Drug tests urgently required for NZ politicians:

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Despite all the bleating that the sky would fall in if we legalised "gay marriage" in New Zealand, it was another recent piece of legislation passed by the National government that led to a disturbing increase in crime and ill effects on society.  The legislation was short lived as well as ill advised.

The Psychoactive Substances Act came into effect on 17 July 2013 thanks to Matthew Bowden and Peter Dunne among others.  Less than twelve months later the government was forced into an embarrassing u-turn.

In late April 2014 it was revealed that Peter Dunne's son, a lawyer who works at Chen Palmer,  advertises on the Chen Palmer website about his "valuable inside knowledge of how Parliament works". Peter Dunne says his son is "entitled to trade off the fact that he's my son in his business, if he sees that it's to his advantage".

On 7th May 2014 the National government, in partnership with the Crown, instrumented its latest fiscal fiasco and legislative disaster damage control strategy, the Psychoactive Substances Amendment Act 2014, which states that:

"Every interim approval granted in respect of a psychoactive product under clause 4 (before that clause was repealed by section 8 of the Psychoactive Substances Amendment Act 2014) is revoked.

    The Authority must, before the close of the day after the date of the commencement of this clause, issue a recall order under section 88 for every psychoactive product described in clause 11 (the product).

    The Authority must—

       (a) display the date of the recall order prominently on the recall order; and

        (b) notify the recall order on an Internet site maintained by or on behalf of the Authority.

    (3) For the purposes of section 88(2), the recall order is deemed to have been received by every importer, manufacturer, wholesaler, or retailer of the product on the close of the day after the date displayed on the recall order.

    (4) The recall order may—

        (a) require every importer, manufacturer, wholesaler, and retailer (or any combination of them) to—

            (i) provide information to the Authority in relation to the amount and type of the product in their possession:

            (ii) dispose of or destroy, or arrange for the disposal (including by return to a manufacturer or an importer) or the destruction of, the product in their possession:

            (iii) provide information to the Authority on the disposal of or destruction or arrangements for the disposal or destruction of the product in their possession:

        (b) specify locations where the product can be delivered for disposal or destruction:

        (c) specify a time limit for compliance with the recall order:

        (d) specify any ancillary or incidental requirement.

 13 Revocation of interim licences to sell psychoactive products granted interim approval

    Every interim licence granted under clause 7(1)(e) and (f) (before those paragraphs were repealed by section 8 of the Psychoactive Substances Amendment Act 2014) is revoked.

    For the avoidance of doubt, and regardless of the outcome of any appeal under subpart 3 of Part 2, the following may not be granted after the commencement of the Psychoactive Substances Amendment Act 2014:

        (a) an interim licence to sell psychoactive products granted interim approval by retail:

        (b) an interim licence to sell psychoactive products granted interim approval by wholesale:

        (c) an interim approval.

No compensation or damages are payable by the Crown for any loss or damage arising from the enactment of the Psychoactive Substances Amendment Act 2014.”

This is an abrupt about face for the government and evidence of a seriously dysfunctional legislative process - not to mention the stink of taxpayer funded corruption.   The cost to the taxpayers remains to be seen, the social costs have already been seen, with deaths reported and countless reports of addictions and other serious harmful effects - hence the final clause (above).  It is less than a year since the government passed the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, which contained the following definition:

"psychoactive substance means a substance, mixture, preparation, article, device, or thing that is capable of inducing a psychoactive effect (by any means) in an individual who uses the psychoactive substance."

This Act stated that a person who is a New Zealand resident may apply to 'the Authority' for a licence to import, manufacture or sell psychoactive substances.  So called "experts" on the advisory panel appointed by Peter Dunne MP included Bob Kerridge of the SPCA.

