NZ Herald 1 November 2020
Our additional comment: “While the “no” vote swung into action in an impressive way, the “yes” vote was AWOL,“ 👍😄

It isn’t Jacinda Ardern’s fault that the cannabis legalisation referendum failed.

Plenty of disappointed pro-legalisation voters are unfairly blaming the Prime Minister. They believe the vote might’ve passed if only she had declared earlier how she’d voted, rather than keeping it a secret until after the results were announced.

As soon as Ardern finally admitted to a “yes” vote, social media filled with messages accusing her of “zero leadership on this issue”, wishing she had “mentioned BEFORE the election”, saying she “was unwilling to spend a cent of her political capital to get it across the line” and arguing that it “could have made a difference to the results if she had told us beforehand”.

It might’ve made a difference, it might not have. Maybe Ardern could have led a few undecideds to follow her into the “yes” camp through her moral leadership.

Maybe it would’ve backfired in the way Sir John Key’s preference in the flag referendum is thought to have, with people voting to oppose his preference just because it was his preference.

Who’s to know?

While the “no” vote swung into action in an impressive way, the “yes” vote was AWOL, bar Chloe Swarbrick’s hard work and frequent media appearances. Good as Chloe is, one MP is not enough against an organised campaign of opposition.
READ MORE: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/heather-du-plessis-allan-its-not-jacinda-arderns-fault-that-nz-voted-against-legalising-cannabis/CZ2XAKX2QITT5IHOL3WBMLLQ5Y/

NewsHub 31 October 2020
Our additional comment: “ It was never about eliminating cannabis though. No one who voted no thought it would go away. They were just not sure legalising something that was illegal was the answer. They say the voter is never wrong and maybe Swarbrick should have a little more respect for the no vote.”

OPINION: Just to start out I voted yes to legalising cannabis. It was very much a last-minute decision as I hadn’t made my mind up as I entered the polling booth.

I ticked yes as I guess subconsciously I thought it was better to legalise something many, many Kiwis use.

But I still remain unconvinced by the legalise cannabis arguments, led mainly by Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick, who gave an impassioned interview on the Newshub Nation on Saturday morning.

One of the key arguments of the legalise campaign and one Swarbrick reiterated on the programme was it will be easier to regulate cannabis if it is legal.

I am not convinced we can regulate cannabis properly when we clearly can’t regulate alcohol, despite thinking we can.

I don’t smoke dope, I don’t like it, it renders me into a comatose state that I don’t really enjoy. I do know a lot of people who do and I didn’t buy the supply argument that Swarbrick again alluded to on the Nation.
READ MORE: https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/10/cannabis-referendum-despite-what-chloe-swarbrick-says-the-no-vote-was-never-about-eliminating-weed.html

Stuff co.nz 29 October 2020
Our additional comment: “employers were worried about what a law change could mean for workplace safety, with hundreds of people already trying to cheat the system every year using fully legal products.”

Fake pee and THC-masking pill sales are expected to skyrocket as cannabis legalisation potentially looms on the horizon.

The public voted this year on whether they think recreational use of cannabis should be legal, with preliminary results due out on Friday.

The final result will be released on November 6.

But one workplace drug testing service said employers were worried about what a law change could mean for workplace safety, with hundreds of people already trying to cheat the system every year using fully legal products.

One example of what is on the market is the ‘Whizzard’ set, which includes synthetic urine, a bladder bag, heating pads to bring the liquid to body temperature, and even a prosthetic penis that “helps you out when you are trying to take a test under a watchful eye”.
READ MORE: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/cannabis-referendum/123230744/concern-reeferendum-will-result-in-more-workers-trying-to-cheat-drug-tests

NewsTalk ZB 29 October 2020
Our additional comment: A perfect summary from someone IN the media…
“I’ll be disappointed if it’s a yes vote that wins. I’ll be disappointed because of the amount of misinformation that was spread like wildfire, the prominence of the pro-campaigners in mainstream media, the lack of balance. I don’t feel like it was a fair fight… There seemed to be an agenda early on to promote cannabis legalisation as a good thing – and anyone railing against it was labelled as some kind of moral crusader backing the wrong horse… I am crossing my fingers and toes that New Zealanders saw through the propaganda, and ticked no.”
So are we!

So tomorrow we get the preliminary results of the referendums.

If we believe the polls, Cannabis legalisation won’t pass and End of Life choice will.

But can we believe the polls?

And which polls? The main ones had support for the Cannabis referendum dropping, and opposition to it rising.

But then the week before we went to vote, Helen Clark and the Drug Foundation produced their own poll showing support for cannabis legalisation was up, it was ahead, that it was close, but that it would indeed get through.

