Lennit Max loves to LIE..

The killing of children in the Western Cape was reaching crisis proportions, Community Safety MEC Lennit Max told mourners at the funeral of Nadine Jantjies, who was raped and murdered two weeks ago. (from IOL)

Max, Mayor Dan Plato and other community leaders attended the funeral at Hoofweg Primary School in Wesbank, where the family live.

Max said that of the 947 children who were killed in South Africa last year, 447 were from the Western Cape - more than any other province and nearly half the total.

"I would call that a crisis," said Max.

"When we experience murders of children like Nadine, who have been killed and raped, as well as others like her, we must say the Western Cape is in crisis, South Africa is in crisis and the community is in crisis.

"We have a chance, a moment of truth, to make a decision. We can either run or we can be victorious against this evil."

He said the government alone could not be held responsible for the situation, and communities also had to take a stand if they wanted to fight such crimes.

Cases where children were abused by people they knew, or in their own homes, as it is believed Nadine was, were difficult to police.

"This is not only a government responsibility. We need to stand together as a united force against gangsterism and drugs to ensure that our children stay safe.

The ONLY thing that can be said of the child murders is that it is overwhelmingly committed by people who know the children. I mean REALLY! You are at the funeral of a child and you are making a political speech and claiming that it was gangsterism and drugs responsible for Nadine's death? Talking tough about drugs is like viagra for politicians. Clearly it excites you and makes you hard. It is just sad that you would hijack the funeral of a child to LIE like this. The Premier was up to the same nonsense just the other day.

A 23-year-old Cape Town man was arrested for the kidnapping and murder of his ex-lover's three-year-old daughter, Western Cape police said on Sunday. "It was alleged by the mother that her ex-boyfriend fetched the child from a crèche on Thursday after she decided to end the relationship earlier in the day. The boyfriend then attempted to extort money (R500) from the mother," said police spokesperson Frederick van Wyk. (From News24) Another child death... Western Cape Community Safety MEC Lennit Max has urged parents and children to be vigilant.

"We depend on mothers and children who suspect people with ulterior motives to contact police immediately," Max said. Parents and communities should make use of the "safe house" concept. He said a house should be identified for children, so whenever they felt unsafe, they could run there for protection against "adults with ulterior motives".

Max reiterated that children had to be taught not to trust anyone, including relatives. Fuck me Lennit! The child was only 3!!!!!

Smoking cannabis is statisitically SAFER than growing up in the Western Cape in the reign of Lennit Max the 1st.

Mail and Guardian covers Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

The Mail and Guardian have a done a special feature on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and I am grateful that someone is paying some attention to one of the most pressing issues facing our society. It's a pity that the M&G failed to ask the more difficult questions or examine the root causes of the problem.

1. Is alcohol a drug?
2. What explains the steady climb in the FAS rate for the past 10 years?
3. Why is it not illegal to knowlingly serve alcohol to a pregnant woman?
4. Does the South African Constitution provide adequate rights for the affected individuals?
5. Will the CDA be held accountable for what has happened on their watch?

The answers are not always as clear as you would think.

1. Alcohol is a drug. This a fact. This FACT is not so readily accepted by South Africa's National Drug Master Plan of 2006. In defining the term "drug" as it used in the document alcohol is excluded as the "drugs" in question are the "illicit ones" "Although not specifically included in the definition, alcohol.... are also recognised as major contributors to health and social problems in South Africa." Excluding alcohol from the term "drug" does not stop the NDMP boldly confusingly stating that "Alcohol remains the primary drug of abuse in South Africa." That the government does not view alcohol as a drug might explain (with the exception of tobacco) why all "drugs" are the responsibility of the Department of Health, but alcohol is the responsibility of the Department of Trade and Industry (clause 4.2.13).

2. Where does the increasing steadily increasing rate of FAS come from? In the past 10 years the average alcohol consumtion per person has rocketed from 10 liters to 20 liters (figures from the 1998 and 2006 NDMP) The handbrake went off in 1998 and is still off. One of the world's largest drug manufacturers and distributors (SAB-Miller) has been supplying anyone with money with their product regardless of the consequences. You will not read this anywhere, as the media, along with the rest of society has been so overwhelmed by advertising for alcohol that resistance seems futile.

3. There is no good reason for it to still be legal to knowingly serve alcohol to a pregnant woman. That it is not illegal to allow a mother to make a vegetable of her child is seriously wrong.

4. The South African Constitution, fantastic document that it is, is based on the notion of equality. FAS sufferers do not really understand right from wrong, so they have a reduced capacity to commit crimes. Is it fair on them to not have the law make provision for them? FAS sufferers are born without any real prospect of a job much less a career. Will our society ever make provision for these people. It's not fair to live in a country where the law is based on equality and be born so much less equal than everyone else.

