Is it because they were taking cannabis for medicinal purposes? Surely not.

You took issue when I said that “your objection to cannabis treatment on the grounds that recreational use of the drug is linked to the likes of crime and self-harm is totally spurious”

Why is it spurious? Because it’s like saying that alcohol-based medicinal products should be banned because alcohol abuse is responsible for so much violence, or that morphine should be banned because it’s an evil narcotic.

Searching round for instances of harm involving cannabis (and you really do have to search around) gets you nowhere in this case.

Could you explain why Matthew Luamanu is behind bars until 2008 (at least)? Or why Stephen Anderson is committed to a mental organisation for life?

A Sunday Star Times poll showed that about 40% of those surveyed supported the old Tanczos bill, but it was played down at the election because it might frighten off mainstream voters. 40% sounds like a pretty big chunk of the mainstream to me. This bill allows for pretty much unlimited amounts of cannabis, for people whose mental growth it can quite likely disrupt. Why?

It would also be a shame if people turned off “The Simpsons” only to pick up a copy of Tolkein. But the problem with TV is its addictiveness. Once you start, it’s hard to stop. Addicts might convince themselves that they only do the good stuff, but when you see the victim’s whole lives being organised by the need to be in front of a screen at the right time of day, you have to be concerned for them.

How about a national TV moratorium for six to eight weeks of the year? Say in January/February when the weather’s nice? That leaves plenty of time to show all the worthwhile docos and the like, while ensuring people have time out to try other activities.

Well put. I’ll add it’s about having the opportunity to choose also.
PBS, before it got reined in, use to investigate corruption and hypocrasy(there wasn’t n isn’t a shortage going), contrast it with the average lives of those at the bottom and also show educational stuff about the world, community and history etc

I read, for example, immagrants telling their younger family, if u want to know what it is to be american, watch pbs.

I’ve no problem with having commercial channels, but just have one channel that is BIAS and not commercial. An outlet that shows the inbalances and problems of society unabashed, that isn’t scared to challenge the status quo and concentrations of wealth, power, the mis-uses of technology and on and on.
It would be inherently political, but commercial channels are inherently political also, a publicly funded channel would have a set of values different to that of a commercial channel. Surely having this choice would only enhance society and the functioning of it’s democratic ideal?
From what i read, when pbs was allowed to function, with shows as diverse as “the power of myth”, educational shows about poetry to exposes on big money in politics pushing through anti-environmental laws, it rated pretty well also.

So here are some of even’s international talkin points:

First here’s some humour, Stephen Colbert: http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/06/15.html#a8728

Now, some physics :

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Son0BWduQx4&search=controlled%20demolition

Lastly, are the underlying structures in society repeating history?

“”The administration has not only the right, but the duty, in my opinion, to pursue Fifth Column movements,”

http://www.alternet.org/rights/32647/

Ah! but what sort of book do you choose? When you consider the stuff that is available in print … ?

“A bad workman blames his tools.”

I find TV is an excellent medium for very worthwhile stuff. As with everything else it is a matter of choosing wisely and more so with TV because it is a compelling medium.

TV documentaries can lead kids to research and reading … etc etc etc

I still remember, as an adolescent, seeing TV news in our home for the first time. The affect of having a current world situation portrayed in our living room remains in my memory… in black and white of course!
(Yes, it was the Israelis grabbing the West Bank … a situation which is killing more people today as I write.)

Demonstrably, I am an old bugger now and have learnt to be selective and disciplined in what I watch (most of the time!)

eredwen

In that report they recommended that clinical trials be carried out, and that the legal status of cannabis be downgraded. And of course both those things subsequently happened.

The UK clinical trials have demonstrated that cannabis is a medicine. See:
http://www.gwpharm.com/research_phase_iii.asp
This summarises the trials and lists all the papers in scientific journals that resulted from them.

Finally the UK Royal Pharmaceutical Society also published (in 2004) a 448 page book detailing the evidence, see:
http://www.rpsgb.org.uk/search/index.asp?q=The+medicinal+uses+of+canna bis+and+cannabinoids
or buy it online
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0853695172/qid%3D1150709818/2 02-5363469-3712614

I’d much rather people read unsubsidised books (kiwi or otherwise), than watched subsidised TV (kiwi or otherwise). Better for the environment too?

respectfully
BJ