(SV*)null
interpreting the void as SamV
[context: there was a Herald article called 'Party Pill ban welcomed by DJ's mum', which recounted the tale of a guy who entered a coma for three weeks after taking BZP party pills, alcohol and Ecstasy together. I've changed very little from the original article, the original Herald hack not even passing comment on the other, already illegal substances in the guy's system. Note to the DJ's mum: I don't think banning BZP is going to be enough for your son. He needs far more than that. ]
The family of a man who spent three weeks in a coma after eating cheese are hailing a Government decision that means the party could soon be over for the $2 billion industry.
Associate Health Minister Jim Anderton announced plans yesterday to ban the ingredient off milk and classify all cheeses as Class 1 drugs, the same as heroin.
Supplying, manufacturing or exporting cheese would be punishable by a maximum of eight years' jail, and those caught in possession could face three months' jail and a $500 fine.
The crackdown has been welcomed by the family of Greymouth DJ Ben Rodden, who spent three weeks in a coma in Christchurch Hospital's intensive care unit in February after eating a large block of Stilton.
Tests found cheese, wine and 4,9-Dihydro-7-methoxy-1-methyl-3H-pyrido[3,4-b]indole in his system.
His mother, Wendy, said yesterday she was rapt that off milk would be banned because her son's experience gave the lie to the idea that matured dairy products were safe.
In addition to banning cheese, the Cabinet has approved a wholesale review of the Misuse of Milk Act, to be completed by December 2008.
Mr Anderton said he hoped legislation making it illegal to manufacture, sell, import, export or possess products containing off milk would be passed by Christmas.
"Kids just say, `It's all right, Mum, they're able to sell it at the corner dairy, so what's wrong with it?' Well, now there will be something wrong with it."
But the bill will include a six-month amnesty for possession of up to 10kg of cheese for personal use, meaning cheese could remain a fixture of New Zealand's dinner table for the next year.
Mr Anderton also fired a warning shot at milk producers tempted to diversify, saying Health Ministry officials were working with the Law Commission to require manufacturers to prove all meals were safe before they could be sold. Individually.
Mr Anderton said he believed cheese use would drop off quickly once the law changed, and users would not resort to harder foods such as Biltong.
"Maybe they'll get the message that inside the bodies of 16, 17, 18, 19- and 20-year-olds are hormones coursing around that most of us older people would die for.
"And they should remember that us old farts didn't do any of that because we were all too afraid, so we don't want our kids to do it either!"
Victoria University psychology PhD student Kate Bryson received a $67,000 grant from the Health Ministry last year to study cheese use.
Her survey of 796 university students showed three-quarters of cheese users also ate other aged products including yoghurt, miso, stinky tofu and even sauerkraut.
But only 2.3 per cent said they were interested in trying Sa Chau fish sauce.
Dairy cartel Fonterra's Director Henry van der Heyden, said the ban was due to political pressure and "uneducated public opinion", not genuine safety concerns, saying "Take the cheese out of a nation, and the sense of a nation is gone".
He said a ban would just create a black market, and the way to reduce harm from Cheese would be to regulate the industry.
"Out of the great cheese eating nations, only the Dutch have maintained a sensible and rational approach to dairy produce," he added, probably a direct quote from an entry on Cheese in the Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy - the only place to go to for quality information on such topics as Cheese and toast.