Govt's "Obscene Health Management" Condemned As Treason
ALCP electoral candidates have bitterly condemned Government upon hearing that tetraplegic Daniel Clarke has been
imprisoned for refusing to submit to court punishment for cultivation of 6 medicinal marijuana plants.
Clarke has medical verification of the benefits of cannabis to his condition, said Blair Anderson. He applied to the
Minister of Heath in 1994 for compassion, and has been treated with utter contempt by a state which has no moral
authority. "This is the most gross abuse we have heard of in some time" said Kevin O'Connell- "we're bloody incensed."
The candidates are advocating that people call their MP's and register a complaint. We wish also to encourage civil
disobedience in protest. "It is sick that we as law reform advocates, are effectively untouchable, and free to smoke as
much pot as we want, and yet these people who really need it are are being victimised." said Mr O'Connell.
The whole prohibition regime is a Magna Carta abuse - say the candidates and the Government is looking at the maximum
penalty for the treasonous injustice it presides over.
The police expend $64 million a year enforcing around 109,000 charges for a non-crime, creating untold misery,
alienation and black market violence.
The Christchurch Branch of the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party have notified the Justice and Law Reform Committee of
its concerns regarding the prohibition of cannabis in submissions on current legislation, including Truth in Sentencing.
There is no truth in sentencing, while there exists a total lie in the justice system, typified by Daniel Clarke's
imprisonment, say the Party.
Clarke has been battling for years for some honesty and reason in the management of cannabis in the community.
Prohibition causes a raft of "unintended consequences" say the ALCP - including a massive crime scene and probably half
the murders recorded in NZ. The youth of New Zealand take no notice of drug laws (including alcohol, tobacco and
marijuana) because they are unjust, stupid and hypocritical, and NZ's scale of youth problems are the highest in the
world.
"We are disappointed that gutless MP's are unable, due to political safety, to stand up against this destructive law",
say the candidates who are hoping that a Commission of Inquiry, as promised by Labour, will put the real criminals to
justice.
The Ministry of Health recommended in 1996, following public submissions on the National Policy on Alcohol, Tobacco and
other Drugs, that it was "essential to investigate the cost-effectiveness of procedures and penalties for simple
cannabis use and cultivation". Anderson and O'Connell say that the Ministers of Health and Justice who have allowed
obscene health mismanagement to remain uninvestigated, are accountable for human rights abuse.
New Zealand's only hope is that this sick Government and its utterly counter-productive prohibition are deposed as soon
as possible.
ENDS