Ed

Media Release National Party Dr Shane Reti 23 July 2020
My Member’s Bill to implement a comprehensive medicinal cannabis regime that would widen access to medicinal cannabis and license high quality domestic production, has been drawn in Parliament, MP for Whangarei Shane Reti says.

“New Zealanders deserve greater access to high quality medicinal cannabis products to ease their suffering, but we must have the right regulatory and legislative controls in place.

“My bill is a more comprehensive alternative to the Government’s cannabis bill. The Government has said it will increase access now and leave it to officials to think through the controls and the consequences later. That’s typical of this Government but it’s not acceptable.

“The Government declined the bill 18 months ago, if they hadn’t New Zealanders would have access to affordable medicinal cannabis right now.

The Misuse of Drugs (Medicinal Cannabis) Amendment Bill (No 2) will achieve the following:

Medicinal cannabis products will be approved in the same way a medicine is approved by Medsafe. No loose leaf cannabis products will be approved.

Medical practitioners will decide who should have access to a Medicinal Cannabis Card, which will certify them to buy medicinal cannabis products.

Medicinal cannabis products will be pharmacist-only medicine.

Cultivators and manufacturers must be licenced for commercial production. Licence holders and staff will be vetted to ensure they are fit and proper persons.

A licensing regime that will create a safe market for medicinal cannabis products. Cultivators and manufacturers will not be able to be located within 5km of residential land, or 1km of sensitive sites such as schools and wahi tapu.

No advertising of medicinal cannabis products to the public will be permitted.

The Ministry of Health will review the legislation in five years.

“National is determined to be a constructive opposition working on new ideas and new policies. This bill is the result of significant work, including a study I conducted overseas and reflects a blend of international best practice, tailored to New Zealand.

“I recognise there is a delayed medicinal cannabis process underway by the Government, but I encourage them to pick up the enormous amount of work done by National in Opposition and implement our comprehensive reforms to ensure this is done once and done right. So that New Zealanders in need can access high quality medicinal cannabis products to ease their suffering.”
http://www.voxy.co.nz/health/5/369707

NewsHub 24 July 2020
Our additional comment: “We’ve got a limited pool of people already, potentially going to be more limited. [It] might encourage people to use drugs more, become more dependent on drugs.”
A survey of almost 200 civil contracting companies found more than 66 percent worry that legalising cannabis will negatively affect them.
#votenopetodope

Some construction companies warn they’ll face a shortage of workers if cannabis is legalised in the referendum.

The high-risk industry will continue to test its workers even if it is legal, and worries that will rule out a large group of employees.

Drug testing on construction sites is common practice.

“It’s a zero-tolerance policy, we test pre-employment, we test on incidence and we test randomly,” said David Howard, Managing Director of Construction Contracts Ltd.

Howard worries it will make it even tougher to find workers.

“We’ve got a limited pool of people already, potentially going to be more limited,” he told Newshub. “[It] might encourage people to use drugs more, become more dependent on drugs.”

A survey of almost 200 civil contracting companies found more than 66 percent worry that legalising cannabis will negatively affect them.
READ MORE: https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/07/cannabis-referendum-why-the-construction-industry-is-worried-weed-will-be-legalised.html

NewsTalk ZB 20 July 2020
Our additional comment: [The pamphlet] reads “the bill’s purpose is to reduce harm to people and communities.” No, it isn’t. The bill’s purpose is to legalise, or not, something that is currently illegal. You are voting yes or no, legal or illegal, nothing more. Could an outworking of the vote mean there might be less harm to people and communities? Possibly. Or indeed possibly not. Because that’s the case, you can’t make the claim something will happen, if in fact it might not. That’s fraudulent.

So the con continues to unfold from the government over the cannabis vote in September.

In my holiday mail was the official pamphlet, direct from the politburo. Putin would have been proud of it.

Remember the official line is that the government holds no view on this, this is our choice, and they’re staying out of it. If you still believe that you’ve been asleep or you’re not that bright.

