Minister for Mental Health
Ms. Lisa May Neville
Level 22, 50 Lonsdale St.
Melbourne 3000 16th April 2010
Re:- Our peoples health and well-being
Firstly As by way of relevant background, I offer the following:- 1996 Jeff Kennett (liberal) Government implemented ways to tackle the problem of drug abuse in our community. The Premiers Drug Advisory Council was formed, Chaired by Professor David Pennington.
On the 31st May 1996 Professor David Pennington presented his report to Parliament which recommended (7.2) " Cultivation of up to five cannabis plants per household for personal use should no longer be an offence" Soon after Labour Party was elected to Govern, Victorian Police statistics showed on that around 10,000 Victorian citizen’s are charged with cannabis related charges each year. Legal Aid spent $14 million on legal representation defending cannabis consumers that pleaded guilty. no doubt a financial benefit to the legal profession, which are the only winners of cannabis prohibition.
1996 -2006 150, 000 Victorians were convicted for cannabis related offences. It is of interest to note ‘Turning the Tide" strategy page 18 States "A recent analysis by Access Economics estimates that spending on illegal drugs in Australia amounts to $7 Billion per year, Seventy per cent spent on illegal drugs is cannabis" The Commonwealth of Australian Statistics reveals 55,494 Cannabis offenders occurred between 2001-2002. Background Ends here
As you would be well aware that there has never been a lethal over dose of cannabis recorded in humans beings world wide. We feel if the (1996) recommendation of Professor David Pennington had of been enacted this would have reduced the health risk of our people also reduced the cost, so that cannabis could be used as intended as beverage or as food additive in cooking, and to maintain a more peaceful and harmonies lifestyle for all concerned, Yes, smoking is a health hazard. Alcohol is ticket to family violence and is a death sentence
In our letter 12th February, 2008:- "Due to the growing unrest and doubt surrounding Parliaments, the Victorian Governments ability to protect our people, as to ease our concerns regarding hydroponics grown cannabis" we requested the most urgent need to amend the drugs Poisons and Controlled Substance Act 1981, It now appears you have failed to consider this as the Minister for public Health, indicating support for Lawyers increasing wealth.. Yes Ms Neville enough is enough.
My duty is to prevent the Aboriginal people of Victoria from coming in contact with the Criminal Justice system of Victoria, as 80% of our population feel that cannabis use is far less harmful to our people then legal drug Alcohol. and it must be corrected with the future health and well being of our people in mind. I also take this opportunity as to clarify the situation:-
I ask if you can forward the Act that gives The Victorian Parliament the power to make laws for peace order and good Government for the Aboriginal people of Victoria. .... I thank you
Yours faithfully,
Les McDonald,
Chief Lore Officer
Aboriginal Embassy Victoria
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3 comments:
There is no piece of paper to say Aboriginal Customary Law applies to all people in Victoria apart from what has been written down about what elders have said in relation to sacred sites including what Aunty Beryl Booth has referred to on this forum backed up by precedent and ceremony, so why does there have to be a piece of paper to say European “customary law” applies to all people in Victoria apart from what has been written down about what judges have referred to in Common Law including what has been said to the principal contributor to this forum backed up by Statute Law as with the Constitution of Australia after the 1967 referendum, enabled by the ceremony of parliament?
Law is the outcome of ceremony whether written, sung, danced, narrated, painted, hewn in rock, electronically or otherwise recorded.
Is there a problem with ceremony, perhaps an inequality of representation?
"Colonial Aboriginal policy in New South Wales disturbed George Gipps – Whig statesman, ex-military engineer – when he arrived in early 1838 to take up the governorship. His predecessor, Richard Bourke, had left some time earlier, and during the interregnum administrators had sanctioned swift retribution for attacks on settlers.
"Replying to a petition from leading citizens soliciting military action in response to Aboriginal attacks near Port Phillip that year, Gipps declared London's resolve: "As I have the most positive direction from Her Majesty's Government, to treat the Aboriginal Natives as subjects of Her Majesty, it is entirely out of my power to authorise the levying of war against them, or to give sanction to any measures of indiscriminate retaliation."
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/lest-we-forget-about-indigenous-disadvantage-20100422-tf2n.html
Alcohol helps the body digest animal foods while those with unresolved problems who abuse alcohol can be socially disruptive. Similarly, cannabis helps the body digest processed plant foods while those with unresolved problems who abuse cannabis can be socially withdrawn. Disruption or withdrawal, neither resolves underlying problems. The former involves the community, the latter sweeps problems under the carpet.
This was recognised within the Victorian Aboriginal Community in the mid-1970s at a meeting place called "Tabu or not Tabu", retitled "BeBuyBac" when recognition of certain problems was complete, nearby the sacred Corroboree Tree in St Kilda. A poster was placed on the wall at the top of a stairway at the meeting place with words to the effect that "If you eat meat, you drink alcohol; if you eat processed foods, you smoke cannabis" for anyone paying attention to what was going on to consider.
It was also recognised that the "solution" for those with unresolved problems "is a new Constitution". To this end staff from the meeting place tape-recorded proceedings of a National Conference for a Democratic Constitution held at the Exhibition Building, Melbourne from 23-25 September 1977, the venue which on 9 May 1901 hosted the opening of the first Federal Parliament in Australia. Constitutional reform to reconcile Aboriginal and european customary law with provision for governance conducted by agreement between women's and men's legislatures and committees has been pursued ever since with fruition anticipated with the declaration of a Republic of Australia.
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