A Call for Independent Inquiry into Australian news media

If you're after accuracy, avoid AAP! And “The Australian”! And most mainstream news services!
(OUCH! I just shot myself in the foot!)
16/10/09

Having little else to do but to scan (primarily) the Google news pages, I spied an article which gave a rap about Cannabis, titled “Aussies use more cannabis than Europeans - fact”.


Well, I read it, remembered next to none of it, and was brought to wonder about the veracity of the article, so I looked atop the screen and saw that it came to Google's news page from “The Australian” online news media link
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26217384-12377,00.html

But under the article's title, “Aussies use more cannabis than Europeans - fact” and date, October 16, 2009, the words told me “article from aap”. Aap being the acronym name of “Australian Associated Press”.
Here's a copy of the article, just to show what I mean:
AUSTRALIANS rank among the world's top cannabis users, a review of global data has confirmed.
It was estimated more than eight per cent of the population used marijuana at least once a year, and this rate was only matched by North America and our trans-Tasman neighbours.
"Australia, New Zealand and North America have traditionally been the countries which have among the highest rates (of cannabis use)," Professor Louisa Degenhardt of the University of NSW said.
"That has been something demonstrated repeatedly in surveys of young people and surveys of the general population."
Europe was next in terms of annual usage followed by the Middle East and Asia, while usage rates were rising across Africa but from a low base in some countries.
This was according to a major review of the global pool of research into marijuana consumption, conducted by the University of NSW's National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre in collaboration with the University of Queensland.
The paper, published in The Lancet, included a UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimate that cannabis was used by 166 million people, or 3.9 per cent of the global population aged 15 to 64 years, during 2006.
Prof Degenhardt said a different study in 2007 found 9.1 per cent of Australians aged 14 to 65 reported using cannabis in the past year - one of the highest usage rates in the world.
The paper states one in 10 users have "cannabis dependence syndrome" placing them at risk of chronic bronchitis, psychotic symptoms especially in those with a family history of mental disorders, and also poorer education outcomes in affected youth.
Other possibly linked health effects include respiratory cancer, depression, suicide or behavioural disorders in children whose mothers used cannabis while pregnant.
A person's heart attack risk increases almost five times during the hour after they used cannabis, another study shows.
Despite this, the paper concludes the health burden imposed by cannabis use on Australia was "probably modest" compared to the illness and injury caused by alcohol, tobacco and other illicit drugs.
"Cannabis use caused 0.2 per cent of total disease burden in Australia - a country with one of the highest reported rates of cannabis use," the paper said.
Alcohol accounted for 2.3 per cent of the nation's disease burden while tobacco came in at 7.8 per cent.

Well..., as I wrote above, I forgot most of what it said. So, I read it again, and was relieved that I was going at it from the usual “negative expectations” point of view. It is not a totally negative attack on Cannabis smoking after all. Phew! But it is replete with neg about supposed effects from smoking cannabis.

So..., seeing as I've started, bearing in mind my own comments a few weeks ago after being sent a positive report about some authority relaxing attitudes around Cannabis, my saying in response that they were likely given the word from the US Administration to begin to back-off the neg about the weed, the article, to my critical mind (but only mildly ill) for a media group like aap, whose first chairman was Rupert Murdoch's father, Keith Murdoch, a deep insider of the Brettonwoods bastards who conspired to take control of the whole world's media in the 1940s, and who have since, via the agency of Keith's boy Rupie and grandboy Jimpee now are the biggest media tyrants on the Mutha Terra, the article has to be questioned when it states that:

AUSTRALIANS rank among the world's top cannabis users, a review of global data has confirmed.
It was estimated more than eight per cent of the population used marijuana at least once a year, and this rate was only matched by North America and our trans-Tasman neighbours.
"Australia, New Zealand and North America have traditionally been the countries which have among the highest rates (of cannabis use)," Professor Louisa Degenhardt of the University of NSW said.


