The Mild Greens are annoyed with Ron Mark's holier than thou anti-drug outbursts, saying the former soldier could well
be a closet pot smoker himself, and is in fact understood to have shared a smoke or two with at least one Christchurch
Branch ALCP supporter.
Officials of the Christchurch Branch of the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party, ( http://www.alcp.org.nz) suspecting false motives for the MP's drug test call, are seeking to procure an affidavit that will pour cold water on
New Zealand First's populist anti-cannabis attacks.
Party members believe Ron Mark is simply trying to make political mileage out of a staffer's sneaky smoke, pandering to
anti-dope prejudice to improve his party's dwindling conservative support.
"Mr Mark must realise that there is no more justification for drug testing parliamentary staff, than there is for
mass-scale house intrusion currently occuring under the Misuse of Drugs Act.", say Christchurch Branch convenors, Mike
and Irinka Britnell.
"Testing is no proof of impairment, let alone criminality", said Blair Anderson, ALCP community candidate for the
Shirley Ward by-election. "We object to the assumption that isolated use of marijuana would necessarily be detrimental
to a responsible adult's work performance. Marijuana is highly regarded amongst users as an intellectual stimulant"
Perhaps Parliamentary representatives would have greater empathy with the folk they represent, and a firmer grasp on
social ecology if the select committees occasionally had a marijuana cookie with their coffee", a popular electoral
sentiment, reports Mr Anderson advisedly adding, "Of course there may be problems with short-term memory, but not if you
write it down at the time.", a precedent set by Carl Sagan on the showerwall, as he invented the 21st Century science of
Time Travel.
With 16% of surveyed New Zealanders admitting to being regular users of cannabis, it would be incredibly niave not to
expect that there are going to be representative tokers amongst the staff and MPs.
"There is absolutely no chance of Ron Mark's ridiculous and hypocritical request being granted, when the law is in
abject disrepute, and Parliament is reviewing the legal status", said policy analyst, Kevin O'Connell.
Marijuana remains in the system for several weeks, possibly even after passive inhalation - testing would therefore be
little more than discrimination predicated on discrimination.
Parliament needs to get on with the review so that the harms of prohibition are fixed, and New Zealanders are spared
hypocritical, unrealistic and immature attitudes to drug use, say ALCP members. Exposing hypocrisy and corruption should
be a major feature of the review.
ends