Russell Brown
@publicaddress.bsky.social
Journalist, rider of bikes, cooker of food, seeker of joy. Dad-DJ. Cosmopolitan.
Oh man. I would be absolutely the same.
December 12, 2025 at 6:02 AM
Oh man. I would be absolutely the same.
He and his privileged young chums seem to be terrible people.
December 12, 2025 at 4:52 AM
He and his privileged young chums seem to be terrible people.
Further clarification from Lisa. This does appear a little unseemly on the part of the trust.
December 12, 2025 at 4:50 AM
Further clarification from Lisa. This does appear a little unseemly on the part of the trust.
Our Board of Health committee members tapped diplomats to carry in the latest reports for them :-)
December 12, 2025 at 4:42 AM
Our Board of Health committee members tapped diplomats to carry in the latest reports for them :-)
I'd buy Personal Jesus on 12" if I saw it.
December 12, 2025 at 3:26 AM
I'd buy Personal Jesus on 12" if I saw it.
The reports are here. bsky.app/profile/publ...
🧵 A round of applause (donations also welcomed) for @nzlii.bsky.social for digitising the first Board of Health report on drugs, which began the road to the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, more swiftly than I could have imagined. With searchable and selectable text! Glory be.
You asked and I (have partially for now) delivered.
Well @strictlyobiter.bsky.social and @publicaddress.bsky.social asked
First Report of the Board of Health on Drug Dependency and Drug Abuse in New Zealand is now on NZLII at www.nzlii.org/nz/other/NZA...
Not my finest scanning job but it will do
Well @strictlyobiter.bsky.social and @publicaddress.bsky.social asked
First Report of the Board of Health on Drug Dependency and Drug Abuse in New Zealand is now on NZLII at www.nzlii.org/nz/other/NZA...
Not my finest scanning job but it will do
December 12, 2025 at 3:25 AM
The reports are here. bsky.app/profile/publ...
I wrote this recently about the Board of Health reports from 1968-73 that led to our Misuse of Drugs Act. They were admirable in their way, very aware of all the other reports and commissions going on globally at the time. drugfoundation.org.nz/news-and-rep...
Charting fifty years of failure
50 years after it was passed into law, journalist Russell Brown plots a potted history of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975
drugfoundation.org.nz
December 12, 2025 at 3:24 AM
I wrote this recently about the Board of Health reports from 1968-73 that led to our Misuse of Drugs Act. They were admirable in their way, very aware of all the other reports and commissions going on globally at the time. drugfoundation.org.nz/news-and-rep...
Yeah, 1955 was the year, but I think there was official finger-wagging at us before that.
December 12, 2025 at 3:17 AM
Yeah, 1955 was the year, but I think there was official finger-wagging at us before that.
Every two weeks, payday coincided with the publication of the new issue of Private Eye. So I'd buy one of those and wander down to Temple Bar to read it while all the fancy lawyers shuttled past. I've always known how to have a good time.
December 12, 2025 at 1:23 AM
Every two weeks, payday coincided with the publication of the new issue of Private Eye. So I'd buy one of those and wander down to Temple Bar to read it while all the fancy lawyers shuttled past. I've always known how to have a good time.
Reposted by Russell Brown
Defense Secretary Whiskeyfists' "best mentor" is reviewing not just the role of women in combat for the Defense Department but also yellow fever erotica for Jeff Bezos.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/12/eric-geressy-goodreads-pentagon-dod-pete-hegseth-jack-posobiec-threat/
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/12/eric-geressy-goodreads-pentagon-dod-pete-hegseth-jack-posobiec-threat/
December 11, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Defense Secretary Whiskeyfists' "best mentor" is reviewing not just the role of women in combat for the Defense Department but also yellow fever erotica for Jeff Bezos.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/12/eric-geressy-goodreads-pentagon-dod-pete-hegseth-jack-posobiec-threat/
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/12/eric-geressy-goodreads-pentagon-dod-pete-hegseth-jack-posobiec-threat/
I was at the time the kind of weird kid who actually liked reading Jung. I seriously considered going into debt to buy 'Collected Works' – all 20 volumes. I settled for just gazing at it on the shelf, but it probably would've been a reasonable investment in the long term.