The Key Regulatory Roles are clearly inadequate and the regulatory authority as well as the legislative process, and the present government, clearly incompetent and/or corrupt, and all the while these chemical drugs are labeled as "synthetic cannabis" by journalists and 'television celebrities', drug industry spokespersons, and other key players (and fellow passengers on the gravy train), such as the NZ Drug Foundation, who claim that the drugs need to be legalised "or else they'll end up on the black market" - is that a good reason to legalise cannabis then?

Does alcohol have a psychoactive effect on an individual?  Is tobacco addiction a psychoactive effect?

While the NZ Police and the health system mop up after the industry, and the Police fly round in helicopters looking for cannabis every summer, we've got politicians legalising synthetic drugs at the drop of a hat for their nearest and dearest.

~"~

Links -

http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2013/0053/latest/whole.html#DLM5278431

http://nz.linkedin.com/pub/matt-bowden/19/270/181

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9985816/Dunne-legal-high-conflict-examined

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11242415

http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2013/0053/latest/whole.html#DLM5042921

http://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/dunne-names-psychoactive-substances-bill-expert-committee

http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2013/0053/latest/whole.html#DLM5043008

Drugs, an interesting perspective:

Here's a letter to the editor of the local paper from Dr Richard McGrath, who gave evidence for the prosecution during the hearing of the five charges arising from the police acted like stormtroopers, actions described by a number of lawyers in scathing terms such as politically motivated bullying, police corruption, gross misfeasance and abuse of position, process, etc. Dr McGrath regularly attends the Masterton police station in his role as a local GP, he sees a lot of the effects of drug abuse first hand, and this is what he says:

The word "drugs" is abused as much as the drugs themselves are - bring in a reliable test of actual impairment, do some proper testing - prescription drugs, alcohol, even tobacco, all have an effect on behaviour, allowing cigarettes, party pills, herbal highs and alcohol to be sold in supermarkets and dairies while conducting this witch hunt on cannabis is the height of hypocrisy really. Alcohol and road deaths are indisputably linked, and the government refuses to implement the recommendations of medical staff and others to take action against the epidemic of alcohol abuse.

Watching tv the other night there was a ridiculous government funded ad with some actors driving around in a car and the actor playing the driver "acting" in his interpretation of a "druggie" (- it's like the "Commies" in the US in the 60's that everyone had to go to Vietnam to fight -) and the mumbled dramatic narrator asking "42% of people thought driving stoned was alright - do you?" - I want to see some intelligent and independent scientific data regarding testing the actual level of impairment. Following this ridiculous advertisement (- advertisement for what you might ask - for the government to implement drug testing beneficiaries, that's what) was an ad for Effexor XR, then one for Viagra, not long ago they were advertising Vioxx and others which have suddenly been pulled from the market - we are one of the few countries in the world where you can advertise drugs on TV like that!

Drug test public servants, police, politicians, etc FIRST. A drunk politician does a lot more damage in society than a beneficiary who might have had a puff as it was being passed round a week or two ago!

Then there's the 'Party Pills' pushed by lunatic Matt Bowden, and the utter hypocrisy of MP's like Peter Dunne.

Following the 'Better Work Stories' advertisement debacle and the hypocritical "Whose behaviour does your child reflect" waiting room posters, we now have to put up with the latest in police public relations exercises - they should just get on with policing.

And that's just the police - look at the state of our Courts!

We have bigger problems than people using cannabis! We have corrupt, politically motivated police, government officials and politicians!

Time for some proper debate on these matters.

David Raue didn't commit suicide or die of a drug overdose:

This is how my brother David loved to live his life (above).  

This is how he died (below).  

Dave loved surfing, having fun, making people laugh, and enjoying life.  He used to make me laugh a lot, he used to make a lot of people laugh.  

The story of his death is deeply disturbing. It can be seen from the documents below that police simply accepted the word of a woman called Tessa Knowles, who used to go out with him until 3 or 4 months before he died, who told them he had overdosed on drugs, had HIV (which he did not, this appears to be a ruse to prevent police examining his body too closely) and allegedly committed suicide.  It's incredible to see how the police simply accepted what she told them without question, until it was too late and all the evidence had been destroyed.

