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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Stuff co.nz 10 July 2020
Our additional comment: So many good points in this excellent op-Ed. Including …
“ The gang-controlled black market for cannabis will still be thriving and in operation (contrary to what many would like you to believe) for teenagers to purchase drugs, which they’ll see as a very normal substance. Not only that, but when cannabis is legally grown in your neighbour’s backyard, there is no way to stop youth or anyone else for that matter, from taking it. As well as selling cannabis for cheaper prices because of no taxes, the black market will also host a much larger range of drugs to use after the gateway drug of cannabis. Police will also find it much harder to distinguish legally and illegally (gang) grown cannabis plants and shut down gang operations.”

OPINION: We are all familiar with the Government’s “Smokefree 2025” goals. On one hand, we’re saying it’s not good to smoke tobacco, and on the other, we’re saying that smoking cannabis is fine.

Children will be prohibited from purchasing cannabis if it becomes legalised in the 2020 referendum as you probably know, but most teenagers get their hands on alcohol and tobacco from friends and family, not retailers, so nothing is going to stop the same happening with cannabis.

The gang-controlled black market for cannabis will still be thriving and in operation (contrary to what many would like you to believe) for teenagers to purchase drugs, which they’ll see as a very normal substance. Not only that, but when cannabis is legally grown in your neighbour’s backyard, there is no way to stop youth or anyone else for that matter, from taking it.

As well as selling cannabis for cheaper prices because of no taxes, the black market will also host a much larger range of drugs to use after the gateway drug of cannabis. Police will also find it much harder to distinguish legally and illegally (gang) grown cannabis plants and shut down gang operations.

Many people liken cannabis to tobacco cigarettes and claim cannabis is less harmful and addictive. However, the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand concluded that long-term cannabis usage increases the risk of lung cancer.

NewsTalk ZB 8 July 2020
Our additional comment: Another Mike on Newstalk ZB (Mike Yardley this time) nails it….
“We already have an addiction-fueled mental health crisis in this country, much of which can be sheeted home to recreational cannabis abuse and psychosis. Why risk aggravating that problem even more, by normalising and legitimising dope, by surrendering on the law?”

I have a major beef with this mealy-mouthed suggestion from the Chief Science Advisor’s panel that it’s still uncertain whether legalising dope increases harm.

We already have an addiction-fueled mental health crisis in this country, much of which can be sheeted home to recreational cannabis abuse and psychosis. Why risk aggravating that problem even more, by normalising and legitimising dope, by surrendering on the law? There are so many unintended consequences, which I don’t believe this panel has fully considered.

Let me give you an example of the elevated threat of real harm to you and me. Drug-driving.

Last week the Road Transport Forum made their views very clear about the higher risks on our roads if recreational cannabis use is legalised. It raises the stakes on risk.

And bear in mind, the number of people being killed by drug impaired drivers on our roads is already higher than those killed by drivers above the legal alcohol limit. Do we want to ratchet that up?

Here’s some stats from various North American jurisdictions that legalised dope.

Post-legalisation in Colorado, cannabis-related roads deaths increased 151%. In Washington State, they doubled. A quarter of Canadians aged 18-34 who smoke dope admit to driving after consuming, or have been a passenger with someone who just has. Idiots.

In a 2018 Colorado State study, 27% of cannabis users admitted to driving high almost daily. And a New Zealand health study found that habitual users of cannabis have about 10 times the risk of causing a road injury or death compared to infrequent or non-users.

Ding ding. I hear alarm bells.
READ MORE: https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mike-yardley-cannabis-uncertainty-is-a-cop-out/

NZ Herald 7 July 2020
Family First Comment: “Legalising cannabis has the potential to
* counter systemic racism
* see more treatment services
* lift poor communities embroiled in black market”

Yeah – but you don’t need to legalise a harmful addicted drug to tackle those issues. That’s a totally separate issue.
“We’re pretty sure of the situation at the moment. We’re much less sure of what will happen if we legalise it,” – Dr Gerrard

Legalising cannabis has the potential to counter systemic racism, see more treatment services and lift poor communities that have become embroiled in the black market, the chief science adviser to the Prime Minister says.

But Dr Juliet Gerrard says whether that would come to pass if the country voted to legalise recreational cannabis is unknown.

“We’re pretty sure of the situation at the moment. We’re much less sure of what will happen if we legalise it,” Gerrard told the Herald.

Gerrard has led an expert panel of academics, researchers and health and social experts – co-chaired by Auckland University Professor Tracey McIntosh – in gathering information to inform the debate in the lead up to September’s vote.

The panel’s work, peer-reviewed internationally and nationally, is going live at 11am today and contains a wealth of information.

Gerrard said the panel didn’t make any recommendations or take a position on the Cannabis Legislation and Control Bill, which would set up the regulatory framework.

It compared the proposed legal framework to the status quo, looked at what has happened overseas, and dived into the health risks, including who is most at risk: users who start young, use frequently and use potent products.
READ MORE: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12346050