Ed

The SpinOff 7 December 2020
Family First Comment: “There was a lot of confusion, a lot of people not understanding that medicinal cannabis is already legal, that there is framework here & some people who felt that business like ours actually depended on ‘yes’ vote”

Yep – blame the Drug Foundation and Chloe.
We tried to warn New Zealand voters.

In the aftermath of the cannabis referendum on October 17, stocks for the two NZX-listed medicinal cannabis companies both sold down. While the referendum concerned the recreational, not medicinal use of cannabis, medicinal cannabis companies say there may have been some confusion about the actual impact of the referendum on the medicinal market.

In September, one of those listed companies, Cannasouth, reached its all-time high on the NZX, trading shares for $1.21 each. After the election on October 17, prices declined, reaching a low of $0.54 one month later, after the cannabis referendum results were announced.

Mark Lucas, CEO of Cannasouth, says while it’s not possible to explain exactly why stocks drop when they do – it can be for a range of reasons – there is an argument that the eventual “no” vote did affect the way some investors perceived the brand’s growth potential.

“Some people may have made the assumption that a medicinal cannabis company would be in a good position if there was an adult use market. That’s not something as a company that we have articulated.”

Lucas says despite Cannasouth’s medicinal focus, there was a lot of confusion around what a “yes” vote would mean for the medicinal cannabis sector, which may have caused further confusion when the “no” vote became clear.

“[There was] a lot of confusion, a lot of people not understanding that medicinal cannabis is already legal, that there is a framework here and some people who felt that a business like ours actually depended on a ‘yes’ vote.”

The medicinal cannabis scheme, which came into effect on April 1, 2020, was put in place to improve access to quality medicinal cannabis products as medicine. Under the scheme, cannabis is only available under a prescription from a doctor and licenses need to be obtained for companies wanting to produce medicinal cannabis product – the Ministry of Health states this scheme is entirely separate from October’s cannabis referendum.

The cannabis referendum however sought to legalise recreational cannabis and allow designated dispensaries from which anyone over the age of 20 could purchase up to 14g of cannabis product per day. So why did investors get so confused?
READ MORE: https://thespinoff.co.nz/money/07-12-2020/why-medicinal-cannabis-suffered-after-the-october-cannabis-referendum/#.X82Z1XsJlnk.twitter

Stuff co.nz 6 December 2020
Family First Comment: What’s interesting in this coverage is that there’s been no screaming and shouting from the rooftops by the Greens and Chloe about this problem.
Which proves that the medicinal issue has been a smokescreen all along.

Since the Medicinal Cannabis Scheme came into operation in April, the number of reported product packs supplied has skyrocketed from 1276 then to 2387 in September, an 87 per cent jump.

None of the products are made in New Zealand because no company has yet passed the Ministry of Health’s strict quality standards to obtain a licence to manufacture. That is expected to change in the coming months.

Meanwhile, all medicinal cannabis is being imported by five companies with licences to do so.

A source in one medicinal cannabis company told Stuff they would typically add 50 per cent to the price they purchased it for overseas, the pharmacy wholesaler would add around 3-6 per cent and some pharmacies were adding anywhere between 50 and 100 per cent.

Because the products are unapproved medicines, they cannot by law be advertised so there is no transparency around pricing.

And because the products are not Government funded, pharmacists can charge what they like.

Some pharmacists are using their standard computer software to generate a retail price; others are charging a flat fee which is $10 to $20 above the wholesale price, on “compassionate” grounds.

Wholesale prices obtained from a variety of sources by Stuff varied widely for similar products.

Prices may vary depending on the supplier, but generally the wholesale price of a 40ml bottle of Tilray, containing 100mg of CBD per millilitre, is about $433, including GST.

A 40ml bottle of Endoca (150mg) is about $396, a 30ml bottle of Theraleaf (100mg) is about $229, a 25ml bottle of Medleaf (100mg) about $200 and a 30ml bottle of Eqalis​ (120mg) about $178.

Depending on the prescribed dosage, a bottle can last for a month or two.

To save money, many patients have illegally imported products themselves via the internet – a bottle of CBD oil can be bought for about $100 – or turned to the illicit local market.
READ MORE: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/123409271/pharmacies-accused-of-overcharging-patients-for-medicinal-cannabis?cid=app-iPhone

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NewsTalk ZB 30 November 2020
Family First Comment: Kate sums it up well – again! 😊
“I can’t help thinking of all the things we could be getting signatures over for important referendums in this country, decriminalising something that’s barely criminalised as it is, seems pointless. So maybe the lesson here for those on the losing side of this debate now is – just let it go.”

God bless the 20 year old Young Greens activist who wants a citizen initiated referendum on the decriminalisation of cannabis.

All he’s doing is highlighting how the government got this wrong first time round.