5. The Cental Drug Authority tasked with looking after drugs in the country have a lot to answer for. The results speak for themselves. Not even Josef Mengele doing his worst could produce a policy so obscene and peverse to produce a society where 10% are born retarded, valueless and seemingly worthless.

Alcohol should be policed as stringently as tobacco, Central Drug Authority chair Frank Kahn believes. So 2001... 2009... how is that coming along "Frank"? I am judging you on your results, NOT your pretty little words.. Message for Frank: "Hey Frank.. Your ignorance, intransigence and incompetence has put you in the same league as Mengele... Fuck you! Josef was a sick twisted evil man in extra-ordinary circumstances.... What is your excuse?"

No one has ever been held responsible for this tragedy. Naturally I look at the people and institutions tasked with protecting the people.... like the CDA and "Frank"...

Heavy Cannabis Use Doesn't Damage Brain

Long-term and even daily use doesn't appear to cause permanent brain damage, adding to evidence that it can be a safe and effective treatment for a wide range of diseases, say researchers. (from WebMD)

The researchers found only a "very small" impairment in memory and learning among long-term marijuana users. Otherwise, scores on thinking tests were similar to those who don't smoke marijuana, according to a new analysis of 15 previous studies.

In those studies, some 700 regular marijuana users were compared with 484 non-users on various aspects of brain function -- including reaction time, language and motor skills, reasoning ability, memory, and the ability to learn new information.

Surprising Finding

"We were somewhat surprised by our finding, especially since there's been a controversy for some years on whether long-term cannabis use causes brain damage," says lead researcher and psychiatrist Igor Grant, MD.

"I suppose we expected to see some differences in people who were heavy users, but in fact the differences were very minimal."

The marijuana users in those 15 studies -- which lasted between three months to more than 13 years -- had smoked marijuana several times a week or month or daily. Still, researchers say impairments were less than what is typically found from using alcohol or other drugs

UN backs decriminalisation in World Drug Report

In an about face, the United Nations on Wednesday lavishly praised drug decriminalization in its annual report on the state of global drug policy. In previous years, the UN drug czar had expressed skepticism about Portugal's decriminalization, which removed criminal penalties in 2001 for personal drug possession and emphasized treatment over incarceration. The UN had suggested the policy was in violation of international drug treaties and would encourage "drug tourism." (from the Huffington Post)

But in its 2009 World Drug Report, the UN had little but kind words for Portugal's radical (by U.S. standards) approach. "These conditions keep drugs out of the hands of those who would avoid them under a system of full prohibition, while encouraging treatment, rather than incarceration, for users. Among those who would not welcome a summons from a police officer are tourists, and, as a result, Portugal's policy has reportedly not led to an increase in drug tourism," reads the report. "It also appears that a number of drug-related problems have decreased."

"The International Narcotics Control Board was initially apprehensive when Portugal changed its law in 2001 (see their annual report for that year), but after a mission to Portugal in 2004, it "noted that the acquisition, possession and abuse of drugs had remained prohibited," and said "the practice of exempting small quantities of drugs from criminal prosecution is consistent with the international drug control treaties," reads a footnote to the report.

The UN report also dives head first into the debate over full drug legalization. Last year's World Drug Report ignored the issue entirely, save for a reference to Chinese opium policy in the 19th Century. This year's report begins with a lengthy rebuttal of arguments in favor of legalization. "Why unleash a drug epidemic in the developing world for the sake of libertarian arguments made by a pro-drug lobby that has the luxury of access to drug treatment?" argues the report.

But the UN also makes a significant concession to backers of legalization, who have long argued that it is prohibition policies that lead to violence and the growth of shadowy, underground networks.

"The world's 'drug czar,' Antonio Maria Costa, would have you believe that the legalization movement is calling for the abolition of drug control," he said. "Quite the contrary, we are demanding that governments replace the failed policy of prohibition with a system that actually regulates and controls drugs, including their purity and prices, as well as who produces them and who they can be sold to. You can't have effective control under prohibition, as we should have learned from our failed experiment with alcohol in the U.S. between 1920 and 1933." said Jack Cole, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) and a retired undercover narcotics detective who objected to the report's classification of current policy as "control."

Drugs behind child rapes and murders...?

Nadine Jantjie's rape and murder has left the authorities at their wit's end as they have no idea of how to tackle they problem. (from IOL)

This week Nadine became the latest child murdered in the Western Cape, just one of about 100 children who are deliberately killed in the Western Cape every year. Latest figures show that from April 2007 to March last year 128 children and teens were murdered.

On Tuesday this week Nadine's partially clothed body was found in bush on a dune in Wesbank. She had been raped and strangled. The man arrested for her murder, Manfred Swartz, is the brother of her two aunts' partners. (No mention of drugs or being under the influence was made)

The authorities admit their efforts to safeguard children are not enough and have acknowledged that family units need to be strengthened, as children who are murdered are most often killed by relatives.

