Pubdate: Thu, 23 Jul 2020
Source: Otago Daily Times (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2020 Allied Press Limited
Contact:  http://www.odt.co.nz/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/925
Author: Joe Boden

OPINION AS WELL AS SCIENCE INFORMS POLICY ADVICE

Prof Joe Boden, of the University of Otago, provides a view from
inside the expert panel on cannabis ahead of this year's cannabis referendum.

A year ago several New Zealand academics, me included, were invited to
join the expert panel on cannabis by the Prime Minister's Chief
Science Adviser, Prof Juliet Gerrard.

With the referendum on the legalisation of cannabis planned for this
year, the Prime Minister had asked Prof Gerrard to assemble the panel
in order to present research on cannabis, cannabis-related harm and
cannabis law reform to New Zealanders in an accessible manner.

The panel, comprised of academics ranging from public health, to
addiction medicine, law and economics, met for the first time in
September last year, and for the last time during the Covid-19
lockdown in May (via Zoom). Our report was published online on July
7.

Serving on the panel was a fascinating learning experience.

In academia, as with many jobs, we tend to spend much of our time
working in our departments and research groups, and relatively little
interacting with experts in other areas.

In this case, however, we had the privilege of spending large amounts
of time talking through each of our own areas of expertise, learning a
great deal along the way, and working out the best way of presenting
the most important information to the public. To this end we were ably
assisted by the staff of the Office of the Chief Science Adviser, who
made the process run almost seamlessly for us.

Given the broad scope of our brief, and the resulting report, it would
be almost impossible for me to encapsulate our findings in a short
article such as this.

However, the report itself has been presented in such an accessible
and plain-language manner that I would be unable to improve upon it. I
believe it serves as a valuable tool for the general public to
understand the research on cannabis, and what is likely to happen in
the case of either a Yes or No vote winning the referendum.

A key aspect of the report is that it takes a politically neutral
stance, but members of the panel were not required to be politically
neutral.

This has drawn some criticism, particularly from prominent ''No''
campaigners, who accused the panel of being ''biased''.

This reflects, I believe, a misunderstanding of the notion of
scientific objectivity. It is true that our roles as scientists and
academics require us to consider all evidence in a manner that is
unbiased as possible, and we have done so as panel members in the way
we normally carry out our roles.

However, many of us working in applied fields such as health are also
required as part of our normal roles to form opinions regarding policy
as a result of that evaluation.

As an example, as a researcher funded by the Health Research Council,
I am obligated to interact with policymakers, providing
recommendations about what policies should look like. This task
requires that I form an opinion based on the evidence, and this is
true of cannabis policy as much as any other policy.

Having said this, I do have an opinion as to what is the best policy
to deal with the issue of cannabis, which I formed some time ago on
the basis of my reading of the evidence. My view is that the best
approach is encapsulated in the proposed Cannabis Legalisation and
Control Bill, which will legalise and strictly regulate the
already-thriving (but mostly prohibited) cannabis industry.

There are many reasons why I have formed this view, but the following
are the most prominent.

First, our own research with the Christchurch Health and Development
Study has shown that 80% of our cohort of now 43-year-olds have tried
cannabis, suggesting that the law does not prevent use.

Second, a further study of our cohort showed that 95% of those
arrested or convicted of a cannabis offence either continued to use
cannabis at the same level, or increased their use, suggesting that
having the force of the law applied to you is not a deterrent to
cannabis use.

Third, our study also found that Maori were three times more likely to
be arrested or convicted of a cannabis offence, showing that the law
is being applied in a biased manner.

All three of these considerations show that the law does not work to
prevent cannabis use as intended, and in fact causes more social harm
than it prevents, which is why I am in favour of changing this law to
a much more sensible and health-centred approach.

- - Prof Joe Boden is director of the Christchurch Health and
Development Study at the department of psychological medicine,
University of Otago, Christchurch.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt