Pubdate: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 Source: Dominion, The (New Zealand) Copyright: 2000 The Dominion Contact: P O Box 1297, Wellington, New Zealand Fax: +64 4 474-0350 Website: http://www.inl.co.nz/wnl/dominion/index.html Author: Jenny Ryan YOUNG FOLK SAY NO TO CANNABIS LEGISLATION Young people voted no to cannabis legislation at Youth Parliament yesterday. Tensions ran high as the cannabis (partial decriminalisation for personal use) mock bill was voted down 69-47. Though the youth select committee into the bill had advised youth MPs to abstain from voting, only three chose to. The most passionate speech came from West Auckland youth MP Vanessa Mulu, who was given a standing ovation. "It doesn't take a genius to figure out if you give them an inch, they'll take a mile," she said in opposition to the bill. "Just because other countries do, it doesn't mean we've got to jump into the lake with the rest of these lemmings and do it too." Also opposed was Inglewood youth MP Tamsyn Kuklinski, who saw decriminalisation as the stepping stone to heavier drug usage. But Serena Mosley, from Whangarei, said the present system was not working. "No matter what the law is, people will continue to experiment with drugs and that's a fact." Steven Macaulay, from Oxford, said people would not change their cannabis usage because of legal changes. "If marijuana was personally decriminalised, youth would not have to get involved in crime." On the Right, Christopher Bishop, from Lower Hutt, saw the bill as increasing personal freedom. Youth Affairs Minister Laila Harre said it was clear from the debate that young people had taken a balanced view. "I think that young people looked very carefully at the health issues ... I think there was less focus on issues rights." She hoped that any drug reform inquiry would take into account the views expressed in select committees and the debate. Green Party MP Nandor Tanczos said he was disappointed but not surprised at the outcome the bill. "It was a really unsatisfactory piece of legislation," he said. "Some youth spoke favourably in favour of quite progressive law reform [so] it's not clear whether they we're voting against law reform or voting against instant fines." If the bill had been passed, it would have meant that having up to five grams of cannabis for personal and private use would not be a criminal offence. Instead, offenders would be punished with a system of infringement notices and fines, which would be paid into a drug education fund. It would still be an offence to smoke cannabis in public. - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck