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NewsTalk ZB 14 August 2019
Family First Comment: Once again, Hosking is on the ball…
1. another poll with two-thirds of the construction industry here worried about the effects.
2. they can’t get enough truck driver employees that can pass a drug test.
3. “there has been a spike in kids and teenagers being treated for addiction. Babies finding caregivers’ edible cannabis products are ending up in hospital. There’s a 27 per cent increase in kids with troubles – 70 per cent of those cases come from states that have legalised dope.”

More insight today into why the cannabis referendum and law reform, or to use a more accurate term “legalisation,” will be voted down.

Last time we talked about this, a poll came out with a very solid majority favouring rejection.

New detail for you today. One, another poll with two-thirds of the construction industry here worried about the effects. Why? Because it’s already hard enough to find workers, and stoned workers aren’t the sort you want up scaffolding.

Drugs are already an issue, making drugs more freely available isn’t making that problem easier to deal with.

Two, they are currently 60,000 truck drivers short in America. That’s just truck drivers. Miles aren’t being covered, business isn’t being done, and yards are closing. This in a booming economy. Why? Drugs, they can’t get candidates that pass a test.

Three, Colorado. A bloke called Sam Wong, a doctor who works at the children’s hospital has seen for himself the effects of making dope legal. He’s seen it locally, and had it confirmed in a nationwide study he conducted.

Remember when we talked to Chloe Swarbrick and she told us to look at Colorado, and we did. We interviewed a police force member who dealt with drugs. He said as clearly and as loudly as possible, don’t do it.

Sam Wong says the same. There has been a spike in kids and teenagers being treated for addiction. Babies finding caregivers’ edible cannabis products are ending up in hospital. There’s a 27 per cent increase in kids with troubles – 70 per cent of those cases come from states that have legalised dope.

THC (the active ingredient in cannabis) levels have gone from 3.7 per cent to 20 per cent. Once it’s legalised it’s easy to get the highest grade in the strongest form. The states have raised $3 billion in taxes so far.
READ MORE: https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/video/mikes-minute-three-reasons-why-legalising-cannabis-is-a-dopey-idea/

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Star Advertiser 12 August 2019
Family First Comment: For couples struggling with conception, smoking weed isn’t a joke; it sends their chances of having a baby up in smoke. In an article published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, researchers say they want doctors and patients trying to conceive to be aware that smoking marijuana might make it more difficult. How?
• erectile dysfunction in men and infertility in women.
• decreased sperm count.
• delayed or no ovulation
• prenatal exposure to marijuana and problems for the child

For couples struggling with conception, smoking weed isn’t a joke; it sends their chances of having a baby up in smoke.

In an article published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, researchers say they want doctors and patients trying to conceive to be aware that smoking marijuana might make it more difficult. How?

>> THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, acts on receptors in the hypothalamus, pituitary gland and reproductive organs, making it more difficult to conceive.

In women the hypothalamus produces gonadotropin-releasing hormone, which leads to a cascade of other hormones needed for ovulation and to prepare the uterus for a fertilized egg. Pituitary problems can contribute to erectile dysfunction in men and infertility in women.

>> Another problem: decreased sperm count. A Danish study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that smoking marijuana more than once a week reduced sperm count by 29% in guys 18 to 28 years old.

>> Marijuana could delay or prevent ovulation if smoked more than three times in the past three months.

>> One more caution: Authors of a study called “It’s Not Your Mother’s Marijuana,” published in Clinics in Perinatology, point out that if you’re pregnant and smoke today’s superpowered weed, prenatal exposure to marijuana can result in problems with your child’s executive functioning skills, attention, behavior and school achievement later on.
https://www.staradvertiser.com/2019/08/12/features/marijuana-use-may-lower-sperm-count-block-ovulation/

CNN 12 August 2019
Family First Comment: “The review found that the odds of marijuana use were 3.5 times higher in people who vaped compared to those who didn’t. That link suggests that “e-cigarettes really need to be considered in the broad category of addictive and harmful substances.””

15 Aug 2019
Jo McGuire, Executive Director of the National Drug and Alcohol Screening Programme in Colorado was interviewed by Newstalk ZB‘s Mike Hosking this morning.

She destroys many of the arguments being used by the Greens and the Drug Foundation.

Well worth the listen.

Facts matter!



Bob McCoskrie from Family First has a confession to make. He purchased drugs….
in Vancouver, Canada 🇨🇦 (where it’s legal to do so).

Canada legalised marijuana in 2018 amidst promises of strong regulations and restrictions on the types of product sold. How’s that working out? And how should we treat similar ‘promises’ made in NZ?