And that's just in the 1st three paragraphs?

Para one, “...among the world's top cannabis users,...”

This “survey” was carried out by some laboratory boffins at the Uni of NSW. Professor Louisa Degenhardt one of them, we assume? Can we ask whether the professor was paid to do the survey paper? And if so, by whom?

The article says nothing of the surely innumerable numbers of Moslems or Hindus, or those of other continents and islands on Mutha Terra who imbibe Cannabis and or Hashish on a religious, casual and or daily basis.

I've not been to Asia nor central Asia nor most other parts of the planet, but it would seem, that even while drug use and especially excessive soft drug or “cannabis” use is as likely not regarded favorably by most Hindus or Moslems, it's highly unlikely that Australians, north Americans and even the BIG-SSSmoekin' Kayways actually DO rank among “the world's top cannabis users”.

Even the article's title cannot be trusted, even while they use “fact” in it.
“Aussies use more cannabis than Europeans - fact”.

It has to be asked, “Where they comin' from?” there at “aap”.

If by “Cannabis” they mean the “GREEN” that is, the bush, or the hydro, as opposed to the Hashish, the cake, the brick, then OK, I can believe that. Hashish gets better undercover transhipment mile per kilo than the comparatively bulky plant's heads, so as it is grown and turned into Hash in north Africa, and in the Middle East, and in Pakistan and Afghanistan and India and north Queensland and umm..., NO! They don't make much hashsish in N.Q.! Hash goes the distance better, from those production regions of Central Asia, the Middle east and north Africa across the land-bridges into Eurape and Britain. You can probably hide the smell of hashish better than the green weed, especially of hydro, too?

In Australia, the sparse hectares of bushland, and spare bedrooms in suburban houses make growing and distributing the GREEN, straight heads of the Herb, unprocessed into hashish, easier and more viable for the market.

But ounce-for-ounce, no-one's gonna put that one over me, that Australians smoke more THC than Eurapeans!

So what is aap, via the brudderbond news censor and fabricator Murdoch's “The Australian” trying to do?

If we had as many bridges across the seas to Asia and beyond, most Aussie smokers would as likely smoke heaps more Hashish than QUOTE “cannabis” UNQUOTE!

This sort of confuse-us Murdochian SHIT is what befuddles the VERY SERIOUS debate about legalizing Cannabis, Hashish, Ganga, Weed, Pot, DOPE, and shoves a mass of nonsensical and deceptive rubbish onto the minds of our alcohol-soaked mainstreamer Mista-and-Missus Dummaz, so that, when Murdochian BULLSHIT media knocks on your cellphone and asks you to answer their survey about legalizing DRUGS LIKE DOPE little missus Prozac-and-liypo falls into auto non-think mode and remembers the neg-neg-and-MORE-cunning-neg in that article by reporter noname in “The Astraylean”, from the assumed AUTHORITATIVE “aap”, and answers NO NO NO AND MORE NOOOOOOO!

“What I'm worried about is the effect smoking Canofpiss will have on MY BAAAAYBEEE???!?!?!?!?@#$%^&*”

And, if “The Australian” newspaper and online media outlet is owned by Rupert Murdoch, well-known to be a friend of the very profitable global drugs cartels and of the disgustingly unethical drug laws which incarcerate so many basically innocent people, basically innocent LOWER-CLASS People, so that the evil-idle-bodied kids of the world's elite can profit from the illegal drugs' trade, "with just a phone call", and then, like the Murdochs, profit further from the sensationalism SENSATIONALISM SENSATIONALISM which arises from his US buddy GW Bush's “WAR ON DRUGS” and the ensuing wars in Afghanistan, now extended due to popular demand by the ferengi fondi into Pakistan, and wherever they can stretch their euros, dollars, hi-tech weapon's caches and OH! their military vehicles to truck out the opium from the so-called “war-zones”, why can they not provide the name of the reporter who supposedly wrote the article, and supposedly interviewed the supposed Professor Degenhardt of the nation's most corrupt city's rather LESS-THAN HOLY University of New South Wales???