When it was claimed Family First was getting money from an American lobby group, Andrew Little blew his lid. It was completely unjustifiable for a foreign group to involve themselves in a local debate and vote. But there was, of course, no money at all.

And yet this is the same Minister who has overseen a series of rules that allow people like the Drug Foundation to raise whatever they like from whoever they like and not have to tell anyone who those people are, and he is just fine with it.

Back to the pamphlet, it reads “the bill’s purpose is to reduce harm to people and communities.” No, it isn’t. The bill’s purpose is to legalise, or not, something that is currently illegal. You are voting yes or no, legal or illegal, nothing more.

Could an outworking of the vote mean there might be less harm to people and communities? Possibly. Or indeed possibly not. Because that’s the case, you can’t make the claim something will happen, if in fact it might not. That’s fraudulent.

The pamphlet ends with the question, “where can I get more information?” The answer, of course, is the internet. But they offer you one tiny piece of the internet, namely their own website. Can we conclude that if that particular piece of the net they’re sprooking is as gerrymandered and biased as the pamphlet, then the only information you’ll be getting is the stuff they want you to see?
READ MORE: https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/video/mikes-minute-government-being-dishonest-over-cannabis-vote/

Te Ao Maori News 16 July 2020
Our additional comment: “Where are they going to set up their shops?” Simeon Brown says. “I used to live in South Auckland. The big alcohol companies like to have more shops there than in other parts of Auckland.” The Pakuranga MP fears the marijuana companies will follow suit.
Yes – of course they will, just as they have overseas
See the evidence here https://saynopetodope.org.nz/social-justice/

National MP Simeon Brown fears for South Auckland if recreational weed becomes legal.

“Where are they going to set up their shops?” Simeon Brown says.

“I used to live in South Auckland. The big alcohol companies like to have more shops there than in other parts of Auckland.”

The Pakuranga MP fears the marijuana companies will follow suit.

Simeon Brown has long opposed Green MP Chloe Swarbrick’s crusade to legalise recreational weed. He’s happy that medical weed is legal but wants it left at that.

If recreational weed is legalised under the proposed bill, MP Brown says the businesses will market marijuana to young people.

“We’re also going to see it promoted. Big business will be getting involved,” MP Brown says.

“They will be targeting people to start earlier and use it for longer.”

Brown notes that drugs have already been decriminalised. Police have greater flexibility to avoid drug convictions.
READ MORE: https://www.teaomaori.news/marijuana-companies-could-target-south-auckland-simeon-brown

Daily Mail 14 July 2020
Our additional comment: The number of cannabis-related hospitalisations per year in England has leapt by more than 50 per cent since 2013 – from 19,765 to 31,130. The dramatic rise has coincided with an increasingly liberal approach to policing the Class B drug in many parts of the country. In Durham, police now turn a blind eye to possession – and even small-scale cultivation.

The devastating effect of cannabis on Britain’s mental health can be revealed for the first time today.

As campaigners call for the drug’s legalisation, shocking figures obtained by The Mail on Sunday show that it has caused more than 125,000 hospital admissions in the last five years.

And around 15,000 of those cases involved teenagers – some of whom were rushed to A&E departments suffering serious psychosis.

Analysis carried out by NHS officials for this paper has also revealed how children below the age of ten have been admitted to hospital after taking the powerful and addictive substance. Some people hooked on the drug have taken their own lives after suffering hallucinations and many more are now unable to lead normal lives, according to doctors.

The number of cannabis-related hospitalisations per year in England has leapt by more than 50 per cent since 2013 – from 19,765 to 31,130.

