Pubdate: Mon, 14 Aug 2000
Source: Otago Daily Times (New Zealand)
Copyright: Allied Press Limited, 2000
Contact:  P.O. Box 181, 52-66 Lower Stuart Street, Dunedin, New Zealand
Website: http://www2.odt.co.nz
Author: NZPA

CANNABIS LAW REFORM PUSHED

Wellington: The acceptable face of cannabis showed itself at the launch of 
the Coalition for Cannabis Law Reform in Wellington yesterday, as MPs, 
Maori leaders and academics combined to push for decriminalisation.

The Government is expected to announce the shape of its cannabis law reform 
inquiry in the coming week, after a political battle over whether it would 
be conducted by the justice select committee, the health select committee, 
or an external body such as the Law Commission.

Justice and law reform select committee chairman Tim Barnett, speaking at 
the launch, said he was a "control freak" who had never tried cannabis and 
had never wanted to, but he believed strongly that the regime of 
prohibition was unjust and unhealthy.

Mr Barnett acknowledged cannabis law reform was usually driven by cannabis 
users.

"That's been the history of it because the people who were most concerned 
about it were the people who were threatened by criminalisation."

He compared the difficulties of lobbying for cannabis decriminalisation to 
those faced by homosexual law reformers in the 1980s.

"I am someone who came into politics because I've seen injustice and I want 
to fight it," he said.

"I believe that cannabis policy should be about harm reduction, like most 
of the rest of our policy."

Joining him in signing a Cannabis Law Reform and Education Accord were 
Green MP Nandor Tanczos, former youth affairs minister Deborah Morris, 
Auckland University of Technology dean of health studies Max Abbott, 
Wellington Tenths Trust spokesman and former Maori health adviser Peter 
Love, and the leaders of the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party, the Drug 
Policy Forum and National Organisation for Reform of Marijuana Laws.

The accord says the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on enforcing 
cannabis prohibition have made criminals of an estimated 200,000 otherwise 
law-abiding New Zealanders.

"Most people who use cannabis do so moderately and responsibly, and rather 
than helping those people who need it, prohibition actually discourages 
those users who need help from seeking it, due to fear of arrest and 
incarceration," it says.

Dr Abbott said surveys showed more than half the adult population had tried 
marijuana and called for an immediate law change making it legal to have 
small amounts of cannabis for personal use.

"Relative to other known drugs, including gambling, that have moderate 
health costs, cannabis has very few health costs," he said.
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