For more details, go to www.saynopetodope.org.nz/Canada

CBS News 10 August 2019
Family First Comment: “… a new nationwide study shows a 27% increase in children and teenagers getting emergency treatment for marijuana toxicity. Seventy percent of the cases occurred in states with legalized marijuana.”
www.VoteNO.nz

The legalization of recreational marijuana in almost a dozen states shows how America’s attitude toward the drug may be changing. But the drug has changed too: Newly developed strains of marijuana are far stronger than what people were smoking in the past, leading to unintended consequences like addiction and marijuana toxicity.

“Typically, young children around the age of 2 are getting into caregivers’ — whether it’s parents’, grandparents’, babysitters’ — marijuana products, often edible products,” said Dr. Sam Wang.

Wang’s findings from Colorado’s Children’s Hospital are included in a new nationwide study that showed a 27% increase in children and teenagers getting emergency treatment for marijuana toxicity. Seventy percent of the cases occurred in states with legalized marijuana.

“In severe circumstances, it can affect how they’re breathing and make them comatose and be put on a ventilator,” Wang said.

An exponential increase in marijuana’s psychoactive ingredient, THC, is at the center of the crisis. THC content has spiked from 3.7% to more than 20% — and some cannabis concentrates contain close to 100% THC.

Twenty-year-old Colton said that his addiction to marijuana began when the drug was legalized five years ago while he was attending high school in Colorado.

“Once it was legalized, it was so… easy to get in its strongest form straight from the dispensary,” Colton said. His father, Andrew Brandt, believes the high levels of THC fueled his son’s addiction.
READ MORE: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/marijuana-the-unintended-consequences-of-more-potent-pot/

Two thirds of construction industry members worried about the effects of cannabis law reform
Stuff co.nz 11 August 2019
Family First Comment: “As soon as you use the word ‘legal’ the perception is that it’s OK to do it.”
Anyone knows that – except the Government and the Druggie Foundation.

Construction industry figures say recruitment of the already under-resourced sector will worsen if cannabis is legalised.

A Civil Contractors NZ annual report highlighted legalised cannabis as an issue looming over the sector with two thirds of nearly 90 respondents saying it would negatively impact their business.

Civil Contractors NZ chief Peter Silcock said businesses were already struggling with staff recruitment “due to substance abuse” and legal weed would “make it even harder”.

Founder of workplace drug testing company Workcare, Karl Hardy, “100 per cent” expected to see drug related recruitment issues worsen in the event of legalisation.

“As soon as you use the word ‘legal’ the perception is that it’s OK to do it.”

Around 70 per cent of its positive tests results were for cannabis, he said.

New Zealand has a construction worker short fall in the tens of thousands while also plagued by a housing shortage, particularly in the main centres.

Managing director of Robert Lax Max recruitment, Pat Quin, believes the industry is right to be concerned, specifically about cannabis. He said companies could face legal challenges if staff are dismissed over a failed test that may relate to cannabis smoked weeks prior.
READ MORE: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/114808173/two-thirds-of-construction-industry-members-worried-about-the-effects-of-cannabis-law-reform?cid=app-iPhone

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NZ Herald 7 August 2019
Family First Comment: The government has now decriminalised not just cannabis, but ALL drugs – P, cocaine, heroine etc
Thankfully NZ First has softened just how radical it is – but it’s still flawed.
“NZ Police Association president Chris Cahill said under the original bill, police would consider health and addiction issues if they came across a group of people smoking methamphetamine at a kids’ playground. Under the changed bill, he said the officers would consider the environment and whether the activity was harming the community.”
National MP Paula Bennett said the bill decriminalized drugs by stealth. “National supports both greater rehabilitation and tougher sentences, treatment and deterrence should go hand in hand. However this Bill means Police won’t prosecute people who are buying and using hard drugs including P, heroin and cocaine.”
#softondrugs

A late change to a bill described as de facto decriminalisation of drug use is likely to swing the balance more towards police prosecutions and away from health referrals, the Police Association says.

But association president Chris Cahill said he still expected the Misuse of Drugs Amendment bill, which passed its third reading today, to lead to a “significant” drop in prosecutions for drug use.

The change to the bill means that the test for prosecuting drug users will be whether a therapeutic approach would be more beneficial “to the public interest” rather than for the individual involved.

It was championed by New Zealand First and agreed to by Labour and the Greens, and accepted during the committee stage of the bill last night.

The Police Association, the Drug Foundation, the Law Society and the Green Party have all called the original bill effective decriminalisation for drug use because it meant police should only prosecute drug users if that was a better outcome than a therapeutic approach.
READ MORE: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?objectid=12256494&ref=twitter

Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill passes final reading
Radio NZ News 7 August 2019
National police spokesperson Brett Hudson said it would tie the hands of police and Crown prosecutors.