The dramatic rise has coincided with an increasingly liberal approach to policing the Class B drug in many parts of the country. In Durham, police now turn a blind eye to possession – and even small-scale cultivation. Last week, the Royal College of Psychiatrists announced it was setting up a panel to consider backing legalisation of cannabis – arguing that could be a way to control its increasing strength.
READ MORE: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6273159/UK-hospitals-treat-125-000-cannabis-users-past-five-years.html

Poppot.org 4 October 2019
Our additional comment: Calls to legalize marijuana often lead with the cry of social justice. Many advocates argue that legalization will right the wrongs of our racist past in the criminal justice system. In reality, legalization would make our society much less just than it is now. Legalization would lead to increased commercialization of marijuana, playing into the hands of an intoxicating, addictive, for-profit industry that is appropriating problems of systemic injustice to the tune of billions of dollars in profits.

Calls to legalize marijuana often lead with the cry of social justice. Many advocates argue that legalization will right the wrongs of our racist past in the criminal justice system.

In reality, legalization would make our society much less just than it is now. Legalization would lead to increased commercialization of marijuana, playing into the hands of an intoxicating, addictive, for-profit industry that is appropriating problems of systemic injustice to the tune of billions of dollars in profits. Pennsylvania should instead focus on decriminalization.

Marijuana commercialization advocates have shrewdly pointed to ethnically disparate arrest rates that show African-Americans are disproportionately targeted for enforcement of marijuana laws. While the problems they highlight are painfully true, their solution is both ineffective and disingenuous. It does nothing to punish, prosecute, or remove individuals or institutions with records of racism and discriminatory law enforcement practices – true reform. Instead, it creates a predatory industry that targets communities of color and other disadvantaged communities with an over saturation of ads and stores likes its predecessors Big Tobacco, the alcohol industry, and the lottery.

When I walk out the front door of my home the first store that I get to in any direction is a liquor store. Going a bit further, when I get to a convenience store, it is so plastered with advertisements for liquor, cigarettes, and the lottery that I can’t even see inside the windows.

A study from Johns Hopkins University found that, “such stores have been shown to be an important component of the social infrastructure that destabilizes communities.” We shouldn’t be celebrating legislation that permits irresponsible, predatory industries marketing another intoxicating and addictive substance to embed itself in our communities.

As they anticipate and push for federal legalization, major alcohol brands including Heineken, Molson Coors, Blue Moon, and Corona have already invested billions in the marijuana industry. And to quote marijuana investors, “this is only the beginning.”

Big Tobacco isn’t standing by either. In 2018, Altria, the parent company to Phillip Morris, invested over a billion dollars in marijuana and subsequently invested another several billion in Juul, the vaping company that is now being investigated by the FDA for their marketing practices that have created a near epidemic of teen vaping. The CDC has now linked marijuana vapes to a majority of over 800 cases of a mysterious lung ailment and at least two of twelve subsequent deaths.
READ MORE: https://poppot.org/2019/10/04/legalizing-marijuana-isnt-about-social-justice/

NewsTalk ZB 13 July 2020
Our additional comment: “People have started to receive pamphlets in the mail regarding the election, including on the cannabis legislation referendum. The pamphlet has been criticised the ‘Say Nope to Dope’ campaign, which has sought legal advice about some of the wording used. The line in question reads “the bill’s purpose is to reduce harm to people and communities” – something they say is a highly subjective statement.”
And Chloe Swarbrick tries (unsuccessfully) to defend the indefensible…

Official information on the cannabis referendum has sparked a backlash from some quarters.

People have started to receive pamphlets in the mail regarding the election, including on the cannabis legislation referendum.

The pamphlet has been criticised the ‘Say Nope to Dope’ campaign, which has sought legal advice about some of the wording used.

The line in question reads “the bill’s purpose is to reduce harm to people and communities” – something they say is a highly subjective statement.

However, Chloe Swarbrick, the Green Party’s drug reform spokesperson, told Heather du Plessis-Allan that is the purpose of the proposed law.

“The bill’s title is Cannabis Legislation and Control, and the purpose, as outlined in the draft bill, is to implement control to increase wellbeing and decrease harm from cannabis in our communities.”

She says that the wording was approved and worked on by all parties in Parliament.
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/audio/chloe-swarbrick-on-whether-the-cannabis-referendum-information-is-subjective/

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