NewsHub 15 October 2020
Our additional comment: The hidden advice says “there would almost certainly be unintended and unanticipated consequences of legalising cannabis for personal use”, and says “there is insufficient data to understand the medium- to long-term impacts” of legalisation. More than 1.5 million early votes had already been cast. So for those who have already voted in the cannabis referendum, they’ve done so without all the information – because the Government didn’t want to release this report. ☹

Just days out from votes from the cannabis referendum being counted, Justice Minister Andrew Little has dropped a bombshell by claiming weed prohibition has failed in New Zealand.

It comes as yet another cannabis report the Government didn’t want you to see is revealed by Newshub, following the release of a pair of eye-opening Business and Economic Research Ltd (BERL) reports last month.

After going to the Ombudsman, more of the research behind the proposed Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill Kiwis are voting on in the referendum has been released.

“The cannabis legalisation camp never seem to want to admit that cannabis use was going to go up,” health expert and Massey University Professor Chris Wilkins said.

“But it seemed to me pretty common sense that once you legalised you had retail outlets and you had normalisation that you were going to get some increase in cannabis use.”

The report also shows the price of cannabis has remained unchanged for decades – a tinny will still cost you $20, and an ounce $350.

But it could get cheaper.

“The price of legal cannabis in most jurisdictions has plunged by about 50 percent or more,” Prof Wilkins said.

In this impact assessment, the Government admits the supply and demand for cannabis is unlikely to change significantly unless there is a change in approach.

But it also outlines “there would almost certainly be unintended and unanticipated consequences of legalising cannabis for personal use”, and says “there is insufficient data to understand the medium- to long-term impacts” of legalisation.

The Justice Minister is not worried.

“Really the question is, can we expect to do better if we both legalise and control cannabis in our communities? At the moment it’s there, and it’s out of control.”

More than 1.5 million early votes had already been cast. So for those who have already voted in the cannabis referendum, they’ve done so without all the information – because the Government didn’t want to release this report.
READ MORE: https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/10/cannabis-referendum-justice-minister-says-prohibition-has-failed-as-new-report-reveals-scale-of-use-in-new-zealand.html

Stuff co.nz 15 October 2020
Our additional comment: Nice 🙂
“Both referendum questions have been a regular feature… He and other pastors at the church have been speaking about the “risks” they believe passing the referendums pose and what they believed the Bible had to say about each. The church also produced videos about the End of Life Choice Bill and handed out Family First pamphlets opposing both referendums at services.”
Valueyourvote.nz

With the election only days away, South Auckland’s church-going voters could a have a big say in the outcome of the two referendums.

Close to three quarters of respondents to a survey of Māori and Pasifika voters in south Auckland said they opposed the End of Life Choice Act, half of those citing religious reasons.

The survey, carried out by community group The Cause Collective, also found 71 percent of those surveyed thought the legalisation of cannabis would have a negative effect on their community.

Electorates with large Pasifika communities often have some of the lowest turnouts on election day. At the last election, the electorates of Māngere, Manurewa and Manukau East combined, had more than 46,000 registered voters who did not turn up to the polls.

But with two thirds of all Polynesian people identifying as Christian at the 2018 census, many of those missing voters are also turning up to church on Sundays – a fact that hasn’t been missed by church leaders.
READ MORE: https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/300120825/churchgoing-south-auckland-voters-could-help-sway-referendums

NZ Herald 14 October 2020
Aaron Ironside gives us his thoughts on the Cannabis, Legislation and Control Referendum. Aaron is spokesman for Say Nope to Dope.

Interview starts at 50’48”
LISTEN ON : https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/leighton-smith-podcast-us-election-and-cannabis-referendum/OJMZ3ZJKMN36NVFHGKD4JZJXL4/

Radio NZ News 15 October 2020
Our additional comment: These sorts of stories cause serious concern for Aaron Ironside, who leads the Say Nope to Dope campaign opposing legalisation. He does not think an age limit on purchase will stop kids from trying it, as is the case with current alcohol laws. Ironside said when the brain is developing, you do not want to be using substances that could impact on that development. “The risk of psychosis, the risk of cannabis use disorder, is four times higher for adolescent use, but also it’s in the flow-on effects of poor educational outcomes which in turn lead to poor employment outcomes.”

