A "change in direction" for New Zealand's drug policy is not a move towards cannabis decriminalisation, Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne says. Dunne is in New York for a special UN session on drug policy, and told TVNZ that the Government would push for a more "health-centred" approach. However, that did not mean decriminalisation, he said. "There's no majority in Parliament for doing that, so that's not going to happen, and people who think that that day's just around the corner are sadly forlorn."

[end]

New Zealand's first medicinal cannabis charity is fundraising to provide patients with the unfunded drugs.

Medical Cannabis Awareness New Zealand (MCANZ) became a registered charity on Friday.

Co-ordinator Shane Le Brun said it had launched a fundraising campaign, initially to fund Sativex for 10 patients.

Sativex is the only approved cannabis-derived pharmaceutical available in New Zealand. The orally administered spray requires ministerial approval before it can be prescribed.

"Approximately 30 Kiwis now have active prescriptions for Sativex but MCANZ believes many more New Zealanders could benefit from this medication," Le Brun said.

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Money From the Sale of Cannabis Plants and Resin Would Have a Huge Economic Impact on Society. Richard Meadows Reports.

Auckland's Hemp Store is looking flash. It's added a little cafe during its move to the gentrifying K Road area, on the hill above the CBD. Inside, manager Chris Fowlie is spinning discs and making coffees. All manner of balms, bongs and books line the shelves. Tables are set up at the perfect rolling height. Fowlie knows which way the smoke is blowing. He was in Colorado the day cannabis became legal. Three other states have followed suit, and about 20 more plan to put it to the vote this year. Canada has promised to legalise pot. Victoria has just become the first Australian state to give medicinal use the green light. "That makes it unstoppable here, and I think the Government recognises that," says Fowlie.

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An international conference at the United Nations headquarters in New York this week is expected to agree that the UN's "war on drugs" is over, and it has failed. In its place, delegates will probably agree, certain drugs should be decriminalised and treated as a health problem. Most people will probably agree, particularly where cannabis is concerned. Smoking the leaf of a plant that is fairly easily cultivated has proved impossible to stamp out, and a charge of possession of cannabis has long ranked as one of the most common and least serious of criminal offences in countries such as ours.

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Chris Fowlie started fighting for cannabis law reform in his university days. Twenty-four years later, the National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (Norml) president believes the tide of public opinion is changing.

Fowlie wants a moratorium on arrests for cannabis possession, saying it's impossible to have a fair discussion when one side is deemed criminal.

A regulated cannabis market could generate half a billion dollars, investigations show, but the Government is still saying 'nope' to legal dope.

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An Unemployed West Auckland Man Has Proven That Police Claims About Cannabis Hospital Admissions Were False. Tony Wall Reports.

The headline figures from a police intelligence report caught Steve Dawson's attention. Cannabis was causing 2000 hospital admissions a year costing more than $30 million, and was the "cornerstone" of drug harm in this country.

"I'd never met any of the 2000 a year who were clogging up the hospitals - you know, the stoned wandering the streets and A&Es saying 'help me!' - so I thought I'd look into it," he says.

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As Drugs, Cash, Guns, Houses, Vehicles Seized, Police Ask Community To Make A Stand Against 'insidious' Drug And Say They Can't Do It Alone.

POLICE were appalled during the latest big drug operation here to see children in homes where "P" was being dealt and the officer in charge of the raids says the community "must stand against this insidious drug".

In the past 10 days the operation has resulted in 41 arrests around Gisborne and court orders that restrain property worth $3.8 million owned by some of the arrested people.

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Nation's leaders need to follow Peter Dunne's example and see problem as a health issue first and foremost, write Dr Lance O'Sullivan and Tuari Potiki

New Zealand's heavy-handed approach over the past 40 years has done little to address the serious health and social harms.

When will world leaders, politicians and community leaders admit that our punitive approach to the drug problem isn't working? Next week the world gathers at the United Nations headquarters to agree how countries can work together to solve the world's drug problem. The last time they did this, in 1998, they declared the war on drugs was something that could be won.

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It does not make sense that a country like New Zealand, which is at the leading edge of everything from rocket launches to mountain climbing, should be so woefully behind when it comes to cannabis realities.

With the "war on drugs" being called a total failure by the most prominent global experts, we are starting to look suspiciously resistant to dumping the expensive, ineffective prohibition of cannabis.

Are we happy to support overseas drug companies that sell cannabis pharmaceuticals for outrageous prices? Are we happy to deny suffering Kiwis the right to choose a drug that can give them relief? How cruel is that?

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I was astonished to read the ignorant statements about cannabis made by Minister of Health, Jonathan Coleman.

With widespread media attention on medicinal cannabis, you would think he would have availed himself to accurate information.

The cannabis plant and tinctures have been used for centuries, until the strange "War on Drugs" launched from America.

Subsequent drug prohibition resulted in the same disaster that alcohol prohibition created, it did not diminish use, it simply went underground, ultimately causing more harm.

