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 NORML News Autumn 2003
A column detailing political goings on.
Pot Politricks
The Police’s decision to dismiss the complaint laid against Nandor by New Zealand First MP Craig McNair effectively establishes an immunity for the Dread in the House, and in the interests of fairness that must be extended to everyone else.
McNair laid the complaint as a cheap political stunt but it failed to stick for two reasons. Police had no evidence of a definite time and place when Nandor had used cannabis, and more importantly, they recognised it was not in the public interest to prosecute Nandor because as a society we need to have an honest and open debate about cannabis without people fearing for their liberty.
This is commonsense from the police, which is a refreshing change. In 1992 police raided psychologist Les Gray after he appeared on television and fessed up to enjoying cannabis. That prosecution had two effects: it made Les even more dedicated to working for law reform, and it also silenced many of his peers who quite rightly feared for their jobs. Dismissing the complaint against Nandor should do a lot for reducing paranoia among the high rollers of our society. But what if McNair keeps laying more complaints in the hope the media will notice him again? He could try defending the pubic good from such pot-smoking heathens as Prime Minister Helen Clark, Health Minister Annette King, United Future leader Peter Dunne, who have all admitted to breaking the law. Where will it stop? Like Nandor, we should all be safe from prosecution so together as a society we can all discuss which law is best.
Congratulations to Nandor and Shani
on the birth of their baby girl. Nice.
We’re Number 1 for cannabis
The OECD ranked New Zealand number one in the world for cannabis use, again showing that cannabis has become normalised in this country. While anti-drug crusaders were quick to point to our very high suicide rate, as if the cannabis use caused that, they forgot to mention that the Netherlands did not feature in the suicide rate chart. More on that on page 20. With so many people now using cannabis, any “drug war” is really a war on our own people.
Prostitution reform bill
Observing the way different MPs have voted in this “conscience” vote - and the arguments they used - has been very interesting. The arguments in favour of reforming the sex industry are similar to the arguments in favour of repealing cannabis prohibition. But doesn’t all this hand-wringing seem a little absurd? Some MPs who would be expected to be liberal have been the reverse, while others, such as John Tamihere, have been remarkably candid. The Youth Affairs minister admitted to using the services of a sex worker, and the need to confess all his sins must have been too much as he added “Yes, I did inhale”.
The wild debates and flurry of conflicting amendments have shown, more than anything, that conscience votes are not likely to produce coherent or rational laws. The end result is often a sad reflection on their own lack of courage and confused principles.
It’s simple: we need your money.
A big thank you to the kind folk people who came to our financial rescue over the summer, however there is still a lot needed if we are to acheive our objectives, including reopening our offices in Wellington and Christchurch.
Last issue, we reported that Norml was facing a funding crisis. We are appealing for supporters to set up automatic payments of $5 or $10 per week. Our goal of 100 people donating $5 per week would be enough to reopen our offices and allow us to plan and budget with certainty. While there is lots of things we want to do, our activities are limited to what we can afford. Right now, we can’t afford to do anything except ask for help.
In response to our appeal, printed in 30,000 copies of Norml News, we had about twenty people set up payments, and half of these were already volunteering their time and energy to Norml to do things such as produce this magazine!
We operate on a shoestring budget. Please help Norml legalise cannabis by setting up a regular automatic payment with your bank. Our (correct) bank account is: 12-3057-0594667-00. Just put “donation” in the reference fields. This can be set up at your local branch, over the phone or using internet banking.
Norml’s New Website
Norml’s website has for may years won praise from our coverage of cannabis law reform in New Zealand, and now we have launched a new interactive and automated version of our website.
The new site, at the same address www.norml.org.nz, uses open-source “php” software that allows many exciting new interactive features, such as forums, polls, posting news stories, and visitors can, if they choose, registering as a user which give them added features such as private messaging and customising the layout.
A big thanks to Norml’s webmaster Dr Stuey for his dedication and inspiration in putting the site together. We’re also grateful to the kind people at the Media Awareness Project (mapinc.org) who are hosting the site and providing technical expertise.
Newshawk and Letter Writers Competition:
Norml has announced an online competition for the person who posts the most New Zealand drug-related news stories (“Newshawks”) to mapinc.org and also the person who gets the most pro-law reform letters published in New Zealand newspapers. See our website for full details.
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