Pubdate: Sun, 24 Jul 2005
Source: New Zealand Herald (New Zealand)
Section: Herald On Sunday Edition
Contact:  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/
Forum: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/forums/
Address: PO Box 32, Auckland, New Zealand
Fax: (09) 373-6421
Copyright: 2005 New Zealand Herald
Author: Shayne Currie, Editor
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

MARIJUANA LAW REFORM MERITS CLOSE SCRUTINY

ON THE face of it, Green MP Nandor Tanczos' suggestion that cannabis 
users should be fined instead of facing criminal convictions is a 
spectacular case of bad timing.

The self-confessed cannabis smoker made the announcement that he had 
drafted a member's bill to reform the law on the same day that 10 
people - at least two of whom are household names - either appeared 
in court or were mentioned in court documents after a major drugs 
bust in Auckland.

But in a sense, the coincidence lends itself even greater urgency to 
the MP's mission, which is to ensure that those found in possession 
of small amounts of cannabis for personal use do not face the blight 
of criminal conviction.

It bears repeating that the law forbidding the possession of even 
small amounts of cannabis for personal use is honoured more in the 
breach than in the observance.

The most recent research shows that more than half the population 
aged between 15 and 45 years of age tries cannabis in any given year 
- - and that proportion is increasing. But more telling - and more 
relevant to Mr Tanczos' campaign is this: of roughly 22,000 people a 
year arrested for cannabis offences, almost 9500 - or 40 per cent - 
face charges relating to use rather than supply. Almost two thirds of 
those have committed very minor offences and are let off with a warning.

Those numbers paint a disturbing picture of police chasing people 
whose law-breaking doesn't warrant prosecution and chewing up $20 
million a year of stretched resources in the process.

The law, as it stands, criminalises large numbers of people for 
victimless actions that more than half the population engage in. What 
is more, it does not do so even-handedly: as with many offences, 
Maori conviction numbers are disproportionate to their percentage of 
the population and their documented cannabis use rates.

Those who work with drug offenders in the Far North and on the East 
Coast say that middle-class, urban cannabis users have no conception 
of the toll the drug takes in their communities. They have spoken of 
kids as young as 6 selling dope in schools and of widespread truancy 
among young drug-users whose habits bring them into early contact 
with criminal elements.

They should be mollified by the fact that Mr Tanczos shares their 
concerns. He proposes that young people found with cannabis be 
referred to drug education and that the revenue gathered from 
cannabis fines be earmarked to pay for education programmes. In doing 
so he acknowledges that even low-level drug use may be problematic, 
but he underlines his view that present law is ponderous and punitive 
- - not to say ineffective.

Mr Tanczos' bill will have to be drawn in a ballot before even coming 
up for consideration and there is every chance it will not proceed 
beyond a first reading. That is to be regretted. As this week's court 
events remind us, the use of, and dealing in, much harder drugs than 
cannabis is widespread. It is well past time to reform the law that 
disproportionately targets the bottom layer of the drug-use pyramid, 
if for no other reason than that it is plainly not working.
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MAP posted-by: Beth