[Wednesday, 13 August 2003] 9825 The THC in marijuana and the brain’s endogenous cannabinoids work in much the same way, but THC is far stronger and more persistent than anandamide, which, like most neurotransmitters, is designed to break down very soon after its release. (Chocolate, of all things, seems to slow this process, which might account for its own subtle mood-altering properties.) What this suggests is that smoking marijuana may overstimulate the brain’s built-in forgetting faculty, exaggerating its normal operations. This is no small thing. Indeed, I would venture that, more than any other single quality, it is the relentless moment-by-moment forgetting, this draining of the pool of sense impressions almost as quickly as it fills, that gives the experience of consciousness under marijuana its peculiar texture. It helps account for the sharpening of sensory perceptions, for the aura of profundity in which cannabis bathes the most ordinary insights, and, perhaps most important of all, for the sense that time has slowed and even stopped. On the previous page, the book states - ‘If we could hear the squirrel’s heartbeat, the sound of the grass growing, we should die of that roar,’ George Eliot once wrote. Our mental health depends on a mechanism for editing the moment-by-moment ocean of sensory data flowing into our consciousness down to a manageable trickle of the noticed and remembered. The cannabinoid network appears to be part of that mechanism, vigilantly sifting the vast chaff of sense impressions from the kernels of perception we need to remember if we’re to get through the day and get done what needs to be done. Much depends on forgetting. In other words, simulating the brain’s natural ability to forget - the short-term memory loss that goes with cannabis smoking is a joke amongst cannabis smokers - is also one of the reasons for the change in perceptions that cannabis brings about. Our consciousness is absolutely bathed and flooded with all of the sense perceptions we are receiving in this room at this moment - the lighting, the sound of my voice and other voices in the background, things we may be reading and many other things our senses are taking on board. At the same time, our minds are operating on remembering what we did before we came into the room, what we did yesterday, who we are, or what we will do tomorrow. The ability of cannabis to help us let go of all of that additional sensory and mental material also gives it the power that has been used in association with spiritual practice in some cultures, because it brings the consciousness into the now. To move on, there are well-known medicinal benefits, as well as the psychoactive effects of smoking marijuana. They are dealt with in the most recent issue of the Lancet, the journal of the British Medical Association. Medical benefits from smoking marijuana include effective treatment of the effects of multiple sclerosis, pain relief and the prevention of epilepsy. Debate interrupted, pursuant to sessional orders. Sitting suspended from 1.00 to 2.00 pm CONVICTED OFFENDERS, CORPORAL PUNISHMENT Motion Resumed from 25 June on the following motion moved by Hon Frank Hough - That the Government take such action to empower the courts with the discretion to impose corporal punishment on convicted offenders in certain circumstances. HON FRANK HOUGH (Agricultural) [2.00 pm]: I will be quick. I only have three hours and 42 minutes left in which to speak. Hon Nick Griffiths: Stop beating around the bush then and get on with it! Hon FRANK HOUGH: Sorry. In the six-week break I was unlucky enough to get some work experience on this matter at my office. Hon John Fischer also received the same work experience. On the first Tuesday of the break his car got smashed into and robbed. I was very sympathetic towards him. On the second Tuesday my car got smashed into and robbed. I suggest that Hon John Fischer was also very sympathetic. On the third Tuesday John’s car got smashed into and robbed. We then thought that a pattern was emerging. On the fourth Tuesday my car got smashed into and robbed again. I said to Hon John Fischer, “They are establishing a pattern here, John.” Hon Barbara Scott: Never on Sunday. Hon FRANK HOUGH: Yes. It appeared to be happening every Tuesday between 9.00 am and 11.00 am as the person headed from the Kings Park bus stop through to the drug clinic to dry out. We had lost three radar detectors. The one salvation was that my stack of Frank Sinatra records were left alone. However, they did take my Sandy Nelson’s Let There Be Drums that I had ordered from the US and which took three months to get here. I had played it only once and that got taken from the seat. The work experience was being a victim of crime. On the fifth Tuesday I suggested to the Police Service that a pattern had been established. They agreed and said that they would increase patrols. They did that and I was thrilled. I 9826 [COUNCIL] suggested that we should go further and because this event took place between 9.00 am and 11.00 am on Tuesdays that perhaps the police would hide there, which they did. The police arrived early on the fifth Tuesday morning for the undercover sting. They wore the normal blue jeans, the police-type boots and the short-sleeved shirt and they had their hair slicked back and wore the wraparound sunnies. There were absolutely inconspicuous; it was a real sting! When I arrived that morning I got out of my car and thought, “My God, this is bullshit!” I could not believe it. As I walked up to the copper he said to me, “Shh! Shh!” I said, “Are you a police officer?” He said, “Yes, but be discreet.” I said, “All right, I will, officer.” I went upstairs to my office and decided after half an hour or so that there was no way known that a professional crim would walk into that trap - perhaps a kid from kindergarten would have. I thought that the police would have had an old lady there who was really a 20-year-old with a baseball bat or a gentlemen with a brief case pretending to be a doctor. I did not expect to have three guys in jeans, short sleeves and wraparound sunnies holding mobiles. And guess what? Our fine friend did not turn up. He went around the corner to Kings Park Road and knocked off the Polish translator’s car. I tell this story because some members in this Chamber may not have been robbed. I would not say that someone is picking on me because, as members know, I have also been robbed twice in the car park at the front of Parliament House. I do not have a complex about that. I am thinking of leaving the car windows down to save glass; they can then get into the car and go for their life. Perhaps that will help a little but as someone said, I do not think that they are purposely picking on me as my car is the same as everyone else’s. I should not have to remove stuff off the back seat of my car when I come into my place of work, that being Parliament House - a place with fairly strong security. I cannot believe that this happens. I know that cars get smashed into periodically. The office of Dale Carnegie, which is situated on the ground floor below our office, experiences a robbery about once a week. If one thinks about it, it all reflects back to happening on a Tuesday. I would have thought that the police officers would have gone to the drug clinic to find out who attends there between 9.00 am and 11.00 am every Tuesday. That is what I would have done. I thought it would have been a reasonably smart thing to do. To help the police I had a description of the little blonde- haired fellow with a spark plug in his hand who smashes car windows and cleans them out. I also had the description of an orange car that he drives and the little girlfriend who picks him up to take him home after he gets off the bus. I made it relatively easy for the police. However, to be robbed is a humiliating experience. The victim feels anger towards that person. If a victim were to catch the robber, what would he do with him? When a person goes home - I am talking about the members on the other side of the House and perhaps this side as well - who have experienced a robbery, I suggest that they go into the bathroom, look into a mirror and counsel themselves. They should ask themselves how they feel about being robbed. The person they will see in the mirror will probably have thin lips and the pupils will be small. They should ask the person in the mirror, “Should I counsel the person who is robbing me all the time?” I doubt it, because the anger that a person in that situation has for the perpetrator of such crimes makes them think further. A person responds by wanting to inflict pain. When a little kids puts their hand on a hot stove and burn it, they usually scream out and take their hand off the stove.