How much the pro lobby shot itself in the foot with its attempts to legalise? Mixed messaging, confusing misleading statements about medicinal, the advantage it would give big business, the smattering of weed shops around the country. It over shot the mark, went too far, and it didn’t convince enough New Zealanders to make it a reality.

It should’ve focused on decriminalisation not legalisation in the first place. It should have kept the messaging simple. But that’s all history now. The fact is, they lost.

But it was close. So close it’s not remotely surprising that someone has popped up and said let’s try that again.

A citizen-initiated referendum needs 355,000 signatures within a year to get to referendum status.

It’s not binding – and here’s the key – it’s up to the government to decide at that point if they want to go ahead with it.

Two problems here. One, even if it gets enough signatures, historically governments don’t do anything with citizen initiated referendums other than ignore them.

Two, they’ve missed the point. The government has already put in place policing measures which see most cannabis offences overlooked, given a warning – anything but actual prosecution.
READ MORE: https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/early-edition/opinion/kate-hawkesby-will-calls-for-another-cannabis-referendum-be-taken-seriously/

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NZ Herald 28 November 2020
Family First Comment: This will be interesting to watch:
1. Trying to organise 350,000 signatures is a massive mammoth task
2. The Greens oppose decriminalisation
3. Politicians HATE citizens initiated referendums and have never respected them!
4. The Green Party guy’s name is ‘Bouma’ (sounds like ……)

Another referendum on cannabis is being proposed – this time to decriminalise, but not legalise, the drug.

A public notice in today’s Herald gives notice that a citizen-initiated referendum has been proposed asking: “Should New Zealand decriminalise the possession of cannabis for personal use?”

The proposal, lodged by Wellington Central Young Greens activist Mathew Bouma, is open for comments on the proposed wording until February 1.

House of Representatives Clerk David Wilson and Bouma must then agree on a final wording, and the issue will go to a referendum if Bouma can collect valid signatures from at least one-tenth of the country’s 3.55 million electors – 355,000 people – within 12 months.

The initiative comes just six weeks after a narrow majority of 50.7 per cent of New Zealanders voted against legalising cannabis.
READ MORE: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/another-cannabis-referendum-vote-proposed-on-decriminalisation/Q6YZC5DRLAUMRE2PVMAPERH5BQ/

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NZ Herald 28 November 2020
Family First Comment: This will be interesting to watch:
1. Trying to organise 350,000 signatures is a massive mammoth task
2. Greens oppose decriminalisation
3. Politicians hate citizens initiated referendums and have never respected them!
4. The Green Party guys name is Bouma (sounds like ……)

Another referendum on cannabis is being proposed – this time to decriminalise, but not legalise, the drug.

A public notice in today’s Herald gives notice that a citizen-initiated referendum has been proposed asking: “Should New Zealand decriminalise the possession of cannabis for personal use?”

The proposal, lodged by Wellington Central Young Greens activist Mathew Bouma, is open for comments on the proposed wording until February 1.

House of Representatives Clerk David Wilson and Bouma must then agree on a final wording, and the issue will go to a referendum if Bouma can collect valid signatures from at least one-tenth of the country’s 3.55 million electors – 355,000 people – within 12 months.

The initiative comes just six weeks after a narrow majority of 50.7 per cent of New Zealanders voted against legalising cannabis.
READ MORE: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/another-cannabis-referendum-vote-proposed-on-decriminalisation/Q6YZC5DRLAUMRE2PVMAPERH5BQ/

People 25 November 2020
Family First Comment: You don’t have to take it from us. Take it from Ben Affleck’s real life experience…
“I had a bad experience with marijuana at 15 — I had a dissociative panic attack. So I only smoked weed if everyone else was smoking, and I had to sort of Bill-Clinton it and fake it. I didn’t really like marijuana.”

The Conversation 21 November 2020
Family First Comment: “While alcohol use is falling among 18-to-22-year-olds, marijuana use is inching upward. The number of young adults using both alcohol and marijuana is also rising, heightening concerns about a future surge in substance abuse problems, new research shows. The bad news is that the number of college-age young adults saying they used marijuana at least once in the previous year has increased, from 33% to 37%. The vast majority who said they used marijuana also used alcohol. We found that the increase in young adults using both was a result of young adults who used alcohol taking up marijuana, too. This increase in using both alcohol and marijuana is an important warning sign, because young adults in that group also had much higher rates of other illicit drug use, like cocaine, and prescription drug misuse, involving medications like opioids or benzodiazepines.”

Young adults aren’t drinking as much as they used to. In fact, more than a quarter don’t drink alcohol at all, recent surveys show.

It’s good news for health. But there is also a downside in the data: While alcohol use is falling among 18-to-22-year-olds, marijuana use is inching upward. The number of young adults using both alcohol and marijuana is also rising, heightening concerns about a future surge in substance abuse problems, new research shows.