Anti-cannabis campaigners say the minimum age of 20 to use and purchase weed wouldn’t stop young people from feeling the harm of legalisation.

Marijuana can halt motivation for young people, leading to them dropping out of school and stunting their development, and it can cause mental health issues like psychosis.

But those issues are already happening in New Zealand, and international examples show Canada’s youth usage rates dropped after legalisation.

Diana Ranger has seen the worst of cannabis use in young people.

Her nephew was forced to take the drug by a gang when he was 10, and she said he suffered from psychosis as a result.

“He was going in and out sanity and insanity, and he bit me right through the arm,” Ranger said. “I didn’t know a human could break the skin and leave actual bite marks.

“Then he’d recover, and he’d lose his mind again. He’d shove his fist right through windows.

“It took all night with the help of one of my sons to recover.”

Ranger said that happened 40 years ago, and the man is still feeling the effects today.

These sorts of stories cause serious concern for Aaron Ironside, who leads the Say Nope to Dope campaign opposing legalisation.

He does not think an age limit on purchase will stop kids from trying it, as is the case with current alcohol laws.

Ironside said when the brain is developing, you do not want to be using substances that could impact on that development.

“The risk of psychosis, the risk of cannabis use disorder, is four times higher for adolescent use, but also it’s in the flow-on effects of poor educational outcomes which in turn lead to poor employment outcomes.”

Ironside said he is also concerned about the second-hand impact of smoking cannabis.

“We’re very concerned to read this study that suggested up to 50 percent of the children, in this particular study, where they were inhaling second-hand cannabis smoke, had THC in their urine,” Ironside said.

“We’ve heard from many teachers who can give first hand accounts of the children who come from homes where cannabis is being used, that the children are clearly affected, clearly unable to engage in a days schooling in the same way that their classmates are able to.”

That study included 83 children, and was conducted in Colorado.

Ironside also pointed to a study which showed children exposed to second-hand cannabis smoke may be 80 percent more likely to suffer adverse outcomes.

That study, conducted in California, included 29 children who had been exposed to cannabis.
READ MORE: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/428371/cannabis-age-limit-won-t-reduce-harm-in-young-people-campaigners-say

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I was born in to a middle class working family in the suburbs of Vancouver,BC, Canada.

My teenage years were in the mid 90s. I started smoking dope habitually at the age of 14,  with consumption increasing to ounces per week. Most definitely myself and the kids I hung out with were addicted to getting high.  Weed, booze, harder drugs nothing was off limits. The liberal minded could be label it as harmless “partying” or “just being young” but when you binge every weekend or get high every day there is no doubt you are an addict and it will affect the trajectory of your life.

I’ve lived through the years of Canadian politicians lobbying to decriminalise and legalise marijuana.

I’ve heard all the same lies I’m hearing the parties involved here speak now.

From experience and having seen the outcomes of the legalisation of marijuana my views are the following.

• Legalising marijuana most definitely will not make a dent in the black market, people will buy from the cheapest supply and the black market will undercut the legalised market in a way where gov’t weed can’t be grown or sold cheap enough. The black market still thrives and sells weed in Vancouver.
• The taxes the gov’t makes from selling weed will not all go in to addiction recovery and social programs to combat drug addiction and the problems caused by legalisation.  Does all of our tax we pay for fuel and RUCS go back in to roading the transport infrastructure they tell us it does? NO, and its a big lie if they say it does.
• The legalisation or decriminalisation of marijuana removes any fear of prosecution and police resources will more often than not not be used to enforce bylaws like no smoking in public.  Once the fear of prosecution is removed you’ll see parks filled with young people blatantly smoking weed, or adults/young people smoking wherever and whenever they feel like it because they know 9 out of 10 times there will be no resource to enforce the law or if there is there will be no criminal action.