After I obtained the file on his death from the police I noticed a couple of things.  Firstly, despite the initial pages of the file listing the subject as "Suicide", it changed to "Suspicious death" and later "Unexplained death" after I started asking questions.  If I hadn't, it would still be generally accepted that my beloved brother committed suicide by drug overdose, which he didn't.  Despite the insistence of Dave's ex-girlfriend Tessa Knowles that it was a drug overdose, the post mortem report showed there were no drugs in his body apart from the proper dose of a prescription medicine he was on at the time, and he certainly didn't overdose on anything.  

The documents (and other evidence, which will be put up soon) show there were no drugs present in his body, and no evidence whatsoever of drug overdose OR suicide.  This woman tells police that he was a hard drug user, but he wasn't.  She was.  Tessa Knowles has a very well documented history of serious drug abuse.  She told them he was likely to have herpes and HIV, etc which he didn't, in an apparent attempt to discourage investigators from examining the body too much.  It worked, his clothing, etc, was destroyed on the strength of her lies about him having HIV, with no attempt made apparently to see if this slanderous claim was true or not.

Click on the images below to enlarge them, the final document is the police report documenting how the pathologist tells the police "I am not prepared to say that this man died of unascertainable natural causes because he didn't."  And the notes of the ambulance officers who said "We thought this death was a bit odd because the girlfriend was so cool, calm, and collected while we were there but went into being hysterical when the police arrived."  Before going on to suggest the possible scenario that had occurred to them at the time.

This theory was supported by the fact that I noticed as soon as I read the post mortem report that there was a needle mark on each inner elbow.  Ambulance officers confirmed that they had only put a needle into one arm, which left the second needle mark unexplained.  

After further communication with the pathologist he responded "I am still a bit uneasy about this one - it's possible he may have been injected with a biological substance such as insulin, which would not show up in the ESR tests.  I would suggest that someone has another chat to the girlfriend to see if she changes her story."

How often does this happen?  Detective Tomlinson at least had the decency to admit his mistake honestly as soon as he became aware of it, and try his best to find out what really happened as soon as he became aware of the errors, after I contacted him.  I will always be very grateful to Detective Inspector Harry Quinn also, without whose assistance evidence regarding this miscarriage of justice involving my brother would never have come to light.  Harry Quinn has always been a great asset to the New Zealand Police, and I only wish there were more officers with his common sense and integrity.  I wish him happiness and good health in his retirement, and am grateful for his fair treatment of me and my family over many, many years.

Det Sgt Tomlinson reinterviewed the ex girlfriend and the flatmate several times, but by the time he realised it wasn't as he'd been led to believe, it was too late.  The statements of their interviews are damning to say the least, This post may be updated  in the future, and the witness statements and more information added.  Tessa Knowles accuses a number of individuals of injecting David with drugs, I'm sure they'd like to know who they are and what Tessa has to say about them - seeing as she's basically accusing them of manslaughter or murder . . . 

My brother didn't commit suicide, and he didn't die of an accidental, or self administered, drug overdose, it appears very likely that he was deliberately injected with something like insulin, or that someone was involved in interfering with evidence, because none was found at the scene.   The police are now fairly sure that someone else was involved in causing his death, which is why they interviewed Tessa Knowles and Geoffrey John Gordon so many times, the actions of both of those people were very suspicious indeed - why did Geoff Gordon not call an ambulance when he discovered Dave's body, instead of calling Tessa Knowles - whose relationship with my brother had ended months before?  Tessa Knowles and Geoff Gordon were both heavy drug users, both had extensive experience using intravenous illegal drugs, and both conspired to conceal evidence about how David Raue died.  It appears they may have got away with murder.

How often does this happen?  How often do people accept the word of murderers that a death was by suicide?  If Knowles and Gordon were innocent they would have called an ambulance immediately.