Premier Helen Zille says dealing with the scourge of substance abuse, notably tik, is vital if the horrific murders of children are to be stopped. Tik seemed to turn people into "violent psychopaths", she said.

She is busy appointing a children's commissioner in the Premier's Office. At the national level talks are under way to implement systems for protecting children.

Zille said one of the key tasks of the children's commissioner would be to look at child abuse across the board but also the role played by men in the family.

Zille believes an investigation will show that in almost all child murder cases, substance abuse had played a part.

"One cannot blame poverty, for example. There are hundreds of very poor communities across the world in which the rape and murder of children and babies is unheard of.

"I have not heard of a case where the man involved in such violent abuse of children was not under the influence of a substance." (Women, like Ellen Pakkies, on the other hand, do it sober!)

All this rape is cultural. Helen Zille always rushing to judgement - perhaps she should look at it in racial terms. How many of these child rapes are by white people? If you are going to examine a problem like this it's not worth considering the role played by the initiation schools? The only thing they can say with certainty is that children are getting murdered by people they know...

R6million Mandrax haul

Mandrax worth R6-million had been seized at a petrol station in Bishop Lavis, police in Cape Town said on Sunday. (from IOL)

Captain Bernadine Steyn said the drugs had been seized at around 7.10pm on Saturday as the result of an investigation into illegal drug activity. "Our investigation led to information of a possible drug deal at the specific garage in Lavis Drive," she said.

When a grey Toyota bakkie stopped at the petrol station, the police approached it.

The driver fled on foot when he saw the police drawing near. He managed to evade capture.

Inside the bakkie, the police found 15 boxes containing 200 000 mandrax pills with a value of R6m.

A case of dealing in drugs was opened. No arrests have yet been made.

Steyn said anyone with information about the drugs should contact Captain Chris Rossouw at the organised crime unit office in Bellville

This story is highly DUBIOUS. Either it was an existing case with an open docket or it's a totallly new one? Which is it? Do you expect me to believe that these people were going to do a R6million drug deal at a filling station. What? Are they going to sit in the forecourt and count out R6million in cash? The police were waiting for this person. It was as close to a trap you could get, but the person gets away on foot. You have to wonder if the police were waiting on rollerskates. Then again the police "think" "anyone" with information about these drugs will contact them..... Maybe if you ask nice enough the people involved will just turn themselves in? Despite all the holes... which makes the story quite funny.... it's all quite serious.... The only good thing about all this is that there are 200 000 fewer Mandrax tablets on the street.

THC initiates brain cancer cells to destroy themselves

THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, causes brain cancer cells to undergo a process called autophagy in which cells feed upon themselves, according to a study conducted by Guillermo Velasco and colleagues at Complutense University in Spain.

"These results may help to design new cancer therapies based on the use of medicines containing the active principle of marijuana and/or in the activation of autophagy,"

Medicine from the American Cancer Society

Cannabis is a medicine. That is according to the American Cancer Society.

Smoking cannabis is SAFER than kite surfing

A 38-year-old kite surfer from Bloubergstrand died on Saturday after strong winds smashed him into boulders at Milnerton's Lagoon beach in Cape town (from News 24)

Very strong winds in excess of 15 knots were gusting at the time, National Sea Rescue Institute spokesperson Craig Lambinon, "He was reportedly slammed against rocks alongside the beach and suffered fatal injuries. Despite extensive efforts by Netcare paramedics to resuscitate the man on the scene, he was declared dead."

Smoking Cannabis has never killled anyone. Kite surfing has. Therefore smoking cannabis is SAFER than kite surfing.

The drugs do work - for a lot of people

Nice People Take Drugs – it's not a controversial statement. We all know people who have. The last three US presidents have admitted to it. Much has been suggested about the likely next UK prime minister. Nowadays if a politician admitted to it, the tabloids would struggle to make a story stick let alone generate a scandal. The fact is, a lot of people from all walks of life have at some point taken drugs and it's time we got real about it. (From the Guardian)

The situation where people have to deny, hide or, if found out, regret their drug taking is simply absurd. The public is tired of the artificial representation of drugs in society, which is not truthful about the fact that all sorts of people use drugs. If we are to have a fair and effective drug policy, it must be premised on this reality.

It is time for the public to challenge the mantra adhered to by politicians and much of the media that society must continue to fight a war on drugs, as if they are an enemy worth fighting and ones that can be defeated. The implication that drugs are evil and that users of them ought to be made to feel ashamed suits this status quo, but in fact does not reflect most people's experience of drugs.

A very interesting approach to kicking off the debate.