MENZ ISSUES

MENZ Issues: news and discussion about New Zealand men, fathers, family law, divorce, courts, protests, gender politics, and male health.

Increasing Drug Deaths for Men

Filed under: General,Men's Health — Downunder @ 7:33 am Sun 14th September 2014

Something that has become apparent to me during the last year is the sea change in the British Media around the reporting of men’s issues. I am not making any claim that their media has lost all sexist bias, but certainly there has been a significant change in the nature of their reporting.

When I saw this graphic, naturally it made me think, what is the situation in New Zealand?

British Drug Deaths

British Drug Deaths

The pattern of male deaths had been trending down, but as can be seen in the graph there is a sudden change and upward spike during 2012 -2013.

I not familiar with the drug scene, but it raises some questions.

1. Obviously, why the sudden trend upwards?

2. What is the age demographic?

3. Why is this only impacting males?

4. What is the situation in New Zealand?

It is common in New Zealand to see research regarding females pulled out on a regular basis but research that relates to situations where males are significantly disadvantaged is hard to find.


If you are familiar with the New Zealand situation we would welcome any comment and relevant links.

2 Comments »

  1. Thanks.

    Curiouser and curiouser m/f ratio roughly parallels the reported suicide deaths?
    Although self demolition is doubtless a factor, though more lethality is probably linked to testosterone driven risk taking and low self value. (The latter is a suicide risk factor anyway.)

    It does hint that Bennefit levels for men could be reduced, or should I keep my trap shut?

    Maybe that is the Ashburton conclusion, reduce men’s benefits until the problem symptoms go away completely?

    Like reducing the thermostat settings in mental hospitals to zero, as suggested by noted psychiatrist/health economist Adolf (who is still manipulating mental health funding in NZ today)?

    Drug overdoses commonly occur during a relapse, as the body has lost a lot of its tolerance, but the alcohol or substance addict is often unaware of the adjustment needed to survive. David Nutt suggested we warn recovering addicts about the reduced tolerance/increased toxicity during recovery, so that relapses would be less likely to be lethal. Alcohol industry never bought this idea (increased retail outlets was their suggestion to politicians they were funding)?

    Research showing poorer men’s outcomes is fairly easy to find, but most of it is preliminary, rather than showing cost effective solutions. Much of it relates to men’s behaviours outside of hospitals, where hospital doctors see less ability to change these behaviours constructively.

    Maybe still living men have a role to play, to waken men how to better protect themselves from known hazards around us. Like falling trees and sexual frustrations affecting the quality of our workplace safety, drunk driving or sexual risk taking?

    The hardest part is persuading them that living is worthwhile long term, without using too much deception?

    (I am only joking, I think?)

    Comment by MurrayBacon — Sun 14th September 2014 @ 8:44 am

  2. Cannabis Legislation – this is relevant to men.

    Men go to prison because of cannabis law, and are punished with other actions.
    Sometimes only them and not thier partners as well are arrested.
    A cannabis user can have protection orders taken out agianst them.

    I do not support the legalising of other drugs

    Originaly I like most people, was raised to think Cannabis was something evil and dangerous. Something that our good society had to fight against. It turns good men into bad men, making them do bad things and destroying their lives, and the lives of others.
    In the back of my mind however was my father. Who had a small amount of it hiden in the shed. Well not hiden because he always implied to us that it was there, like a test to see if we would try it.
    What bought me to try it was that a extremly dificult year. My parents had seperated (I was 18), I had already droped out in effect from my first year at university, and not that I understood the depths of my mothers experience (she was on medication to help prevent suicide), I was supporting her and commited my time to her as I felt she was suffering.
    I got a knock on the door. My schoolboy friend Jason had arived from the past to pay me a visit. I needed a good friend. He suggested we take dads Cannabis so we could try it, use it. He had already experienced it.
    I found my savour for my psycological suffering, my refuge from the world. That was the begining of my long journey to today and this document.
    When I have been free of cannabis in my life, but bat things have happened, it has been the only thing that has been thier for me.
    I found early on that it was not like alcohol, as I had ended up uncouncous on some strangers lawn prior to trying Cannabis. Although on rare occasions I have repeated this mistake. I have little trust in alcohol. It is a nevous system suppressant. You are in the process of dying when you drink, even more so when you get drunk. The spewing up, and falling uncouncous is the bodies method of preventing your death, not the body having to much fun. The fun takes place because as the nervous system slows down, IE the brain, reverts more and more to just the reptilian brain. Social barriers no longer manipulate behavour.
    It is impossible to overdose on Cannabis like alcohol and cause death. Unless a person has a profound Genetic/biological medical condition that I,ve never heard of. We will explore why that is later.

