Drugs? You're soaking in them, NZ

Contrary to what this article implies, NZ has had a long history of women hooked on prescription stims and tranqs. Here's the Law Commission on the Blake-Palmer Commission from around 1971 (pg. 43):

The [Blake-Palmer ] Committee was particularly concerned at the growing reliance on a range of new hypnotics and tranquillisers marketed as Mogadon, Valium and Librium. A detailed analysis of the prescribing of hypnotics and stimulants by New Zealand doctors between 1958 and 1971, revealed that the use of these drugs doubled over this 13 year period. The analysis also revealed that “married women” (a category which included women who had been divorced or widowed) were by far the largest consumers of hypnotics and stimulants. As highlighted earlier, the researchers estimated that on a typical day in New Zealand in 1971, 8.3 per cent of “married women” took a tranquilliser and 11.6 per cent took a hypnotic, a tranquilliser, or both.

But its main conclusion was that in many instances doctors were resorting to prescribing these drugs because they did not have the time or resources to deal with the underlying patient issues:

Hypnotics being used at double the level of 13 years ago; tranquilisers disappearing down our throats to the tune of $2.3 million a year; what excuse can there be for such a situation in a country like New Zealand? – except shortage of doctors and lack of time to spend on sorting out psychological troubles.

One thing seems to be clear. For many women in New Zealand marriage is a stressful occupation, which is getting worse instead of better. Hypnotics and tranquillisers are not the answer.

The risk of addiction associated with the prolonged use of benzodiazepines such as Valium and Librium was not well understood at the time of the Blake-Palmer review, but the Committee was concerned about both the cost to the health budget and the potential for doctors to be influenced by the “overzealous promotion” of new prescription drugs by competing pharmacological companies. 

The more I research drug use in NZ, the more the laws seem moulded solely due to drug snobbery. Harms, real and imagined, have absolutely no bearing on legal status.

UPDATE: It was a high old time for the generations of Kiwis before that too. From the Law Commission Discussion Document Controlling and Regulating Drugs (pp. 47-8):

It should be noted here also that many of the drugs regulated under the Dangerous Drugs Act had medical uses and, despite the restrictions, were readily available on prescription. Health records from this period suggest that various drugs covered by the Act were liberally prescribed, particularly once prescriptions were publicly funded after 1941. Heroin was, for example, readily available on prescription in an oral dose form and was used widely in linctuses until the mid-1950s in New Zealand. Regulations made under the Dangerous Drugs Act during the 1940s permitted doctors to prescribe up to 16 oral doses of heroin in one prescription. By the end of the 1940s New Zealand was one of the highest users of heroin per capita in the world.

Tales of Interest

Weekend links:

# With the MSM's ongoing obsessive compulsive coverage of Clayton Weatherston's sociopathic narcissism, Slate previews the black box process of compiling the next Mental Disorder Dictionary, the DSM V. China is treating internet addiction with electro-shock therapy. But I think Big Pharma are going to have a problem marketing anti-shopping treatments without causing some Ironic Displacement Anxiety. Hat Tip A&L Daily.

# Popular police harm minimisation tool, the taser, is back in the media. It's alleged that a petrol sniffing Abbo came running at police carrying a fuel can and a lighter. So they tased him, setting him on fire.

# Here in Wellington, even lawyers rejoice in a bit of urban seal delight. Things aren't so eco-friendly in San Diego, where seals were under eviction notices from their birthing grounds until the Governator changed the law:

Before Schwarzenegger's reprieve, the city said it planned to hire someone to walk the beach with a public address system broadcasting the sound of barking dogs to scare off the seals, said Andrew Jones, the assistant city attorney for civil litigation. Force cannot be used because the seals are a federally protected marine species.

# Three mayors, four rabbis and an organ bootlegger walk into a bar. Not the opening of a joke, but a New Jersey corruption scandal. As Gail Collins laments, favours are cheap.

She Smokes Seeshas By the Sea Shore

I had been really really hanging out for a spliff since 4:20. However, as I learned on stage at the Classic Comedy Club's New Talent Night way back when, NEVER smoke before a performance. At least, not until it becomes autonomous, repetitive. For yesterday, I lost my media whore virginity and I had to say sober.