December 12, 2025 at 1:16 AM
I was at the time the kind of weird kid who actually liked reading Jung. I seriously considered going into debt to buy 'Collected Works' – all 20 volumes. I settled for just gazing at it on the shelf, but it probably would've been a reasonable investment in the long term.
I was! I have fond memories of picking up my pay from my record shop job (in cash) then wandering along Charing Cross Road and through Covent Garden exploring all those interesting bookshops, buying coffee at Monmouth, having lunch at the odd little underground hippie cafe, etc. It was a playground.
December 12, 2025 at 1:12 AM
I was! I have fond memories of picking up my pay from my record shop job (in cash) then wandering along Charing Cross Road and through Covent Garden exploring all those interesting bookshops, buying coffee at Monmouth, having lunch at the odd little underground hippie cafe, etc. It was a playground.
You sometimes see lots like this at Avondale Markets and I enjoy envisaging whose library they might have been in. Funny that this one turns out to be my friend David.
December 12, 2025 at 12:40 AM
You sometimes see lots like this at Avondale Markets and I enjoy envisaging whose library they might have been in. Funny that this one turns out to be my friend David.
Turns out, I can tell you: David Herkt! I posted the pics on FB and he sadly reported that his partner John had insisted on some decluttering and "crowbarred them out of me while I wailed". Poor love.
December 12, 2025 at 12:36 AM
Turns out, I can tell you: David Herkt! I posted the pics on FB and he sadly reported that his partner John had insisted on some decluttering and "crowbarred them out of me while I wailed". Poor love.
The UN also bullied us into stopping imports of cannabis for prescription, in response to a critical WHO report in 1955. There weren't many prescribing doctors, but it's wild to think we had medicinal cannabis in the 1950s.
December 12, 2025 at 12:13 AM
The UN also bullied us into stopping imports of cannabis for prescription, in response to a critical WHO report in 1955. There weren't many prescribing doctors, but it's wild to think we had medicinal cannabis in the 1950s.
Here in New Zealand, we were said to have the world's highest rate of heroin use in the late 1940s – because our doctors prescribed it so freely, mostly as a cough linctus. Pharmacists often sold it *without* a prescription. Then the UN made us stop.
December 12, 2025 at 12:13 AM
Here in New Zealand, we were said to have the world's highest rate of heroin use in the late 1940s – because our doctors prescribed it so freely, mostly as a cough linctus. Pharmacists often sold it *without* a prescription. Then the UN made us stop.
Excellent choice.
December 11, 2025 at 10:16 PM
Excellent choice.
Ah yes, that was a terrible room acoustically. All those big concrete beams in bad places.
December 11, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Ah yes, that was a terrible room acoustically. All those big concrete beams in bad places.
Brent worked for Christchurch's homegrown PA company, Holden Sound. So when The Gordons played the Gladstone, he'd bring in a big, powerful Holden rig. But they didn't take out the house PA – they turned it around and used it as stage monitors! The consequent sonic experience was incredible.
December 11, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Brent worked for Christchurch's homegrown PA company, Holden Sound. So when The Gordons played the Gladstone, he'd bring in a big, powerful Holden rig. But they didn't take out the house PA – they turned it around and used it as stage monitors! The consequent sonic experience was incredible.
Lisa Truttman's history of the land and its rather complex former owner, Hallyburton Johnston, explains why the status of the property is such a messy issue: drive.google.com/file/d/14Ovh...
Times 81.pdf
drive.google.com
December 11, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Lisa Truttman's history of the land and its rather complex former owner, Hallyburton Johnston, explains why the status of the property is such a messy issue: drive.google.com/file/d/14Ovh...