    Its has a place in mankinds history, proven to be true

    The use of cannabis, at least as fiber, has been shown to go back at least 10,000 years in Taiwan. “Dà má” (Pinyin pronunciation) is the Chinese expression for cannabis, the first character meaning “big” and the second character meaning “hemp
    Charred cannabis seeds found at an ancient burial site in what is now Romania show that people have been smoking it since the 3rd millennium BC
    a leather basket full of cannabis seeds and leaf fragments was found next to the 2,500-2,800-year-old mummy of a shaman in China.
    Evidence of marijuana cultivation reaches back as far as 2737 B.C. China
    It was used recreationally as far back as 1000 B.C. India
    The Spanish brought pot to America in 1545, and the English arrived with pot in Jamestown in 1611
    Napoleon’s army returned to France from Egypt and brought hashish and marijuana with them
    In 1894, the Indian Hemp Drug Commission issued a report commissioned by the British government, which concluded that ‘there is no evidence of any weight regarding the mental and moral injuries from the moderate use of these drugs.’
    Other cultures known to have used cannabis include the Hindus and Nihang Sikhs from ancient India and Nepal the cult of Dionysus, and the regions of Greece and Turkey
    . It was well known by the ancient Assyrians As well the Dacians, Scythians, and Thracians had shamans known as kapnobatai
    Jews and early Christians may have used the drug, basing this theory on the similarities between the terms qannabbos (cannabis) and the phrase qené bósem (aromatic cane) in old Hebrew. The early Sufi Muslims also used the drug.
    pipes “dug up from the garden of Shakespeare’s home in Stratford-upon-Avon..” had traces of cannabis
    Christopher Columbus and the crews of the Armada were surely happy that they stowed away a lot of marijuana to help them along. Life at sea in 1492 was just a little stressful.
    It turns out that, by some strange series of “coincidences”, our “cannabinoid receptors” are scarce in the brain stem that governs the body’s vital functions such as breathing and circulation of blood. It also turns out that cannabis compounds are slowly released from fat tissue in our bodies, thus preventing rapid “withdrawal” and making marijuana physical dependence impossible.
    Dr. William C. Woodward, testifying on behalf of the AMA, told Congress that, “The American Medical Association knows of no evidence that marijuana is a dangerous drug”
    The botanist Li Hui-Lin wrote that in China, “The use of Cannabis in medicine was probably a very early development. Since ancient humans used hemp seed as food, it was quite natural for them to also discover the medicinal properties of the plant.” The oldest Chinese pharmacopeia, the (ca. 100 CE)
    Emperor Shen-Nung, who was also a pharmacologist, wrote a book on treatment methods in 2737 that included the medical benefits of cannabis. He recommended the substance for many ailments, including constipation, gout, rheumatism, and absent-mindedness
    Hua Tuo lived many years later, yet he is credited with being the first person known to use cannabis as an anesthetic. He reduced the plant to powder and mixed it with wine for administration
    The Ebers Papyrus (ca. 1550 BCE) from Ancient Egypt describes medical cannabis. Other ancient Egyptian papyri that mention medical cannabis are the Ramesseum III Papyrus (1700 BC), the Berlin Papyrus (1300 BCE) and the Chester Beatty Medical Papyrus VI (1300 BCE). The ancient Egyptians even used hemp (cannabis) in suppositories for relieving the pain of hemorrhoids. Around 2,000 BCE, the ancient Egyptians used cannabis to treat sore eyes. The egyptologist Lise Manniche notes the reference to “plant medical cannabis” in several Egyptian texts, one of which dates back to the eighteenth century BCE
    Surviving texts from ancient India confirm that cannabis’ psychoactive properties were recognized, and doctors used it for treating a variety of illnesses and ailments. These included insomnia, headaches, a whole host of gastrointestinal disorders, and pain: cannabis was frequently used to relieve the pain of childbirth.
    One Indian philosopher expressed his views on the nature and uses of bhang (a form of cannabis), which combined religious thought with medical practices. “A guardian lives in the bhang leaf. “¦To see in a dream the leaves, plant, or water of bhang is lucky. “¦A longing for bhang foretells happiness. It cures dysentry and sunstroke, clears phlegm, quickens digestion, sharpens appetite, makes the tongue of the lisper plain, freshens the intellect and gives alertness to the body and gaiety to the mind. Such are the useful and needful ends for which in His goodness the Almighty made bhang
    In the 5th century BCE Herodotus, a Greek historian, described how the Scythians of the Middle East used cannabis in steam baths.
    In the medieval Islamic world, Arabic physicians made use of the diuretic, antiemetic, antiepileptic, anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antipyretic properties of Cannabis sativa, and used it extensively as medication from the 8th to 18th centuries
    All animals have cannabis receptors.
    look on the interrnet, the relationship goes back to when you were a sea squirt.
    ETC ETC

    The forbiden fruit. The tree of life.
    Cannabis works by some of the giant list of chemicals in plants
    It could be that the reason government dont like cannibis is that the inventive thinking can allow some of its users to see past the propaganda thats spewed out by our intelectualy incompetent media, on there behalf, to see the smoke for the trees. The truth. The lies.
    No politician wants that.
    Or drug company.

