Recent News

NewsTalk ZB 31 July 2020
Our additional comment: Drug Detection Agency chief executive Kirk Hardy told Mike Hosking it’s difficult to determine the limits of impairment, given some drugs can stay in the human body for several weeks. “If you look at the NZ Drug Foundation’s website on driving while high, they say that even people who use cannabis regularly are likely to be impede.”

It seems a new bill which aims to prevent drug-driving still has some hurdles to overcome.

Introduced into Parliament yesterday, the law would allow Police to conduct saliva-tests on drivers, for drugs such as cannabis, P, cocaine and MDMA.

Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter says under the bill, there would be consequences for anyone caught driving while under the influence.

She says if a person returns two positive saliva-test’s they will get an immediate infringement fine, demerit points and be unable to drive for 12 hours.

Drug Detection Agency chief executive Kirk Hardy told Mike Hosking it’s difficult to determine the limits of impairment, given some drugs can stay in the human body for several weeks.

“If you look at the NZ Drug Foundation’s website on driving while high, they say that even people who use cannabis regularly are likely to be impede.”
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/audio/kirk-hardy-roadside-drug-driver-testing-bill-introduced/

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Stuff co.nz 31 July 2020
Our additional comment: This is a must read – based on facts and experience, not ideology and drug advocacy!!
“Despite what some would have you believe, cannabis is not a harmless recreational drug. It can introduce the user to far more potent drugs. We know this only too well and we write from personal experience. Our son’s tragic end began with a few innocent puffs of cannabis while at high school. His casual puff grew into an addiction and he was expelled from sixth form college for the use of illicit substances. He then spent his days walking the streets of our local town, at one time being unwilling to speak to, or even meet us – his parents. During this period he progressed from cannabis to ecstasy, cocaine, LSD, heroin and more. You name it, he’d tried it… Eventually he came to his senses, came to us for help and we put him through an expensive rehabilitation course at one of the renowned priory clinics in the UK. After completing this course, he remained clean for many years, but sadly we learned that you never can be confident that the habit has been beaten… We urge you, indeed we beg you to vote no to cannabis legalisation, if not for your own sake, for that of others. If you already are a user, we urge you to stop now. And if you’re not a user, please, please don’t even try a few experimental puffs. It can be a slippery slope once you are on it.”

OPINION: Despite what some would have you believe, cannabis is not a harmless recreational drug. It can introduce the user to far more potent drugs. We know this only too well and we write from personal experience.

Death. It’s a horrible word, isn’t it? Think about it – the curtain falling at the end of a show. It’s all over. The unnecessary and premature end of a potentially long and fulfilling life.

Neither of us are ones to weep, but my wife and I each spent a sleepless night, lying in bed weeping after we received a life-shattering telephone call from a police officer in England.

The poor man had the unwanted task of telling us that at 5:30 that morning, a cleaner had found the body of our 25-year-old son where he had died on the floor of a restaurant toilet in Hong Kong.

We wept again at our son’s cremation service in England.

In your heart, would you really want to increase the chance of your children or grandchildren being at even the slightest risk of such a cold and lonely death? Most children look to their parents as role models and think, quite understandably, “If Mum and Dad do it, then it must be OK”.

Our son’s tragic end began with a few innocent puffs of cannabis while at high school. His casual puff grew into an addiction and he was expelled from sixth form college for the use of illicit substances.

You learn to live with your loss (eventually) but you never forget, and not a day passes without each of us remembering and thinking of our ‘lost’ son.

We urge you, indeed we beg you to vote no to cannabis legalisation, if not for your own sake, for that of others. If you already are a user, we urge you to stop now. And if you’re not a user, please, please don’t even try a few experimental puffs. It can be a slippery slope once you are on it.
READ MORE: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/cannabis-referendum/122203579/cannabis-referendum-a-few-puffs-of-cannabis-led-our-son-to-drug-addiction

NewsTalk ZB 30 July 2020
Our additional comment: Good development – BUT have a listen to the interview with Green’s Julie-Anne Genter.
Does it give you confidence that the government knows what it’s doing on this crucial safety issue?

Police and scientists have developed a handheld device for frontline officers to test for methamphetamine, MDMA and cocaine.

The real-time drug-screening tool allows officers to test for “the three most harmful and commonly used drugs on the New Zealand market” while “working in our communities”, police said in a statement.

A six-month trial of the devices will be carried out across Auckland as well as in Canterbury and Central Police Districts.

Acting Assistant Commissioner: Investigations Mike Johnson and forensic research and development project manager for ESR – New Zealand’s Crown research institute – Dion Sheppard will demonstrate the device at ESR offices in Auckland tomorrow.

In December, the Government announced it would give police new powers to conduct random roadside drug testing and to prosecute drugged drivers in a bid to save lives on the road.

The new rules – to go through Parliament this year – mean the police will be able to conduct oral-fluid drug testing on drivers.

They are expected to come into force in early 2021.

Any drivers who test positive for the presence of drugs will be fined and immediately suspended from driving for a minimum of 12 hours.

“The change will allow police to test drivers for the presence of drugs and impairing medication anywhere, anytime, just as they can for alcohol,” Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter said at the time.
READ MORE: https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/audio/julie-anne-genter-police-release-details-on-new-rules-to-test-drivers-for-drugs/

Stuff co.nz 29 July 2020
Our additional comment: Nelson MP Nick Smith said the Government was ‘dragging its feet’ over legislation for roadside drug testing. Smith’s Land Transport Roadside Drug Testing Amendment Bill was again blocked when he put it before Parliament.

Nelson MP Nick Smith says he will continue to push for legislation for roadside drug testing, despite his member’s bill being blocked for a third time.

Smith tried to introduce his bill in Parliament on Tuesday, after criticising the Government for a lack of action on the issue.

He questioned Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter as to why no progress had been made on roadside testing legislation.

In December 2019, Genter had said police would be given powers to conduct random roadside drug testing, with the intention to introduce a bill in early 2020 with testing to begin in 2021. Testing would be carried out using oral swabs.

In response to Smith’s questions, she said progress had been slowed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In 2019, Smith presented Karen Dow’s 5000-strong petition to Parliament, which called for urgent legislation to be introduced for roadside drug testing.

Dow’s son Matthew was killed by a driver who was high on methamphetamine on New Year’s Eve 2017.

Dow said she was concerned no action would be taken before the upcoming cannabis referendum, given that nothing had happened since the petition was launched in 2018.
READ MORE: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/122287012/mothers-disappointment-over-stalled-progress-on-drugdriving-bill?cid=app-iPhone

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/