I found this article from the Dominion post and wanted to debunk it because it is absolute shit.

First of all the articles states two different figures for hospitalization for cannabis users in 2005. $32m and $35m.. which one is it? We’ll take the figure of $35m and divide that by the 400,000 users in the country (as reported by the DHI in the NZ herald here) and you have health costs of approximately $80 per user. With an estimation of only half of people surveyed admitting to smoke cannabis you have a figure of 800,000 user in NZ, this equates to around $40 per user. Is this really an issue? And what constitutes an admission for cannabis use? It is my bet from stories I have heard that these admissions are from first time users, having too much and freaking out as can be seen in the documentary “Should I Smoke Dope”. In the documentary the reporter freaks out when she smokes a whole joint at a cannabis shop. First time users should not smoke a whole joint. Its not a danger to their life or bodies at all, however they can freak out and think they are overdosing. But at least cannabis users who freak out and think they are overdosing still have the piece of mind and ability to go to the hospital. Lets see someone with alcohol poisioning or a heroin overdose admit themselves to the hospital.

Now lets look at the alcohol figures quickly. 4700 people a year die from alcohol use with an estimated $1.5b to 2.4b of social harm as reported here in the NZ Herald.

“Cannabis-related hospital admissions exceeded the numbers admitted for opiates, amphetamines and cocaine combined. “

They say there are more admissions to hospital for cannabis use than any other drug. HELLO!!! This is because more people use cannabis than any other drug! This is a good thing, would you rather your kid smoke a harmless herb, or get cooked on Pure Methamphetamine? Approx 95,170 people admitted to using other drugs than cannabis compared to 400,000 cannabis users who admitted to using. I think however times both figures by a factor of two because how many people are going to admit to using illegal drugs?

“The majority of patients were suffering from a psychotic disorder, followed by cannabis poisoning, harmful use, dependence and acute intoxication.”

They say people admitted had a psycotic disorder. Could it be that these people were self medicating with cannabis? So they were using cannabis to fix the psycotic disorder rather than the cannabis causing the psycotic disorder? Treatment of depression and bipolar disporder with cannabis has been proven to be beneficial.

There are over 300 medical uses for cannabis.

“The majority of patients were suffering from a psychotic disorder, followed by cannabis poisoning, harmful use, dependence and acute intoxication.”

It also states that people got marijuana poisoning. This is not possible. Cannabis is not POISON!!! You IDIOTS!!! Do some research and you will quickly find that the chemicals in cannabis are naturally produced by the healthy human brain. These chemicals, known as cannabinoids are produced in the cannabis plant and called Phyto-cannabinoids. The cannabinoids produced in the human brain are called Endo-cannabinoids. There are so far 4 known cannabinoid receptors in the brain and body cells that when stimulated help with pleasure, brain cell generation and neuroprotection among other functions. Cannabis is far from poison.

Health Minister Tony Ryall said he had not yet read the report, but suspected the cost to the health system would be “significantly higher than that, when you consider its contribution to accidents and family breakdown”.

Contribution to accidents? Which? Where? What accidents? And how can cannabis breakdown a family? I think you mean alcohol and its prevalence for causing domestic violence?

“A new breed of powerful cannabis and ballooning costs in treating its health effects have led to calls for urgent action…”

The final beef I had with the article was this opening line. First of all more potent cannabis IS BETTER!!!! It means you have to smoke LESS to get the desired effect. This means there IS LESS SMOKE ENTERING THE LUNGS. And any smoke, even cannabis smoke which has had cancer links disproven, is still not good to inhale. There are better ways to consume cannabis than smoking.

So I’m lying in bed today about 4 or 5pm reading my book “Dude Where’s my country” by Michael Moore, and I hear sirens coming down the road… Really fast… and I hear vehicle engines screaming to slow down. Oh yeah.. car chase… car chase + the sharp left hander by my house = high probability of a crash

I jumped out of my bed as I heard the squealing of tyres and threw open my curtains just in time to see a beamer (I thought it was an RPS13 at first) slide out to the right onto the other side of the road and then spin right around going backwards and sliding back onto the other side of the road. I heard a clunk and it jumped the curb and then saw the undercover cop car come round the corner and slow down.

My whole family yelled out “fuck” a few times in a few seconds in succession as I struggled to get some clothes on while running around the house tying to find the damn digital camera. My mum pushes me out of the way and says “wheres the fucking phone the guy has jumped out and he’s running down the road, white singlet and jeans!”.

Cool a runner I thought, as my mum asks the number for emergencies… “ahh 1-1-1″ I said… dunno what that was about. Got the digi and ran out the door, the guy had apparently run behind the petrol station and into the paddocks… but the cop was just sitting in his car up by the beamer.

I ran up to the crash, my mate had come running out as well. Started taking photos and stuff. I went and said to the cop, “Did you see where he went? He ran behind the petrol station!” and he just sat there and said “ohh yeah we’re getting the dogs out.”. I was like oook, why don’t you just chase after him you fat fuck but yeah.

Quite a few people pulled over and it turns out that the dude in the beamer was racing a guy in a Mitsi Celeste from like pine valley road and overtook a whole lot of people including the undercover cop in a Honda Accord! Then they came round my corner, and the Celeste got round it but the beamer couldn’t handle it and spun out.

Wasn’t too badly damaged except for the rear right wheel as you can see in the following pic, however the cops found a load of meth lab stuff in the car like 2 hours later after they had taken it apart. The cop dogs didn’t even get there till bout 1 or 2 hours later so they never caught the dude.

They would have finally pulled the car out at about 10pm I guess.

You can see more photos of the crash here.