Pubdate: Mon, 06 Jan 2014
Source: Dominion Post, The (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2014 The Dominion Post
Contact:  http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2550
Author: Dave Armstrong

LEGALISING DOPE ON BACK-BURNER

IT'S BEEN great staying at home in Wellington this summer. The 
combination of awful television and dreadful weather has enabled me 
to catch up on heaps of reading.

But tucked in between the dreary viewing of inane reports on New Year 
celebrations around the world and heart-breaking road tragedies was 
an entertaining story about America's first legal marijuana stores.

In the state of Colorado, people queued for hours in snow just so 
they could be the first customers. As these happy shoppers talked to 
the television cameras, it dawned on me that dope fiends seem to be 
the same the world over.

We have all met wine bores, and the rise in boutique brewing has 
greatly increased the number of beer bores, especially in Wellington. 
And if you haven't met a single malt whisky bore, you haven't lived.

But the bong bore is another creature altogether. Often wearing a 
piece of clothing emblazoned with a marijuana leaf, the bong bore can 
talk for hours about various qualities of leaves and heads and the 
particular buzzes they give, joint-rolling techniques, and the 
massive bong that their flat had while they were students.

Being a band musician in the early 1980s and having to admit that I 
didn't much care for marijuana made me about as socially acceptable 
as being a Destiny Church member would today.

The Colorado spliffers also reminded me what a non-issue the 
liberalisation of marijuana laws has become in this country. Fifteen 
years ago, when the first crop of Green MPs was harvested, it felt 
like the decriminalisation of cannabis, if not full legalisation, was 
just around the corner.

How the media loved Rastafarian MP and self-confessed cannabis user 
Nandor Tanczos, with his dreadlocks and his skateboard.

But the Greens' liberalisation policy didn't do them much good. 
Rather than calmly judge marijuana against other legal drugs, such as 
alcohol, and conclude that it was certainly no worse unless you were 
susceptible to certain mental illnesses, most Kiwis shut up shop. 
Even if they smoked themselves, many thought that decriminalisation 
was not a good look for the kids so decided against it.

A lot of dope smokers already voted Green anyway, and were unlikely 
to stray. Yet there were some socially conservative voters, I suspect 
many of them parents, who liked the Greens' environmental policies 
but were scared of their support for cannabis liberalisation. In 
2002, after much media attention on their marijuana policy, the 
Greens only marginally increased their vote. Liberalisation of 
marijuana was no vote winner.

When the Greens quietly put the issue on the back-burner, their 
support rose dramatically. In 2011, with hardly a whiff about dope 
during the entire campaign, the Greens got more than double the 
percentage of the vote that they received in 1999.

So have the Greens changed their policy on marijuana? Not really, but 
rather than openly flaunt it, they seem to have put it in a small 
airtight container at the back of the top drawer, away from the 
public view and only to be brought out on special occasions.

Today, there are few calls to do what Colorado has done. Besides, if 
you're middle class and you only smoke occasionally, there's little 
chance you'll be convicted. And if you are, a sob story about your 
international career being ruined by a conviction will probably get 
you diversion.

However, the cultivation and selling of marijuana is big business and 
a perfect opportunity for gangs and other organised crime. Take a 
look at serious crimes in this country and see how many of them have 
their origins in dope cultivation. Legalisation would collapse this 
market and, if Colorado is anything to go by, earn the Government 
about $70 million a year in sales tax. Perhaps that is why the only 
person whom I have recently met who supports legalisation is a cop.

Yet for many Kiwis, having a double standard on dope - smoke it 
yourself but oppose it being legal - is fine. And forget that legal 
highs are potentially far more lethal. Besides, we've got far 
healthier things to argue about - like whether drunken revellers 
should be able to party 24 hours or bars should close at 4 am.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom