Ed

NZ Herald 27 September 2020
Our additional comment: Yes!“Five classes at the North Shore’s high-decile Westlake Girls’ High School have all voted overwhelmingly against legalising cannabis in their practice voting – 82 per cent against in two Year 9 classes, 63 per cent against in a Year 11 class and 59 per cent against in two Year 13 classes”💥👍

A practice voting exercise at an Auckland high school suggests that Kiwi teenagers may be surprisingly conservative on cannabis, even though they are backing Labour politically.

Five classes at the North Shore’s high-decile Westlake Girls’ High School have all voted overwhelmingly against legalising cannabis in their practice voting – 82 per cent against in two Year 9 classes, 63 per cent against in a Year 11 class and 59 per cent against in two Year 13 classes.”

I don’t think cannabis is good,” she said. “It will mean our generation being addicted, which isn’t going to end up well.”

One of the websites told fellow Year 9 student Lauren O’Loughlin to vote for the Māori Party, but she chose the Greens – yet she also opposed legalising cannabis.

“You could get addicted and then you could get bankrupt and it’s not good,” she said.

“I’m the type of person who doesn’t like drugs. I’m more of an ethical person,” she said.”
READ MORE: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12368049 

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TVNZ One News 25 September 2020
Our additional comment: Unfortunately for Chris, he made all the wrong choices as a result of a difficult upbringing. “I was 16, got top of the form at Wellington Boys College, started smoking cannabis heavily and I went from the very top of the year to the next year I got very last,” he said.

Let’s not make bad choices even easier. Vote NO.

For more than two decades, Chris O’Riley was trapped in a web of addiction and abuse.

College of Psychiatrists of Ireland 24 January 2019
Family First Comment: Cannabis is the main drug responsible for patients being seen within the child and adolescent addiction service, accounting for 80% of all cases. “Modern weed is grown in such a way as to maximise the THC concentration and as a consequence it seems to minimise the amount of CBD in it, so the chemical make-up is completely different to what was around 10 to 15 years ago,” Dr Smyth maintained.

More than 40,000 Irish people are addicted to cannabis in Ireland yet societal attitudes towards the drug are softening.  Around a decade ago, cannabis would have been the main drug in just 30 per cent of presentations, according to Dr Bobby Smyth, a child and adolescent psychiatrist specialising in addiction in Dublin.

Cannabis is the main drug responsible for patients being seen within the child and adolescent addiction service, accounting for 80 per cent of all cases.

Between 2006 and 2009 cannabis referrals related to hash and tended to cause “low level concerns”. “Objectively, their lives weren’t massively affected by their drug use,” Dr Smyth told the Medical Independent. But this began to change over subsequent years as the chemical make-up of the drug altered to become more addictive and harmful.

“We began meeting young people whose lives were consumed by the use of cannabis. It moved from hash to what would generally be known as weed; ‘herbal cannabis’ would be the medical term,” Dr Smyth related. “They were reporting quantities of use and a pervasiveness of use that seemed completely different to previously.”

The departure of hash and the arrival of weed has meant “we are dealing with a completely different drug”, Dr Smyth said. The chemical constituents of hash and weed are broadly similar, but the two key cannabinoids that doctors pay attention to are known as THC and CBD, Dr Smyth explained.

THC is the cannabinoid that causes the negative intoxication, addictive and paranoid effects, while CBD can potentially offer medicinal value for people with epilepsy, for example.
READ MORE: https://www.irishpsychiatry.ie/blog/a-warning-on-the-failure-to-take-cannabis-use-seriously/

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TVNZ One News 26 September 2020
Our additional comment: Only 35% said they supported the bill, a drop from 40% at June’s poll, 39% in February’s poll and 43% in November, 2019’s poll. The amount of people who did not support the bill has risen to 53% – up from 49% in June and 51% in February.

Reuters 25 September 2020
Our additional comment: And the world is watching our referendum…
“The black market will remain, and a new legal market of 400 stores appearing around the country, and then a whole lot of people growing cannabis plants in their backyard. It’s hard to believe in that scenario that cannabis use will be reduced,” said Aaron Ironside, spokesman for the Say Nope to Dope campaign.

A referendum next month on legalising recreational cannabis has divided opinion in New Zealand with ruling party politicians staying clear of the contentious issue ahead of a general election they are likely to win.

If passed, New Zealand would be only the third country in the world after Uruguay and Canada to legalise the adult use and sale of cannabis, and the first in the Asia Pacific. The referendum will be held along with the Oct. 17 general election in which Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is seeking a second term.

Ardern is a strong favourite to win the election but opinion is sharply divided on the referendum – 49.5% of respondents in a nationwide Horizon Research survey earlier this month said they were in favour of legalising cannabis while 49.5% were against, and 1% gave no response.

Campaigners against legalising marijuana, which include some faith based institutions, refute these claims.