Mr Hudson said if for example someone caught multiple time with possession of meth and the police deemed it in the public interest to prosecute, as soon the case went to court it would be challenged.

“They can argue in the court it has to be proven a health-based approach would not have been better in the public interest in that case and that did not and has not existed in the discretionary powers officers have exercised before,” he said.

National MP Paula Bennett said the bill decriminalized drugs by stealth.

“National supports both greater rehabilitation and tougher sentences, treatment and deterrence should go hand in hand.

“However this Bill means Police won’t prosecute people who are buying and using hard drugs including P, heroin and cocaine,” she said.

Ms Bennett added police aren’t social workers and the bill meant it will be up to them to help people try to find services that don’t exist.
READ MORE: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/396192/misuse-of-drugs-amendment-bill-passes-final-reading

Financial Post 30 July 2019
Family First Comment: Canada ain’t working that well, despite claims of NZ advocates for pot…..
“Black market dope continues to sell for nearly half the price of the legal stuff because bootleggers are obviously able to produce and import with impunity. This negates the Liberal notion that legalization will put the drug dealers out of business, make sure the products are not diluted or dangerous, and collect big taxes on an illicit product that people were going to buy anyway. This is Cheech and Chong policy: Eliminating the black market will be impossible because while unlicensed cannabis cultivation is illegal in Canada, possession and consumption is entirely legal. So, criminals and importers have more customers than ever.”
Duh!

The legalization of marijuana was cynically rushed into law by the Trudeau government without sufficient medical testing on long-term health effects or adequate controls over the players involved, presumably to court the youth vote.

For a country where governments bear the cost of medical care, it is the height of recklessness to legitimize the sale of weed without the same rigorous testing requirements that pharmaceutical or food companies must endure.

In addition, Ottawa has delivered the worst of all possible outcomes in what amounts to an inept rollout: Black market dope continues to sell for nearly half the price of the legal stuff because bootleggers are obviously able to produce and import with impunity.

This negates the Liberal notion that legalization will put the drug dealers out of business, make sure the products are not diluted or dangerous, and collect big taxes on an illicit product that people were going to buy anyway.

This is Cheech and Chong policy: Eliminating the black market will be impossible because while unlicensed cannabis cultivation is illegal in Canada, possession and consumption is entirely legal. So, criminals and importers have more customers than ever.
https://business.financialpost.com/diane-francis/diane-francis-canntrust-is-the-fruit-of-a-reckless-rushed-liberal-cannabis-policy

NZ Herald 27 July 2019
Family First Comment: Good commentary by National MP Dr Shane Reti…
“As the proposals stand, active gang members can be in the powerful position of licence holders to manufacture cannabis. Even more bizarrely, active gang members will be able to apply for a licence and hold the licence while they are in prison doing their time for serious crimes! Further, under these proposals licence holders would be allowed business associations with international drug lord El Chapo and nothing can be done. This is wrong… We also identify current life issues that should exclude a licence including people who are addicted and habituated to controlled drugs. This seems a common sense position to take both to protect the licence holder as well as the industry and the public.”

The government’s medicinal cannabis policy could lead to gang members being involved in growing the drug. Whangārei MP Dr Shane Reti says reputational requirements for licence holders under the policy are too weak and need strengthening.

In the past few weeks the government has released proposals for a medicinal cannabis scheme and placed these out for discussion.

Last year we constructed the National Party’s comprehensive medicinal cannabis policy as the Reti Medicinal Cannabis Bill and we take some pride in our policies that have been copy pasted into the government’s proposals.

We have several concerns with the plan. The first is around fit and proper licence holders and reputational requirements for the growing and manufacture of cannabis.

Licence holders have a lot of responsibility in medicinal cannabis schemes including where cannabis will be grown, how it will be grown, employment and cannabis crop security.

Licence holders need to be fit and proper people with expertise and resources to meet what should be some of the highest requirements in drug manufacturing.

The government’s proposals have two main reputational requirements for licence holders, no drug offences under the Misuse of Drugs Act and no dishonesty offences.

We absolutely agree with these and we had put them as minimum requirements in our bill also but after that our policies are quite different and we take a much tougher stance.

In our view what is missing are requirements for no serious offences under the Crimes Act, for example, murder and no harmful business associations that could influence decision making such as gang members.

Variations of these are often included in international medicinal cannabis schemes including Australia which has even more reputational regulation.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/premium/news/article.cfm?c_id=1504669&objectid=12253099 (behind paywall)

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