Large number of New Zealanders unclear on the health effects associated with cannabis use, new reports says

The report out today by the Royal Society Te Apārangi outlines the health impacts of cannabis, the benefits, harms and unknowns.

The referendum will take place at the 2020 General Election and voters will be asked: “Do you support the proposed Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill?” Voters will have to give a yes or no answer.

An expert who contributed to the report, Professor Giles Newton-Howes says there are a host of unknowns around the impact of cannabis use.

“I think there is a lot to learn,” he says.

“We know a little bit about some things and not much about an awful lot of things, and so as a doctor that’s difficult when we are thinking about cannabis as a medicine,” he told TVNZ1’s Breakfast.

Professor Newton-Howes who works in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Otago says there is reasonable and high-quality evidence that cannabis-based medicines are useful in two types of rare childhood epilepsies, as well as spasticity and muscle problems associated with multiple sclerosis.