So who do we believe?

Well after the election .. it’s anyone’s guess. I didn’t see Chloe Swarbrick winning Auckland central either. Many didn’t. Even she admitted there’s value in being under estimated. So have we under estimated support for cannabis legalisation? And has the swing left in not just Auckland Central but across the country, indicated a yes vote may indeed clinch it?

I’ll be disappointed if it’s a yes vote that wins. I’ll be disappointed because of the amount of misinformation that was spread like wildfire, the prominence of the pro-campaigners in mainstream media, the lack of balance. I don’t feel like it was a fair fight.
READ MORE: https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/early-edition/opinion/kate-hawkesby-i-cant-pick-how-the-cannabis-referendum-will-go-tomorrow/

Keep up with family issues in NZ.
Receive our weekly emails direct to your Inbox.

The New York Times 26 October 2020
Our additional comment: “marijuana is becoming increasingly potent, and smoking marijuana carries many of the same cardiovascular health hazards as smoking tobacco.” Edible forms of marijuana have also been implicated as a possible cause of a heart attack, especially when high doses of the active ingredient THC are consumed.”

Do you have the heart to safely smoke pot? Maybe not, a growing body of medical reports suggests.

Currently, increased smoking of marijuana in public, even in cities like New York where recreational use remains illegal (though no longer prosecuted), has reinforced a popular belief that this practice is safe, even health-promoting.

“Many people think that they have a free pass to smoke marijuana,” Dr. Salomeh Keyhani, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, told me. “I even heard a suggestion on public radio that tobacco companies should switch to marijuana because then they’d be selling life instead of selling death.”

But if you already are a regular user of recreational marijuana or about to become one, it would be wise to consider medical evidence that contradicts this view, especially for people with underlying cardiovascular diseases.

Compared with tobacco, marijuana smoking causes a fivefold greater impairment of the blood’s oxygen-carrying capacity, Dr. Keyhani and colleagues reported.
READ MORE: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/26/well/live/marijuana-heart-health-cardiovascular-risks.html

The Epoch Times 27 October 2020
Our additional comment: An excellent summary of what happened to Pueblo in Colorado after legalisation. Disturbing….
“Since legalization in Colorado, Randall and Roberts have seen an increase in all drug use, not just marijuana. Methamphetamine use is up 143%, opiates are up by 10%, and cannabis is up by 57%, according to data from the ER drug screens over the past seven years. “If you pump a community full of drugs, you’re going to have to expect everything that’s associated with them. You’re going to have to expect the crime, addiction.””

It’s a common story across America: A city loses its main employer, usually a manufacturing company with well-paying, blue-collar jobs (that often go to China). The city’s economy crumbles, and those who can move out, do.

Decades later, and looking peeling-paint tired, the city hasn’t managed to recover, but drugs have found a permanent home.

In Pueblo, Colorado, the manufacturer was a steel plant beleaguered by a market crash in the 1980s and worker strikes in the 1990s. And one drug was given a red-carpet welcome.

For years, Pueblo has been looking for industries to revive its economy, and when recreational marijuana was legalized for retail sale in Colorado in 2014, many saw it as the answer. More people would be employed and the tax money would go to schools and infrastructure.

The county commissioner at the time, Sal Pace, went all-in on the industry, promoting Pueblo as the “Napa Valley of cannabis.” Pueblo is situated 100 miles south of Denver, with a population of around 160,000 people.

Marijuana grow operations and dispensaries sprung up quickly and now employ around 2,000 people, Pace told Colorado Politics in September. According to employment website Indeed.com, the majority of dispensary jobs in Colorado pay $12 to $15 per hour.
READ MORE: https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-true-cost-of-marijuana-a-colorado-town-that-went-all-in_3546091.html

Stuff co.nz 20 October 2020
Our additional comment: “Cannabidiol (CBD oil) is already as easy to buy online as clothes.”
So we don’t need to legalise cannabis for medicinal then eh

Kiwis who don’t want to wait for the results of the cannabis referendum say cannabidiol (CBD oil) is already as easy to buy online as clothes.

Since January 2019, 40.2 litres of CBD oil has been stopped and seized by Customs at the border across 5918 separate packages.

But an Auckland man who gets “regular shipments” through the post from the United States claims that’s “a drop in the ocean” compared to what has been making it through.

Some companies are getting their CBD through Customs by declaring the oil as a “dietary supplement”, or as food colouring, he said.

A former professional athlete said he had been importing “small amounts” of CBD oil to aid in his recovery from injuries since late 2018.

