Mass drug-testing

The ongoing enthusiasm for unchecked scientific detection of illicit drugs is quite apparent in this country.

Recently this enthusiasm led to thousands of innocent people victimised by being ejected from rental properties deemed contaminated by P.

The threshold for this so-called contamination was absurdly low, and not held up to scrutiny.

It was then vigorously enforced on the back of the moral panic generated by the capital form of the consonant that comes before Q in the alphabet.

Now we have the ESR buddying up with the cops and performing tests on a different kind of pee. Or to be more specific, wastewater, with this town among the several population centres selected across New Zealand. Looking good Whanga¯rei . . . not.

Why? So the authorities can get a better picture of the drug-taking habits of Kiwi punters, nationwide. And now we know up here in Whangas people prefer P and pot, while down in Auks, the city slickers are more into snorting cocaine and tripping on ecstasy.

Wow. Everyone pretty much knows that anyway, but add in other such poisons as fentanyl, synthetic cannabis, heroin and presumably shoe polish and industrial adhesives, and what do you have? An overwhelming case of such analysis to be carried out nationwide, tout de suite, before Godzone is washed down the gurgler in a tide of drugs.

Yeah right. How much does this silliness cost? Who authorises these procedures? Has anyone mentioned that the procedures are tantamount to drug-testing without consent?

But, hey, no one wants to look soft on Bad Assness, even if such attitudes lead to asinine behaviour. GM Tinker Whanga¯rei