Drug Bins in WA Brings Out the Nutters

The trial of amnesty bins for disposing illicit drugs before entering music festivals is being trailed in WA. State Police Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan has decided that amnesty bins might help avoid more deaths by those panicking when faced with police sniffer dogs. The idea of amnesty bins is maybe lame but it offers an alternative to swallowing a whole day’s supply or getting a criminal record if caught. The real issue is why a crack down on catching users who are usually in possession of relatively safe drugs like cannabis or ecstasy?

Drugs Bin Plan Draws Barnett Ire
The Western Australian

(ABSTRACT)

Trials of the bins — that allow people to discard drugs before entering a concert without penalty — will begin at the Rock-It concert in Joondalup at the weekend.

Mr O’Callaghan pushed the experiment in response to the death of Kalamunda teenager Gemma Thoms, who took several ecstasy pills at the Big Day Out concert last month reportedly in fear police would catch her with the drugs.

“The Police Commissioner wants to trial it and he can do that, but it’s not something that I believe gives the right message,” Mr Barnett said. “Harm minimisation has been an absolute failure in the treatment of drugs in this State. I think the message has to be quite clear: don’t use drugs or take drugs to public events.”

Mr O’Callaghan said the trial was designed to avoid a repeat of the tragedy at the Big Day Out and would be subject to a full review.

THE NUTTERS FROM THE WA GOVERNMENT
What was surprising was the reaction from the premier Colin Barnett. He said that allowing people to discard drugs before entering a concert without penalty, would send the wrong message to the community. He then attributed the amnesty bins to Harm Minimisation being a failure. How do these people get elected? Colin Barnett is a nutter and a ruthless liar who uses the lives of his constituency for political and personal gain. If Gemma Thoms had the option to ditch her drugs in an amnesty bin she might be alive today. How Barnett can consider “sending the wrong message” is more important than her life is disturbing.

So what is it with the current WA government and their obsession with drug war rhetoric? Not too long ago, then opposition youth affairs spokeswoman Donna ‘Dippy’ Faragher made some remarkable comments relating to drugs. First she condemned the state cannabis laws that saw an actual drop in drug use and then criticised the appointment of Criminal lawyer Paul Roth as a magistrate because of his history with the Australian Marijuana Party. Prior to that both Dippy and then opposition leader, Colin Barnett criticised the current ‘soft’ cannabis laws and claimed the government was not treating drug issues seriously. Dippy even went as far as using that long time discredited myth that cannabis was a gateway drug amongst other popular misconceptions. Citing urban myths as a reason for government policy is downright scary and it would incur the wrath of the media if it was any issue aside from drugs. Not surprisingly, no media outlet picked up on this.

Ample research continues to show that cannabis can lead to a host of health and mental health problems including schizophrenia and can be a gateway to harder drugs. This is about protecting our community and taking the issue of drugs seriously, rather than treat it as a joke in the way Labor has since 2001.
-Donna Faragher: W.A. opposition youth affairs spokeswoman. 2008

MORE NUTTERS
The Western Australian website followed up the amnesty bins story on their blog and asked readers, should drug bins be scrapped? As usual, the nutters crawled out from their cotton wool world and proceeded to strip me of any confidence I had left in mankind.

Penelope Says:
drug bins are the stupidest idea ever. seriously, if I wanted drugs, I would dip my hand in a drug bin and walk away. free drugs, fantastic.


if you were going to dispoise of your drugs at the entry to an event like this, you drop them on the ground and step on them.


thhe simple thing to do is at these events, put a line of paddy wagons up and whoever is caught with drugs on on drugs (and yes, swabs should be used like drivers in Victoria are subjected to) then they are driven away and charged. You midss out on the BDO and waste your money on a ticket, too bad so sad.


that will teach people that drugs are bad.

[snort] LOL. Penelope, the finger waving is entertaining. After reading the article I knew some twat would suggest that anyone could simply swipe a hand full of drugs from the amnesty bins. Amazing what a lack of grey matter can achieve when combined with a PC. Oh, I forgot ... Drugs Are Bad mmmkay.

What comments section would be complete without some readers saying a drug user dying is okay?

Justin B Says:
What a load of rubbish this drug bin trial is. If people die from taking all their drugs at once because they see Police at events, so be it. If they are Illegal (certain drugs), why pander to these people. With a Step-son who does drugs, by the way he doesn’t give a sh.. about the law, it would be sad if he did OD, but it would be his own fault and no one elses.

and

Rebecca Says:
YES the bins should be scrapped, this is the wrong idea. If they have drugs they can either get caught, or like the young girl last week possibly die from silly mistakes. It should not be tax payers money spent on things we do not need!

and

Craig Says:
stop the drug bins, the only way to curb drug use is not the half hearted prohibition we have now, but draconian punishments so the population live in fear of being caught with drugs.
If the choice is 5 years jail with no parole for having one illegal tablet or the death penalty for a third offence, then only the truly addicted will use drugs, and they deserve the death penalty anyway

Craig is a fuckwit, there’s no doubt about that. Interestingly, what he says could be interpreted as being sarcastic until the last few words clear it up. The fact that Craig actually typed this out and presumably reread it it back to himself is proof enough that some people should not be allowed to make comments or even vote.

Oscar T Grouch Says:
There seems to be a misconception out there that Ecstacy is relatively harmless if taken responsibly…research shows that this drug causes irrepairable brain damage, changes permanently your thought patterns, reduces your ability to produce seratonin naturally, essentially reduces your ability to experience joy/happiness without the use of drugs….it alters who you are forever!! Kids, dont believe the hype, think long and hard about what you put in your mouth. Ecstacy that is in Perth is often imported and made by third world countries in south east asia, where scruples are rare, life is cheap and dollar is king. You will more often than not be ingesting cleaner chemicals,air freshener, borax, pesticides, glass, and god knows what along with a tiny bit of MDMA and a lot of psuedoephedrine, speed or heroin. Bins are fine, they wont do any harm. What would be of a great benefit would be a neutral drug testing bus/caravan on site at these concerts that would offer free testing of pills to determine their safety prior to ingestion. It is a pipe dream, I know, because we live in the most conservative and backward state in Oz. Kids take drugs, adults take drugs, always have & always will…lets make it safer, educate dont legislate, that is the way to save lives, we dont have enough prison space as it is without locking up all the drug users….btw, prison is an excellent place to score drugs

I always love the references to research which doesn’t exist and then used as irrefutable evidence to the contrary of actual research. And you have to give kudos to talented drug producers who apparently cut ecstasy with glass or those producers who add the much more expensive heroin to “cut” the cheaper MDMA.

Unfortunately only one comment can be nominated for the annual BucketHead of the Year awards. Congratulations to nutter Chris for this cracker:

Chris Says:
Couldn’t placing the bins outside the concert potentially cause more overdoses? Concert goers may try to take their whole day’s dose before the bins causing overdoses. This could happen not because of panick but maybe because they don’t won’t to lose their drugs and still want to experience them.

Related Links:
WA Liberals Become Even Sillier
WA Liberals - Drug Policy Blues