Coupla years back, a petition was started supporting a review of medicinal cannabis thing. One Love 2007, I trudged around the hills of the Hataitai velodrome for signatures. Some wouldn't sign because they didn't believe in it. Some wouldn't sign as they were public servants and feared retribution. But many did. Several hundred in fact. Some shared stories, some shared joints. But they gave their name in support.

Around 7,000 signatures were presented in support of medicinal cannabis yesterday (there were a few late entries). I had spent the last week going over our written submission to the select committee which was presented last October. New research was added, as well a few robust rebuttals to the Ministry of Health's written submission.

After years and years of denying that cannabis had ANY therapeutic value, the Ministry of Health had finally admitted that, yes, cannabis has its uses. Back in December 2007, NORML reported that Sativex, a cannabis extract produced by British company GW Pharmaceuticals, was to be permitted by the Ministry of Health and one application was already being processed.

So 16th July 2008, the select committee is ripping into the Ministry of Health as that one application had been declined, while one more was still being processed. The former was returned because the paperwork was insufficient. Not that the applicant was told that. Meantime, people are in misery, people are suffering.

The MPs asked why it was that a specialist as well as a GP had to give authorisation when the more potent morphine only requires a GP's consent. Ummm, said the Ministry. Specialists aren't easily accessed, and the parochial nature of the medical profession gets more conservative the further away one gets from the coal face.

How much does this Sativex cost? Is it expensive? Yes, said the Ministry. It is expensive. The ever-squeezed Pharmac budget will have one more burden to carry. The weak and enfeebled will have to compete with the vocal and strident Herceptin chorus.

Call me an Occam's Razor advocate, but there's a homegrown solution to all this and it doesn't involve big bucks. Weed; the answer that literally grows on trees. Patients could grow their own. Licenced growers could supply to Medicinal Cannabis Card carrying patients. Hell, if the government want to keep absolute control, they could get inmates to grow the stuff behind bars. If there are to be drugs in prisons, might as well make the most of it. It'll certainly give a new outlet for gang competitiveness without resorting to shivs and fists.



I tried this vaporiser out today and wow. And how. Painless, efficient and VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. This baby might set you back close to $300, but it's money saved as nothing is wasted. No valuable herb lost to the ether, like bongs and pipes. I can see what that Caterpillar was on about now:

Said Alice, "but when you have to turn into a chrysalis- you will some day, you know- and then after that into a butterfly, I should think you'll feel it a little queer, won't you?"

"Not a bit," said the Caterpillar.

"Well, perhaps your feelings might be different," said Alice; "all I know is, it would feel very queer to me."

"You," said the Caterpillar contemptuously. "Who are you?"

The Ministry of Health could learn from Alice and have a little more empathy.

Must say a big thanks to TV3's Sia Ashton too, who gave Billy McKee a chance to share his story. Ta also to Bill Ralston for putting up with me, a Media N00b, on his Radio Live show. Had an enjoyable joust with Larry Williams on Newtalk ZB, by which time I was adjusting to the format. TVNZ7's News at 8 invited me on for a live interview, too.

After a hard day of prostituting myself for a good cause, I thought I'd wind things down at the Backbencher, watching someone else in the limelight for a change. It was an unexpected surprise to catch up with not only DPF, but also Cactus Kate, who I hadn't seen for over ten years. Didn't hang around long after the show wrapped, as I was thoroughly looking forward to a well-earned spliff while waiting for the bus. Sounds like I left at the right time. Cactus with a head cold is still a formidable party animal.

Jude Dobson going full time?

New Zealand and the United States stand alone in allowing Big Pharma to advertise directly to consumers. That may change, with Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Novartis and Procter & Gamble proposing to launch... Pharma TV.

One could speculate what such a channel might provide in the way of primetime viewing here:

Good Morning Prozac
Ritalin Street
Dancing With the Stars on Viagra
Downsize Me, Xenical!
Boston Pharmaceutical