5 June 2014
Don’t Let New Zealand Go To Pot
Family First NZ is rejecting calls by the Internet Party leader Laila Harre to decriminalise marijuana, and says that
decriminalising marijuana is the wrong path if we care about public health and public safety, and about our young
people.
“It is ironic that at the same time as we ban synthetic cannabis, and tear the labelling off cigarette packets, price
them out of existence, and ban them from being smoked within breathing space of any living creature, supporters of
marijuana are peddling the same myths that we believed for far too long about tobacco – that marijuana is harmless, and
it can even have health benefits,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.
“But the cannabis now in circulation is many times more powerful than that typically found in the early 1990s.
Naturally, growers want to sell marijuana with increased potency because it’s more addictive. With increased potency
comes increased health risks, and greater likelihood of addiction.”
“Erroneous claims that drug use is a health issue and we are wasting time and resources focusing on the criminal aspect
fail to understand that there has been a substantial decline in arrests for cannabis use in New Zealand over the past
decade, that the maximum sentences set out in drug control statutes are rarely imposed, and offenders rarely receive
anything other than a fine and a criminal record. Police diversion and Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment (AODT) Courts
have been increasingly used.”
“Drug use is both a criminal and a health issue. There is a false dichotomy that criminal sanctions haven’t worked so we should ditch
them all together and we should focus only on education and health initiatives. We should maintain both,” says Mr
McCoskrie.
“Decriminalising marijuana is the wrong path if we care about public health and public safety, and about our young
people.”
“It is the illegality of the drug that has kept its use low compared to alcohol and tobacco. The restrictions on P,
heroin and cocaine will never eliminate them, but they’ve prevented a pandemic.”
“A feeble approach to marijuana use will simply send all the wrong messages to our young people and to our families -
that drug use isn’t that big a deal,” says Mr McCoskrie.
ENDS