“I went in pretty sceptical at first but it’s done wonders for both my sleep and inflammation, and now it’s as easy as ordering clothes online,” he said.
READ MORE: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/cannabis-referendum/300136179/cannabis-referendum-cbd-oil-as-easy-to-buy-online-as-clothes-customer-says

The Guardian 20 October 2020
Our additional comment: DISTURBING. The real drugs agenda – revealed…..
“Cocaine, ecstasy and amphetamines should be “nationalised” and sold legally in government-run pharmacies to undermine global drug-related crime, a UK drugs reform charity has recommended. In a book – with a foreword written by the former prime minister of New Zealand Helen Clark….” ☹

Cocaine, ecstasy and amphetamines should be “nationalised” and sold legally in government-run pharmacies to undermine global drug-related crime, a UK drugs reform charity has recommended.

In a book – with a foreword written by the former prime minister of New Zealand Helen Clark – the drugs liberalisation campaign group Transform has sought to set out practical ways to sell the drugs in state-run special pharmacies as an alternative to what it calls the “unwinnable war against drugs”.

The book includes a mock-up of what a packet of legal, prescription cocaine would look like, including health warnings, which Transform said could be sold over the counter by specially trained chemists.

The book proposes that a specialist regulatory agency, overseen by the government, could license production of the drugs.

Only a single adult use dosage of the drugs would be available in unbranded pharma-style plain packaging with highly visible health warnings and risk information. The new regulatory agency would determine prices and there would be a ban on advertising the drugs.

The sale would be managed by a state monopoly to minimise profit incentives, which Transform said would only increase sales. Specialist new pharmacies would open under strict controls with vendors trained to offer health and risk-reduction advice to drug users.
READ MORE: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/oct/20/government-urged-to-sell-cocaine-and-ecstasy-in-pharmacies

Keep up with family issues in NZ.
Receive our weekly emails direct to your Inbox.

Forbes 2 October 2020
Our additional comment: Big Tobacco becomes Big Marijuana
“Altria has long acknowledged that tobacco consumption is declining and has sought to diversify its offerings. Experts contacted for this article say the patents show how Altria is considering a more direct play in the marijuana market..”

Tobacco giant Altria made a very public splash with its $1.8 billion investment in recreational cannabis in 2019. Since buying in, the company has been much more quietly trying to claim a long-term stake in the marijuana industry by patenting cannabis technology, public records show.

In late February of this year, Altria, the parent company of cigarette brands including Marlboro and Parliament, filed two patent applications for vaporizer devices specifically designed for cannabis, according to United States Patent and Trademark Office filings.

The company is also the current owner on two older vaporizer patents from the same inventor filed earlier and acquired through a sale, a company spokesman said. Those patents also specifically mention cannabis.

The Altria cannabis devices have temperature controls meant to allow consumers to vaporize THC or CBD. The two best-known cannabinoids in marijuana—both of which have specific medical applications, according to recent research—also have different release points.

Altria has long acknowledged that tobacco consumption is declining and has sought to diversify its offerings.
READ MORE: https://www.forbes.com/sites/chrisroberts/2020/10/02/tobacco-giant-altria-is-securing-technology-in-new-frontier-marijuana/#30e8dc214af9

Radio NZ News 16 October 2020
Family First Comment: Most of the respondents believed that legalising recreational cannabis will have a negative impact on vulnerable communities such as Māori and Pacific people in South Auckland.
• 72% (say it would have a negative impact) from a child and youth wellbeing viewpoint.
• 53% from a crime viewpoint.
• 46% from a health viewpoint.
• 44% from an economic viewpoint.
However, only 11% say that it will have a positive impact on the wellbeing of child and youth should recreational cannabis become legal.

A new survey reveals that Pasifika and Māori South Auckland voters oppose the two referendums in the upcoming general election.

My Truth Movement: General Election 2020 survey was conducted by The Cause Collective; a social change organisation focused on the wellbeing of Pacific people and South Auckland communities.

Most of the respondents believed that legalising recreational cannabis will have a negative impact on vulnerable communities such as Māori and Pacific people in South Auckland.

72% (say it would have a negative impact) from a child and youth wellbeing viewpoint.
53% from a crime viewpoint.
46% from a health viewpoint.
44% from an economic viewpoint.
However, only 11 percent say that it will have a positive impact on the wellbeing of child and youth should recreational cannabis become legal.
READ MORE: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/428479/south-auckland-maori-and-pasifika-oppose-both-referendums-poll-shows

Keep up with family issues in NZ.
Receive our weekly emails direct to your Inbox.