Recent global medical and economic experts have declared the "War on Drugs" a total failure. There is no argument. The misguided war has caused more harm than it has prevented. Every state and country that has initiated decriminalization of drugs has proven the scaremongers to be completely wrong, there was no chaos as a result. There can be no excuse for continuing the expensive, ineffective, harmful and heartless war on drugs. We could benefit greatly by changing our $200,000,000 drug prohibition industry of policing, prosecuting and incarceration, into a New Zealand medicinal cannabis industry. Why should we pay ridiculous prices for imported pharmaceutical cannabis products? Our politicians seem to need help relinquishing their cruel, punitive and misinformed attitudes towards cannabis.

Victoria Davis

Golden Bay

[end]

The excited front-page report on medicinal cannabis ( Weekend Herald April 2) made no attempt to discuss how medicinal cannabis is best administered. This is a crucial aspect on which to inform the public about any medicine. Readers might assume you are promoting its administration via smoking.

Smoking is the least appropriate way to take it for medical use because there is no control over dosage or purity, and the tar in cannabis smoke is just as dangerous to lung health as the tar in tobacco smoke.

We should not confuse the debate about legalising cannabis for medical use with the debate about legalising it for recreational smoking.

Bill Keir, Hokianga.

[end]

Are we hearing the first murmurs of a more calm and rational approach to minor drug offences? Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne, the Government's go-to man on drug regulation, is sidling cautiously towards some meaningful changes. His national drug policy, released last year, puts a new emphasis on treating drugs as a health issue. Among other things, the policy calls for a review of drug paraphernalia laws, as well as options for "minimising harm in relation to the offence and penalty regime for personal possession" of drugs.

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Medicinal cannabis campaigner Rose Renton has started a new petition calling on the Government to make cannabis-based medications available in New Zealand without delay.

The petition, which was launched yesterday, urges "reform of the law to allow access to quality, affordable cannabis for medical use" and says current efforts to regulate access to pharmaceutical-grade cannabis products are "too strict, too slow and too expensive".

Renton hoped the petition would draw between 50,000 and 100,000 signatories and more discussion in mainstream media.

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Sydney - New Zealand's marijuana smokers are in the grip of a cannabis crisis, with demand far outstripping supply, after a police operation this month netted 9,000 plants.

The "catastrophic" situation was first reported by online magazine the Spinoff in an article that said New Zealand's most popular illegal drug was "almost unobtainable in any meaningful amount".

"Blame it on the police, the gangs, the weather or just the grow cycle of your average cannabis harvest," the website said. "It's dry out there."

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It's high time all the huffing and puffing about the Government not doing anything to broaden access to medicinal cannabis had some facts thrown in the mix.

In the past fortnight two notable Kiwis, namely the late Martin Crowe, and Sir Paul Holmes, have hit the headlines for their use of medicinal cannabis.

In the case of Crowe it was an old friend who revealed he'd used the drug for pain relief in his dying days and for Holmes, his wife Lady Deborah Holmes, confirmed he too had taken it to ease his struggle with prostate cancer.

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Four police officers are being treated in hospital after they were shot during an armed incident in the Bay of Plenty.

All four were shot at a rural property near Kawerau.

The officers were taken to hospital and a "major police operation" was under way.

The scene remained a "live situation" with the shooter yet to be arrested last night.

Local residents described hearing gunshots and seeing wounded police officers loaded into a helicopter.

"They were running along with their guns and we knew something serious had happened," said Lyndsey Penwarden. "Then we saw the injured police officer being put into the helicopter - it was really sad."

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A Golden Bay woman who won a legal victory for medicinal cannabis says suffering patients are being treated like criminals, and it's time Parliament caught up.

Rebecca Reider, 37, appeared in Nelson District Court on Monday facing a raft of criminal charges including importing medicinal cannabis products and another five charges relating to possession.

The maximum sentence for importing is eight years imprisonment.

The Californian-born Collingwood resident was cleared of all six charges and received a discharge without conviction, meaning she will have no criminal record.

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Marlborough police are finding more drug users and less drug dealers, according to new police data.

Police statistical indicators for December showed Marlborough police caught more than twice as many people using illicit drugs in December last year, compared to the previous year.

Nineteen people in Marlborough were caught using drugs in December last year, compared with nine in December 2014.

However, the number of people caught selling illegal drugs decreased by more than half, from 14 in December 2014 to five in the same month last year.

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Agency considers routine check for drug upon vacancy after huge jump in affected homes

All state houses may be tested for methamphetamine contamination when they become vacant, after a huge jump in affected houses in two years.

Housing NZ says it found only 28 meth-contaminated state homes in the year to June 2014, but 229 in the year to June 2015 and 279 in the second half of the year.

Chief operating officer Paul Commons said testing all state houses upon vacancy was "under consideration as we constantly review our procedures". But a decision will not be made quickly as the agency has only recently changed its focus from looking for P labs, where houses were used to make the drug, to testing homes where anyone was suspected of using it.

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Substance abuse and crime cycle disputed

People committing cannabis offences could be more likely to be convicted of committing other offences, the Department of Corrections says.

Ministry of Justice figures released under the Official Information Act showed the number of people charged with cannabis-related offences who were subsequently charged with a different offence within the next 12 months.

In 2010-11 8189 people were convicted of cannabis-related offences with 3323 in 2010 charged with another crime.

The 2011-12 year had 6955 charged with cannabis offences with 2482 charged with another offence in 2011.

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