thought that her life, this person I had met and touched, I had talked to, how her life was a human tragedy and how it had affected me, how the death of a woman on the other side of the world who in my eyes had every advantage, that I would never know had little effect. But not according to the delicate Hebe who rounded on me in disgust and fury and dismissed that girl as a dirty little ****.

The difference between now and then, now, we see it in the papers, or online or in the news, now everyone knows; then, these things were private, the criminal under world was a separate society that prided itself on it's separation. Then we were told how good we had it and sure we knew different, we knew because we experienced it, but we still believed that someone other than us was doing it a lot better, now we strive for indignation and victim status, for self righteous rage to justify our beliefs.

This is my perspective, it was bad when I was young and it was worse before that too, it really does seem better now, that doesn't mean it's not bad it's just different, but then I often don't understand what people are writing here or even why they are writing it, I struggle with their condemnation of others, because there but for the grace of something, some chance event go I, still it's an education.

Thanks for sharing your story.

 

[Yawkey way]

The war on drugs has been as effective as prohibition was.

Waste of time and resources because if someone wants it they'll find it.

Take the criminality out of it and you starve organised crime andcrelated criminal offences.

If people are free to drink alcohol, why shouldn't they be free to take other drugs?

I guess it depends on the drug but alcohol used in moderation actually has health benefits.

Then again as has been shown many times if you have enough money you can fund studies to spin things just about any way you want.

 

[Drake Huggins]

This is a sort of difficult post, because it's about perspective, I often have difficulty understanding the content of other peoples posts, no body language, no tone of voice, no understanding a person's personality, their experience and exactly what their perspective is.
I find myself guessing at peoples' intent and guessing using my perspective, guessing at their perspective, that gap generated in understanding, the nature hatred, violence and drugs of my experience and the things you blokes are talking about in the society you live in.

So this my perspective, not right not wrong, not good or bad but just as it was, and I'll leave out the really bad bits.

1973 to 1977 age 8 - 12
I lived in England, Wolverhampton, Stafford and Birmingham. Yes the Midlands were depressed but not as bad as the North, the soccer riots, Molyneux Park, Wolves vs Liverpool, the houses in streets for miles around the ground were boarded up, the inhabitants cowering behind their defensive shields, every weekend. Fans separated by chain link fences, Police with German Shepherds overcome by the mob, rioting in the stands before the game has even started. Brixton Riots, Miners Strike. For the kids I went to school with, subsidized school meals, for many the only meat (leather) they ever ate, for some the only hot meal or the only meal in a day, Education according to class. Race violence on the streets of Birmingham. Vilified because I was different, -Australian, it wasn't personal, it was any one that was different, there was always a reason to lash out.

1978 to 1983.
Living in Essendon then Pascoe Vale, regular riots at railway stations, Pascoe Vale, Broad Meadows, Jacana, the Manager of the Pascoe Vale Hotel shot across the bar, High School was a den of sexual abuse, at least six students I knew were having affairs with teachers and the suspicion of many more, violence between teachers and students was common as was inter student violence and even occasionally inter teacher. A riot at a tech school left 6 dead, started with a Turkish boy pinching the bum of a Vietnamese girl, we sorted ourselves through race but that didn't mean we hated each other because of race it was just identity. I lost my first mate to an overdose at 14, (vale Rob), my best mate's sister was getting her stomach pumped at 15, we knew there were no drugs at school because the Principal assured us there were none, sadly it was his daughter shagging the local Station master and pushing them. The Broady boys hijacking a steam roller try to rob a bank with it, couldn't get it over the gutter into the front wall of the bank, rolled over a telephone box and parked it on a railway line thank God someone saw it on the line ran down the line at 4:30 am and stopped the first train. Someone stabbed to death in the toilets at Flinders Street Station, a man in his 50's kicked to death, by 6 private schools boys also at Flinders Street, a thrill killing. No one walked through the Foostcray mall after dark and the stall holders at the Footscray market kept shotguns under the counter. How any of my class mates did Turana then graduated to the Blue Stone College? Domestic Violence wasn't a crime that police dealt with.

