Public comment's made by me about marijuana prohibition.

Justice gone to pot? NT News July 28 1998

I did some quick calculations relating to your story "Bong pong gives stoned men away" (NT News 23/7/98).

The standard fines for possession of up to 50 grams of cannabis is $200. Yet these two men were sentenced to 96 hours community service -12 eight hour days, each.

When I opted for community service the last time I couldn't pay a fine by the due date the rate was $100 a day. A $200 fine, logically, should mean two days community service. Between them they had 4 grams of marijuana, surely the lower end of the scale?

One wonders what the other matter that brought them to police attention was? Perhaps they are suspected king-pins in a major smuggling ring?

Maybe powerful mafia types in town to kill someone?

Perhaps they are just young men who prefer one social lubricant to another? Why would anybody want such an evil drug as pot?

You can go down the road and become a wife beating drunk, like all them good people.

A victimless crime punished at six times the going rate, it's what I like to see.

Justice in action.

Waste of police time NT News October 17 1998

Again we see the wisdom of the judicial system in punishing an offender for a victimless crime.

A suspended sentence for growing marijuana for personal use (NT News 15/10/98). It's a waste of police and court time, all to record the fact that this businessman prefers one social lubricant to another.

I hope everybody involved felt justifiably important.

Given the criminal element involved in Darwin's commercial pot supply I believe this bloke's a hero.

Unlike those who choose to support organised crime by purchasing their over-priced marijuana in one of the many "supermarket mentality" drug houses available, this man chose to grow his own.

The success rate of many amateur growers means they need more than the "non-commercial" quantity of two plants per person. I feel for him, it's a shame he was caught.

Proud of pot NT News January 5 1999

I have smoked pot on a regular basis for 20 years, and have been arrested five times for it.

I still believe it is the least harmful of all social lubricants. My addiction to pot is purely a social decision, I love it.

There are no profits for crime when I am allowed to grow my own, there are no victims, and, above all, the domestic harmony experienced by those around me is greatly enhanced.

I came under police attention for being loud, I wasn't stoned though, I was drunk.

I become more socially aware and culturally tolerant on marijuana than when trying to enjoy the depressing effects of alcohol.

Apparently though, the social cost of my one plant was still to high, they came, they saw, and they conquered my almost successful Christmas budget by fining me $200.

Good on ya fellas, and a "Hippy" New Year to you, too.

What a dope NT News January 18 1999

While my heart goes out to anybody who suffers as much as Name and address withheld, "Dope use regretted", (NT News 12/1/99), I could not let such blatant hypocrisy pass with out comment.

The first part of your letter describes your descent from use to abuse, your choice of "very low class" friends/dealers, and your contribution of $25 to $50 a day to organised crime. All decisions made by you.

You attribute at least 12 separate medical conditions to marijuana abuse while freely admitting experimentation with other drugs.

Your letter also states that there has been no research into the long term effects of marijuana; why blame the dope and not the other drugs? All I ask is the right to grow and smoke my own social lubricant.

No victims, no profits, a simple transaction between God me and the soil.

As for your happy and healthy alcoholic friend, send him around.

He sounds as though he's solved his self esteem issues.

Local lesson NT News April 22 1999

In yet another  blatant example of the hypocrisy of marijuana laws the NT judicial system has fined a tradesman with a young family for not buying his pot locally, ($1000 lesson for dope present, NT News 17/4/99).

At $1000 poorer, this man is now faced with the prospect of making criminal connections in Darwin to enable him to enjoy the social lubricant of his choice.

As for a $1000 lesson -"Welcome to Darwin, please shop locally."

Laws are for dopes NT News April 24 1999

Marijuana laws that perpetuate criminal activity by forcing people who want to smoke dope to seek out criminals  have been achieved.

It clearly doesn't work. Instead of paying a $205 on-the-spot fine for cultivation and losing the plants, make it a registration fee.

This way the police could monitor the harvest, the user doesn't have to support organised crime by paying for overpriced dope and the government still makes a quid. Everybody is happy, especially me.

Look at real villain NT News May 3 1999

What is the problem with the NT Judiciary? Why do the sentences imposed for marijuana offences vary so greatly?

Why are there penalties for this victimless crime anyway -462 grams is more than a pound of dope, that's a lot of pot.

But given that Magistrate John Lowdes accepted the cannabis "present", (NT News 29/4/99) was for personal use, and not for trafficking, why was any penalty imposed?

Surely an adult of 41 years of age should be allowed to make an educated decision as to which social lubricant he prefers?

Government doctors have told me for years that dope is less harmful to me than alcohol, both emotionally and physically.

The fact that my own criminal history is directly related to alcohol abuse leaves me with one more question to which I need an answer.

Which is the more dangerous drug -alcohol or pot?

The reason I shut up

Our lives as targets for the Northern Territory Police became intolerable. A lot of people who hear this tale jump straight to the conclusion that I must be exaggerating. After fourteen separate criminal charges were laid over a period of nine months, with only three convictions, you tell me. Two of those convictions were for petty offences, under the Summary Offences Act, the offence of frustration expressing itself as bad language.

The third charge resulted in an appearance by me before the Supreme Court in Darwin, whilst on $10000 bail. I was tried and convicted on a bunch of lies, both from the prosecutor, and my defence attorney.

I was quietly amused as I sat in the dock, like a criminal, whilst nobody mentioned the two largest dope plants that were at my house that day. The two plants that mysteriously disappeared with my wife running down the street, screaming at the Constable as she fled, "You're not having these two, ass-hole, they're the best ones!"

My penalty amounted to ten minutes in the foyer of the Darwin Supreme Court building while some paper work was prepared for me to sign. I took it as a warning that my repeated attacks on the judiciary and the general crapulence of government in the media were upsetting people. We fled Darwin soon after I made my first and only complaint to the "Police Police".

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