And a ??? and a ???

I MEAN??? Come-ORN!?!?!

The article is written with a very adept hand I'd say, because it drops lines like “... another study shows...”, and “... a different study in 2007 found...” and “The paper, published in The Lancet, included a UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimate that cannabis was used by 166 million people, or 3.9 per cent of the global population aged 15 to 64 years, during 2006.”

"...ESTIMATE..."?

So, which paper, published in The Lancet, of the “..another study shows..” and “..a different study found..” and the “..UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimate..” (well, the last one is in the 'paper' it seems) is being referred to?

I find it hard to do the sums myself to verify if 166 million equates to 3.9% of the global population aged 15-to-64, but I refuse to believe that that is all the people who smoke the Herb, out of our near 7 billion?

I find it intriguing that this article dropped on the same day that the British Timesonline put out the article (referred-to in another weblog post of mine from earlier today) telling the world that the Italians were bribing the Taleban (timesonline spelling) to not fire on their troopies!

Surely, as Afghanistan is said by all those who want a war on drugs, to be the biggest producer of opium for the world heroin black-market, another muddleheaded article about the OTHER illegal drug “cannabis”, is more than coincidence?

I'm suspicious that aap and euro-blah and co will say anything to diffuse our concentration and thus the possibility of asking the next question about whether opium was involved in the "Italian bribes" affair?

But..., I AM bored, pissed off I am prevented from smoking my preferred herb (Cannabis) because of idiotic laws enforced by idiots like Murdoch's uptop, upclub, upemselves and, AND seriously mentally ill friends in Eurape and the USA and, AND in Canada, another major beneficiary from the illegal cannabis market!

Then there's the upsidedownbrain clubs of the NSW parliament “Rum Club” and the Vatican's “Wrong Club” who keep me uptobeingREALLYPISSEDORF, because they don't smoke enough Intelliherb to be able to THINK MAN THINK FOR THEMSELVES, and try to force ME to do the political and religious thinking FOR THEM!?

Obviously, I haven't had a smoke for a few weeks.......

What may be extruded from this angriessay, is that we must NOT TRUST ANYTHING FROM MURDOCH'S MEDIA (aap is part-and-parcel of his global coven) NOR ANYONE IN MURDOCH'S PAY (think one Mr P Adams, doyen of Aunty ABC, THEIR ABC! who writes regular articles for a princely sum I bet in The Australian!?).

It is also correct to call our generally same-same softcock Prime Minister Rudd to open an inquiry into Australia's media cartels and whether they need to be smashed to little Local bits, where the PEOPLE can, without fear-or-favor, report the REALNews, and not the agenda-ridden shit which pours out of Murdoch's upper and lower level orifices!

Imagine how superdooper rich he and his boyz would suddenly NOT be if we went so far as to NATIONALIZE all the Land as well? They would really loose a “nice little earner” without his glossy pages on the speculative real estate market-rip-off-place, wouldn't they???

But they'd be terribly unhappy too, because the vast majority of Australians, including the Aborigines, WOULD BE HAPPY!

And we ALL know that media like Murdoch's depend on the reader being UNHAPPY, FRIGHTENED SHITLESS, AND DESPERATE TO READ ABOUT SOME OTHER POOR SUCKER'S TERRIBLE LIFE.

And YOU were going to manage the Revolution, Murdoch?!

Peeeace-offf!

And tell wee-Jimpy to crawl back up his Canary!

LEGALIZE ALL DRUGS! GLOBALLY!

PROHIBITION KILLS! GLOBALLY!

DEMAND EVIDENCE-BASED DRUG LAWS! GLOBALLY!

And Intelligent, DEMOCRATIC Media control laws. GLOBALLY!

RAH! RAH! RAH!