“The black market will remain, and a new legal market of 400 stores appearing around the country, and then a whole lot of people growing cannabis plants in their backyard. It’s hard to believe in that scenario that cannabis use will be reduced,” said Aaron Ironside, spokesman for the Say Nope to Dope campaign.
READ MORE: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-newzealand-election-cannabis-idUSKCN26G176

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The Sydney Morning Herald 27 September 2020
Our additional comment: [SayNopeToDope] opposed the legalisation because it did not protect young people who were particularly vulnerable to the health risks posed by the drug.  “It doesn’t stop them [young people] from buying on the black market – therefore the law doesn’t accomplish its goal,” he said.

New Zealand’s looming referendum on legalising cannabis could have a significant impact on drug law reform in Australia, according to Harm Reduction Australia, and could even trigger marijuana tourism when borders between the two countries reopen.

Medical marijuana is legal in Australia and New Zealand and pot was decriminalised in the ACT under strict conditions on January 31. But legalising the growing, sale and consumption of the drug for recreational use in NZ would represent a significant expansion of the drug’s availability.

Gino Vumbaca, the president of Harm Reduction Australia – which advocates for drug law reforms – said his organisation was watching the events closely and was in regular contact with their counterparts at the NZ Drug Foundation.

Aaron Ironside, the spokesman for the Say Nope to Dope campaign, said his organisation supported medical marijuana and recent legal changes to the Misuse of Drugs Act. It instructed police to focus on people who sold and distributed the drug, rather than casual users.

The organisation opposed the legalisation because it did not protect young people who were particularly vulnerable to the health risks posed by the drug.

TP Plus 26 September 2020
Our addditional comment: “Say Nope to Dope campaign are working hard to try and convince the public to vote no. Tuitasi’s views are informed by his 25 years in the police force, where he’s seen first hand the devastating effects of cannabis on young people. “I worked with young gangsters, the Bloods and the Crips at the time, and I noticed what the impact of cannabis had on their lives, and when parents brought their kids to me saying, ‘Oh you know, he steal from the grandmother,’ the first thing I’d find out was that they had an addiction.”

Former police officer Nick Tuitasi, now working for Family First New Zealand, is a strong advocate against the bill and believes Pasifika people are not informed enough about what they’re voting for.

“Our families are struggling. We have two families living in a three-bedroom state house, those trying to put food on the table… They’re going, ‘Really? I’m just trying to keep my head above water. I don’t have time to think about those things,’” says Tuitasi.

Family First and the Say Nope to Dope campaign are working hard to try and convince the public to vote no. Tuitasi’s views are informed by his 25 years in the police force, where he’s seen first hand the devastating effects of cannabis on young people.

“I worked with young gangsters, the Bloods and the Crips at the time, and I noticed what the impact of cannabis had on their lives, and when parents brought their kids to me saying, ‘Oh you know, he steal from the grandmother,’ the first thing I’d find out was that they had an addiction.”
WATCH & READ MORE: https://tpplus.co.nz/news-politics/yes-or-no-to-cannabis/

NewsTalk ZB 25 September 2020
Our additional comment: “I’m in the no camp because of all the mental health professionals I’ve spoken to who work at the coal face. The ones who have no agenda around cannabis other than trying to help clean up the harm it’s done to young people’s brains, and by young people I mean under 25’s. Remember the legal age limit here will be 20. The psychiatrists and psychologists I’ve spoken to despair at the misinformation being peddled, the confusion that this is somehow a vote on medicinal – it isn’t. Or that it somehow will keep people out of prison – it won’t.”

MarketWatch 22 September 2020
Our additional comment: Not such a profitable business as they try to pretend – because the black market doesn’t go away…
“One of the biggest problems for Aurora had been its focus on premium cannabis that costs more to consumers, a strategy that fell apart as Canadian consumers sought the cheapest buzz for the buck. Aurora has pivoted to selling cheaper pot, but that has hit its margins and revenue totals.”

Aurora Cannabis Inc. lost more than C$3.3 billion, about $2.5 billion, in its recently completed fiscal year, and predicted softer sales than expected at the outset of its new year Tuesday, sending shares down roughly 10% in after-hours trading.

Aurora ACB, -2.88% ACB, -1.88% reported fiscal fourth-quarter losses of C$1.86 billion on sales of C$72.1 million on Tuesday, a decline from a break-even quarter with sales of C$98.9 million in the same period a year ago. Aurora did not provide a per-share loss calculation. Analysts on average expected losses of 66 cents a share on sales of C$73.2 million, according to FactSet.

CNN Health 23 September 2020
Our additional comment: NEW STUDY: Children whose mothers had used during pregnancy were more likely to have psychotic-like behaviours and more attention, social and sleep problems, as well as weaker cognitive abilities. If the woman continued to use after she discovered she was pregnant, the negative effects were more pronounced, the study found, and stayed after adjusting for confounding variables. Use of marijuana by pregnant women has been growing in the United States and other countries such as Canada in recent decades. 

If you’re one of the growing numbers of women who use weed while pregnant, think twice: A new study found it may increase psychotic-like behaviors in children.