Another miscarriage of justice.... Guilty: Helen Clark etc.

A Christchurch care-giver who reciprocated cannabis with two teenagers, and has been jailed for trying to reduce their involvement with drug dealers, is a victim of racial injustice, systemic hypocrisy, and pathetically unresolved policy double standards say the Mild Greens. "Its those who maintain prohibition who should be in jail", say the reformers.

Karina Kino Hazel's 15 month sentence looks very mean indeed, in the context of policing surveys showing a huge proportion of NZ alcohol sellers are prepared to supply liquor without proof of age - and these drug dealing industry leaders get a nice chat with the Minister of Justice about how to co-operate to reduce the problem…

The 1998 Health select committee Inquiry into the Mental Health Effects of Cannabis said that while administrators of the legal and harmful drugs alcohol and tobacco maintained "criminal" disapproval of marijuana, that the credibility of the drug education message was often impaired.

That was December 1998, and the double standards identified then as an obstacle to effective health promotion (c.f. Ottawa Charter) widen as each day passes…What gives??

Hazel's supply to a seventeen-year-old "experienced cannabis user" with a smoke or two may not have been the most politically correct behaviour. However, given the evidence heard by successive health select committees, Hazel's actions cannot be reasonably demonstrated as criminally inappropriate (except in a Justice system predicated on injustice)

The recent Canadian Senate Committee on Cannabis has recommended a legal age of 16 for marijuana, because by any comparison, alcohol is much more harmful…

Fifteen months jail for supplying the herb, but where is the actual demonstrated harm, especially given that the kids were using anyway thanks to the black market??? And given the jailing of a perceived cultural victim, what now for the teenagers involved, compromised with "nark" status??

The outlook for these kids is not good.

And what of the NZ teen cannabis culture in general, where marijuana use and "breaking disreputable laws" is normal, while our Parliament is in blanket denial of the herb's prevalence and popularity (attributable solely to Rasta M.P. Nandor Tanczos, yeah right…)?

And what of the tens of thousands of ordinary Kiwi kids who watched beer-equipped role models, the Warriors rugby league team, greet the Loyal crowds at Ericsson stadium on national television last evening?

The outlook for these kids is not good.

Double standards institutionalised in NZ? - YOU BET.

How about jailing parents who irresponsibly supply alcohol to their teenagers to get blitzed on Friday and Saturday nights, say the Mild Greens. Either that or stop this bloody criminalisation injustice, and apologise to the victims of prohibition, repression and associated "manufactured consent".

While Judge Stephen Erber has condemned Karina Kino Hazel as committing a "gross breach of trust" by supplying the marijuana, the Mild Greens say it is NZ government's stalling and capitulation on the cannabis law review, that constitutes a greater breach of trust of untold magnitude.

Hypocrisy wins again - thank you again Helen Clark, Phil Goff, Annette King for your pathetic leadership, policy obsfucation, and contemptuous double standards (and the cannabis law review process now 2 years, 2 months out to lunch…)

Is your judgement impaired with too much Chardonnay??

As administrators of oppressive and inequitable public policy, destructive to New Zealand communities and families and children, you're the ones who really deserve jail.

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