    Arguments agianst the legalising of cannabis

    1 That it causes mental illness
    NZ research has shown that the use of cannibis does not generaly cause mental illness. Heavy use can in vulnerable people induce psycosis but this is very rare, this is mental illness. People who have activatable hallucination centers of the brian, the profound majority of people dont, or by using a hallucination drug, can experience psycosis. This is where the tiny number of cases where parents say he/she was ok before they smoked pot came from. Schizophrenics should not use cannabis, but this like I said is a tiny proportion of society. Unless a doctor prescibes a definable dose\strian. Met any people that should not use alchohol.

    2 It lowers the IQ of users.
    No it does not with an exception. Research has shown that children under 18 should not use cannibis as this can but not always lowers IQ by a small amount. It also depends if the user was kicked out of school. Whos the stupid one now. People who start the use of cannabis after the age of 18 are proven to have no effect on IQ. If you research how cannabis works in the body it becomes obvious that it is impossible for it to do so. Cannabis use can show that something is wrong in a persons life. Met any people that should not use alchohol, there’s a IQ booster, ,,not. Or lots of sugary food, or no food.

    3 It causes smoking related lung illness
    Eat it like it was when it was issued to roman soldiers. Do some baking and eat a cooky, chocolate ones possibly?. Really anti cannabis nutters really do clutch to straws.

    4 It causes crime
    No money and greed in all its forms causes crime. If a standardised and safe product was sold in shops, is that a crime, or is it a taxable indusrty? And the money used to fund health initiatives. It would free up our prisons, reducing crime. Whos stupid now, take a cooky it will make you feel better. A crime would be to provide it to a child or give access to a child, unless by a doctor. It can be an agrrivating factor to crime and should be treated as such. IE driving causing injury with cannabis in your system should increase the punishment. Bank robbers as well.

    5 It causes teenage pregnancy
    No it does not. Sexual intercourse does that, but it can stupify. Research has shown the opposite. Cannabis use rates in the female population based on race remain constant, no matter what rate of teenage pregnancy rate that racial group has. It only effects male victims of the female version of rape, non consential conception. It helps them until society has fialed them completly, then they hang themselves. Cannabis in the teenage male population has become by default there Womens Refuge. Its saves countless lives of young males. Research has proven this to be true. Society throws them on the scrap heap and cannabis is the psycological refuge that saves there lives. Imagine the slaughter if they didnt have it.

    6 Its a drug
    No it is not. THC is an inert substance in the body. It has only one purpouse, to activate a switch. The switch is called the cannabis receptor. You cannot overdose on cannabis because the switch can only turn on once until sufficient time pases and this switch turns itself off. When the switch turns on this alows your brain to release its own chemicals. Other substances in the cannabis plant alter how well or otherwise the balance of how this works. They are not illegal substances as they can be found other plants, that you purchase in the supermarket. THC that is not used is stored by the body for later use in your fat cells. Hence detection of it in your body weeks after consumption. A drug is something that needs a doctor to give it to you. Or is like ‘P’ and replaces anouther chemical in your body.

    7 Cannabis is the only thing that activates the cannabis receptor
    Wrong. There is at least one other, a trace chemical in chocolate. Yes the one thats advertised as the feel good one. Pity that large amounts of chocolate production relies on child slave labour as well. Whos the criminal now?

    8 It causes suicide
    Refer to above. Add a stupid and evil world to the formula. Have you noticed how many dead teenage males there are. Teenage females? Suicides test society and how they are treating parts of society. What were you doing to the person that made them walk to the edge of the cliff, Only for them to look back at you smiling, as they jump off, to certain death. Shame on all of us.

    So whats the piont of all that I have said.
    Law is very specific in establishing peoples rights.
    The crown does not have the right to legislate against peoples DNA. Unless you do something wrong with it.
    How else do we have this switch, and for it to be a crime to use it, for good, or like other things, for bad?
    What DNA you might ask? The DNA that created your and my cannabis receptors.
    Have you noticed by our history how this symbiotic/evolved relationship has advanced humanity.
    Yet the only symbiotic DNA relationship that mankind has with an andvanced biological entity is a crime? Unless you can define others. Your dog?
    Bill of rights?
    No! the crown acts in an arbitrary manner.
    I must have possesion to turn on the switch.
    Human rights violation?
    No! it is a GENOCIDE by the crown.
    Cannabis has saved my life, over, and over, and over, and over agian.
    For all of my own sufferings I owe it my life.
    If I need it I will use it as my refuge. Possibly for fun.
    Please use this document in court if you are subjected to the inhumanity of this GENOCIDE.
    Tell your own story of how it saved you.
    I already have my use defined by a court. And I didnt ask for it.
    Cannabis is niether good nor bad.
    But you are.
    I found who betrays me. An incredulous suffering. Now my best friend is a true friend.

    Comment by The man in Absentia — Sun 14th September 2014 @ 5:36 pm

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment

Please note that comments which do not conform with the rules of this site are likely to be removed. They should be on-topic for the page they are on. Discussions about moderation are specifically forbidden. All spam will be deleted within a few hours and blacklisted on the stopforumspam database.

This site is cached. Comments will not appear immediately unless you are logged in. Please do not make multiple attempts.

Skip to toolbar