1987 to 1990.
Living in Hawthorn, black magic, gang violence in Richmond, Vietnamese youth with swords, the Bridge Club, the Richmond pubs, The Great Britain, The Corner Hotel, The All Nations, there was always punchups, stopped going out Friday nights, left too many parties walking backwards, ducking and weaving, hell of a laugh...…..at the time. The Victoria Hotel in Brunswick a young Gangitano and the Carlton crew, the young men, in their shiny Armani suits fighting each other at the bar to buy the old men drinks, rampant Police violence and corruption. A nationally recognised trucking company making millions by carting drugs for the bikies. Uncle Ball Bearing visiting next door. No one went to King St. after 12pm. too dangerous. Clubs segregated by race, any skip brave enough to go to the Bombay Rock?

1995 to 2001
Taxi driving in Melbourne and truly I was an innocent until then, the unremitting, drugs, alcohol, violence and sexual assaults, there's a reason most taxi drivers only did the job for 3 months and any that have done it for more than 4 years have breakdowns. Good middle and upper class people shitting themselves because it was funny, the women boasting about raping men, if you wanted drugs of any sort or sex of any persuasion, legal or otherwise I knew here to find it. Most of what we understand as more polite society is more vicious by far than the ferals, the scum, becuse it's entitled, you just have to be there when it explodes. How much of it is perspective? I once gave an underage street walker a lift home, she was selling her body to support her drug habit instead of stealing, she had been r*ped by her step father from the age of 5 left home at 14 and was back with mum in Glen Waverly living in the garage because her private school boyfriend beat her with a jemmy bar, she wanted me to come in with her for sex, because I had been nice to her. Three days later Diana died, and all over the CBD women were breaking down in tears, I know I was giving them lifts home so distraught were they, one woman deeply distressed and on St.Kilda Rd, through tears wanted to know why I wasn't upset, I told her about that young girl and how I thought that her life, this person I had met and touched, I had talked to, how her life was a human tragedy and how it had affected me, how the death of a woman on the other side of the world who in my eyes had every advantage, that I would never know had little effect. But not according to the delicate Hebe who rounded on me in disgust and fury and dismissed that girl as a dirty little ****.

The difference between now and then, now, we see it in the papers, or online or in the news, now everyone knows; then, these things were private, the criminal under world was a separate society that prided itself on it's separation. Then we were told how good we had it and sure we knew different, we knew because we experienced it, but we still believed that someone other than us was doing it a lot better, now we strive for indignation and victim status, for self righteous rage to justify our beliefs.

This is my perspective, it was bad when I was young and it was worse before that too, it really does seem better now, that doesn't mean it's not bad it's just different, but then I often don't understand what people are writing here or even why they are writing it, I struggle with their condemnation of others, because there but for the grace of something, some chance event go I, still it's an education.

Great perspective, Moral Decay. It is hard, sometimes, for the average folk to appreciate how messed up the underbelly of society is. I think it's why so many find the seedier side of life is so fascinating, as long as they can experience it vicariously, not personally. Unfortunately, for some of us, we can't rely on the director to call "cut", or change the channel when things get a bit fruity. You've done really well to reflect on those experiences as you have. It's a sign of great resilience and mental strength to be able to articulate those events you described in such an objective way.

I know I lost my grip on sanity for a while after I left the job. Some would argue I still haven't regained it. One of the reasons I left was I was tired. So very tired of seeing the 1% of shit in society, 99% of the time. I also awoke to the fact I was policing to maintain the status quo, rather than for the benefit of the general population. The system is corrupt by its very nature. The coppers, are merely the infantry soldiers, cannon fodder sacrificed or the protection of their masters' privileged position. If only the public knew the full extent of the crap that goes down, they would march on Parliament, pitchforks and burning torches in hand.

I didn't realise how far gone I was until years afrer I left. It has been a long and winding road back. THe struggle goes on for all of us. Thanks for having the courage to share. There's a book in you that would be fascinating. We've had enough "misery memoirs" from celebrities and enough true crime type stories. I'd love to read the everyman version.