I am a professor of psychology at Texas State University who has been studying young adult and adolescent substance use for over 15 years. A key interest of mine is how substance use changes over adolescence and young adulthood. It is a period of profound change: A 13-year-old is very different from a 25-year-old in nearly every way.

With colleagues at the University of Michigan, the University of Central Florida and Iowa State University, I have been investigating trends in alcohol and marijuana use in young adults to better understand how use changes with age. The latest numbers offer both hope and concern.

Gen Z is breaking stereotypes
There are reasons for the stereotype of hard-drinking, substance-using young adults, as photos and videos from bars and college parties will attest. But surveys and our analysis suggest that binge drinking isn’t as common as people may believe it is.

Using data from the annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health, we found that in 2018 nearly 30% of college-age adults, ages 18-22, had not had a single alcoholic drink during the previous year, compared with fewer than a quarter in 2002. Over 60% had not used marijuana at all.
READ MORE: https://theconversation.com/college-age-kids-and-teens-are-drinking-less-alcohol-marijuana-is-a-different-story-149895

Latest data from the Ministry of Health shows that past 12 month use of cannabis has remained at just 14.9%.

In contrast, 4 in 5 adults drank alcohol in past year.

The law is a deterrent – and the coercion of the law ensures referral to health services.

Win win.

Unfortunately Maori are more than twice as likely to use cannabis than non-Maori.

The solution is not to normalise drug use. The solution is to find out why Maori are more prone to drug use, and deal with the underlying issues.

The data also shows that young people are most at risk – and legalising it would simply add to the normalisation, availability, health harms and targeting towards this subgroup.

Fox 29 18 November 2020
Family First Comment: “In 2019, there were nearly 700,000 youths, ages 12 to 17, that was addicted to marijuana, which shows an increase of nearly 187,000 new youth in 2019 alone with cannabis use disorder,” said Dr. Kenneth Finn, Pain Medicine Physician in Colorado. Finn has seen the negative effects it’s having on teens who live in a state where marijuana is legalized. “When you’re having a fragile brain that is still developing and having negative impacts on that, some of those bridges, you cannot uncross, like the schizophrenic or the psychosis, some of that those symptoms persist even after cessation of use.” According to the Institute for Social Research, almost 80% of seniors in 2018 say getting marijuana is very easy.
Of course it is. Legalise = normalise.

More and more research suggests the high potency of THC or marijuana is having dangerous impacts on the developing brains of teenagers. Teens who use cannabis could be at a higher risk of experiencing depression and attempting suicide.

“In 2019, there were nearly 700,000 youths, ages 12 to 17, that was addicted to marijuana, which shows an increase of nearly 187,000 new youth in 2019 alone with cannabis use disorder,” said Dr. Kenneth Finn, Pain Medicine Physician in Colorado.

Finn has seen the negative effects it’s having on teens who live in a state where marijuana is legalized.

According to the Institute for Social Research, almost 80% of seniors in 2018 say getting marijuana is very easy. The latest study show marijuana is linked to school failure. Marijuana’s negative effects on attention, memory, and learning can last for days and sometimes weeks. Some students who smoke marijuana tend to get lower grades and are more likely to drop out of high school, compared with their peers who don’t use.
READ MORE: https://foxsanantonio.com/news/yami-investigates/dea-teen-depression-and-suicide-linked-to-marijuana-use

Radio NZ News 18 November 2020
Family First Comment: Looks like the current law is working well.
40% reduction in cannabis prosecutions in the last 5 years. Statistics for the three months to September show prosecutions for Māori are down by 17%, and there’s been a 50% increase in warnings to Māori where there are two or more offences. Fewer than 20% of all people caught with cannabis were prosecuted, and 500 people have been referred to health professionals.
Health and coercion and deterrent of the law. 🙂

The Police Commissioner has rejected criticism that Māori are still being unfairly prosecuted for low level cannabis offences but is concerned they are more likely to be found in possession of the drug.

The Māori Council and the Drug Foundation say a law change last year giving police more discretionary powers has done nothing.

Andrew Coster told Nine to Noon the law change was intended to confirm what was already happening.

He said there has been about a 40 percent reduction in cannabis prosecutions in the last five years.

Statistics for the three months to September show prosecutions for Māori are down by 17 percent, and there’s been a 50 percent increase in warnings to Māori where there are two or more offences.

“So we have seen a continued ongoing trend of greater use of warnings and a lesser use of prosecutions and that is consistent with the trend that has been running over the last five years.”

Fewer than 20 percent of all people caught with cannabis were prosecuted, and 500 people have been referred to health professionals.
READ MORE: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/430879/prosecution-of-maori-for-cannabis-offences-falling-police-commissioner

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