It took me close to 15 years to break out of the dysfunction of constant substance abuse and get my life back on track.

Why do we need to legalise weed, which more often than not is used to mask the problems of serious dysfunction?   Wouldn’t it be wiser to go further upstream and tackle the issues causing these dysfunctions than to say lets legalise the drug so these people can medicate themselves of their problems?

I used to work about a block away from Vancouver’s first “safe injection site”  which was a taxpayer funded place people could go and shoot heroin and hard drugs.  What we heard for years and years from politicians is that it would help clean up the neighbourhood and go a long way in reducing the number of addicts.  I would walk through hundreds of “zombies” every day and the numbers never decreased, the increased.

Again isn’t money going to tackle the problems further upstream that are causing these problems?

In 2010 when the Winter Olympics came to town, they took all of those “zombies” and bought them bus tickets out of town and out of province so surprise, surprise when the world showed up the neighbourhood was nice and clean.

I’ve lived through and seen the destruction caused by the lies and hopefully my experience will help influence someone to vote NO in this upcoming referendum.

(Name withheld by request)

READ MORE: saynopetodope.org.nz/canada/

NewsRoom 14 October 2020
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/ideasroom/cannabis-referendum-misses-the-point
David Menkes is alarmed at how the current debate has scarcely mentioned cannabis-induced psychosis. He explains why.

We note this comment:
As frontline hospital doctors, my colleagues and I are alarmed at how the current debate scarcely mentions cannabis-induced psychosis. This is a prevalent and serious clinical problem, unmissable in acute psychiatric wards around the country, and doubly worrying because of the profound and sometimes irreversible social and occupational disability that can result.

Otago Daily Times 14 October 2020
Our additional comment: Robert Hamlin is a senior lecturer in the department of marketing at the University of Otago.
“It can be argued that the impact of the proposed legislation on business behaviour will lead to considerably increased consumption of both cannabis and other illegal drugs, plus a significant increase in enforcement expense. Given this, I personally won’t be voting for it.”

Most comment about the cannabis legalisation referendum has come from a social and public health point of view. However, as the proposed legislation aims to legalise pretty much everything about the cannabis business except the commercial marketing of it, a commentary on its likely outcomes based on a commercial and marketing perspective might be timely.

When the proposed legislation is looked at through the lens of a business analyst, there is considerable scope for concern about what the consequences of its introduction would be for the public good.

These concerns can be broadly separated into two groups: those that stem from the behaviour of the industry’s current extralegal incumbents, and those that stem from the behaviour of new entrants into a legalised industry.

There appears to be a rather naive expectation that the current industry will just “go away” if this Act passes into law. Marketing theory does indicate that the illegal cannabis industry itself may well do this over a period of time, as the distribution of illegal goods requires a pyramidal sales network based on a large number of individuals that is both very labour intensive and usually well remunerated due to the personal risks involved.

The legal industry will have structurally lower costs, and should be able to undercut the high prices that are required to sustain the illegal network as a viable business.
READ MORE: https://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/cannabis-legislation-raises-public-good-concerns

The SpinOff 14 October 2020
Our additional comment: Just as those who are being treated in the healthcare system have the right to give informed consent, those who are voting in the referendum are entitled to be informed of the link between cannabis and schizophrenia.

For many, a quick flick through these brochures could be the extent of their research on the proposed changes to cannabis law; others may have delved further into the pros and cons of legalisation on sites such as The Spinoff. Still, no matter how much attention a voter has paid to the issue, it’s likely they’ve seen no mention at all of one incredibly important factor: the link between cannabis and schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a form of psychotic illness which affects the way we think. It is characterised by a loss or re-interpretation of reality through delusions, hallucinations, and other bizarre thinking. Episodes of the illness are referred to as psychosis. Research shows a significant connection between schizophrenia and Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the chemical component responsible for cannabis’s psychological effects. This form of schizophrenia is also known as cannabis-induced psychosis.