 

[gringo2011]

Not sure anyone ever OD'd on Pot. ( so your legalisation of it is not effective for that).
E has all sorts of unknown health effects.
Heroin, in its pure state not so much.



The orignal group was a family who lived in Apex street in Dandenong North.
No they're not that organised but it really pisses people out in the burbs here off when you CBD dwellers start to claim they aren't real.

My 19 year old daughter came home one day, while the cars including hers were backed up at the lights, they started going along the lines with bats, smashing windscreens in. She was pretty relieved when the cops arrived and the "non-gang" ran off.
I often eat out in Dandenong, never had a problem, and there are plenty of blacks around, you'd be nuts to assume they are all criminals.
But there ARE criminals, they have connections with other criminals and they are scary shit.
And sometimes they all get together in a big group. Lately even in your CBD there have been some messed up scenes lately.

We have a friend who is a Labour Party MP at state level, he works with a lot of the Sudanese refugees and overwhelmingly they are law abiding and driven to make a success of their chance. He's inner north west and they tend to start in commission housing and work for a year or two and buy a Mc Mansion out in the sprawl out west. There are always some left behind and opportunity or possibly even personal incompetence keeps them from achieving anything and they become disenfranchised and don't really give a shit about education or society, they tend to be the ones off the rails but they are still a small percentage. If you meet the people they are hospitable and polite. I helped him out last election by handing out how to vote cards, this year he had a team of Sudanese Australians volunteer for him and I was't needed, he got a heap more votes.

 

[Drake Huggins]

Drake where did you get the 50,000 stat from, is it over a number of years or countries?.

ABS figure for 2016-17. One year in Australia, somewhat frighteningly. Deaths related to the use and abuse of alcohol. Cancers, liver disease, suicides, heart disease and brain damage. A national disgrace. These figures are kept well hidden because of the enormous amounts of tax the government reaps from the industry. Its use is so widespread that to tax it the way smoking is, would cause a riot. An election loser for sure, which is the main concern of our political masters. Why are there no pictures of the consequences of drinking on booze bottles the way there are on cigarette packets? Why not plain labelling and crippling taxes? It would curb the problem and make a huge difference to our economy, unburden our health system, not to mention the social benefits it would bring.

The abuse of prescription drugs kills eight times as many Australians as illegal drugs do, it is estimated. The real number is probably double that, according to those in the Health industry. The most dangerous place to be in Australia, if you're trying to stay alive is a hospital. Mistakes, negligence, incorrect medications etc. account for about 17,000 deaths a year, although the real number is probably way higher. Voluntary doctor-assisted euthanasia is a daily fact of life. I don't know what all the fuss is about with anti-euthanasia laws. They've been doing it since man began walking upright. A bit like abortion. Get it out in the open and regulate. Fewer botched suicides and therefore less distress all round.

The war on drugs is, like almost every war, fake. Engineered by those in positions of power to manipulate the population and generate profit. First as a copper, then as a psych. I've seen a number of sides and all of them have brought me to the same conclusion. The pharmaceutical industry and their corrupt relationships with doctors should be on the list for future Royal Commissions. Have you ever noticed how jealously the AMA protects its power bases? Why are they the only ones who can write prescriptions and decide what drugs should be administered? Nurses have been given very limited privileges in this area, mainly due to convenience and reduction of costs, rather than professional recognition or patient welfare.

Most GPs, especially those who work in the bulk-billing barns, are merely dispensers of product. You should cut out the middleman and go straight to the pharmacy. Next time you're in the GP's, have a look at how much of the office and equipment has marketing materials from big Pharma on it. Most offices are almost entirely fitted out in this way. I know this because one of my best mates is a GP who has set up his own successful practice. A veritable goldmine. The added bonus is he gets all sorts of delightful freebies all year around. These include cruises and overseas holidays disguised as conferences and information forums. Factor in The free lunches twice weekly from the pharma sales reps. And we all know there's no such thing as a free lunch.