According to Robin Murray, professor of psychiatric research at the Institute of Psychiatry at London’s Kings College, the risk of schizophrenia increases with the potency of the cannabis used: “if the risk of schizophrenia for the general population is about 1%, the evidence is that, if you take ordinary cannabis, it is 2%; if you smoke regularly you might push it up to 4%; and if you smoke ‘skunk’ (high-strength cannabis) every day you push it up to 8%”.

Auckland University psychiatry professor Graham Mellsop has further found that the proportion of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia is significantly higher in instances of prolonged illicit substance abuse than in prolonged alcohol abuse.

So why are the links between cannabis and schizophrenia not a greater talking point in this referendum?
READ MORE: https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/14-10-2020/cannabis-can-cause-schizophrenia-why-isnt-that-part-of-the-legalisation-debate/

Tearaway 12 October 2020
Family First Comment: The voice of NZ youth!! So many good points…
• A late-2019 University of Pennsylvania report, entitled “Marijuana Legalisation in the United States: A Social Injustice,” points to how cannabis legalisation is disproportionately affecting minority communities.
• Considering the recent Black Lives Matter movement and the push to increase social justice, legalising cannabis could be a major step backwards in our strive for equality.
• It is common knowledge that cannabis use can be particularly harmful to young people, but it is an urban myth that legalisation will reduce this harm.
• The argument against cannabis legalisation is not one based on morals, but evidence. Sound research is staring us straight in the face and our country needs to pay attention. If we fail to recognise the adverse effects legalising cannabis undeniably brings, we are in danger of falling into a situation that we cannot get out of.

It’s a big political year for New Zealand. Along with October’s general election, Kiwis will be having their say on the Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill referendum. For young New Zealanders who’ll be voting for the first time, this is a lot to think about.

There are plenty of reasons why cannabis legalisation can be a good thing: thousands of dollars are wasted each year convicting those on minor cannabis charges, and creating a regulated cannabis industry may just give our economy the boost it needs post-Covid. However, the negatives of cannabis legalisation cannot be ignored, and overseas research is showing that legalisation may cause more harm.

One of the supposed benefits of legalisation is reducing social injustice, but recent studies have shown that this is not the case. A late-2019 University of Pennsylvania report, entitled “Marijuana Legalisation in the United States: A Social Injustice,” points to how cannabis legalisation is disproportionately affecting minority communities. In the two years immediately following Washington D.C.’s 2015 move to legalise weed, distribution and public consumptions arrests relating to cannabis nearly quadrupled. Among these arrestees, 84.8% were African American. Like Big Tobacco and liquor stores, the cannabis industry targets lower socio-economic groups as its main profit base; in Denver, Colorado, which was also included in this study, businesses selling cannabis were largely located in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Higher crime rates follow areas in which cannabis stores are located, and the ownership of these stores do not mirror the communities they are based in – as little as 2% of cannabis businesses nationwide are owned by minority groups. New Zealand needs to take note of these warnings. Considering the recent Black Lives Matter movement and the push to increase social justice, legalising cannabis could be a major step backwards in our strive for equality.

The harm that legalising recreational cannabis can cause does not end with increased social injustice. A 2016 study by the ‘Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area‘ shows that the consequences are numerous, and particularly with cannabis-related road accidents. New Zealand already has shocking drug-driving rates: studies have pointed out that as many as one in three drivers involved in serious and fatal crashes were under the influence of drugs, namely cannabis. These statistics are sure to increase with legalisation, as seen in Colorado, where cannabis-related road deaths increased 62% after legalisation. Considering our country’s desperate attempts to reduce drug driving – just last year, the New Zealand Transport Agency launched its “Unsaid” campaign to raise awareness of the issue – pushing the legalisation of a mind-altering drug is a slap in the face to these efforts.
READ MORE: https://tearaway.co.nz/opinion-legal-highs-a-social-low/