 | Cannabis Inquiry: Cannabis Inquiry special report |
 THE HEALTH COMMITTEE HAS FINALLY RELEASED ITS REPORT INTO THE LEGAL STATUS OF CANNABIS, AND WHILE IT DOES NOT BACK PROHIBITION, AND DOES SUPPORT MEDICINAL CANNABIS, THE MAIN RECOMMENDATION IS FOR YET ANOTHER INQUIRY. IT WOULD BE REASONABLE TO ASK THAT AFTER THREE YEARS, 2500 SUBMISSIONS, AND MORE THAN EIGHTY THOUSAND ARRESTS,
IS THIS ALL WE GET?
BY CHRIS FOWLIE
NORML News Winter 2003
Although the Committee has not gone far enough in its recommendations, the findings confirm the case for law reform.
The committee went looking for evidence to justify harsh measures on cannabis - but couldn't find any.
The report confirms that the moderate use of cannabis by adults is a low health risk, and backs Norml's harm minimisation philosophy. It highlights the problems of many current school-based drug education programmes, and criticises the punitive approach to cannabis taken by many schools.
The inquiry has called for the government to allow the prescription of medicinal cannabis, which could ease the suffering of thousands of New Zealanders with serious conditions and begin to set right one of the worst injustices of our prohibition laws - prosecuting sick people for taking their preferred medicine.
It is significant that the report does not recommend not changing the law, as many expected it would following Labour's agreement with United Future.
Instead, they set out plenty of evidence that cannabis prohibition is a harmful policy to society and individuals.
The aim of the law, said the report, should be focused on reducing use by young people, and the criminalisation of adult users should be avoided.
It confirms that law reform overseas has not been associated with increased use.
The report agrees that the law on cannabis is being applied unfairly, unjustly and unreasonably. There is an admission that the current law does not prevent underage use, and creates significant problems of its own, including a link with hard drugs. It is encouraging to see some recognition of the problems of prohibition.
The report means that once again, a full official inquiry has investigated cannabis and found that, on the evidence, cannabis prohibition cannot be justified.
Mindful of the supply agreement with United Future, the report recommends a series of initiatives to progress reform. These include wider use of police cautions and diversions, allowing the medical use of marijuana, the reclassification of cannabis by the Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs, and recommendations for the Justice and Electoral Committee to investigate police searches and determine the best legal status for cannabis.
While we're encouraged that another inquiry will keep the issue alive, we're also concerned how long this could take., and we said three years ago that the Justice and Electoral Committee was the right place to review the legal status of cannabis.
To their credit, the health committee has admitted the legal status is not their area of expertise. They have basically given cannabis a tick while rejecting many of the claims of prohibitionists. The report presents the case for change on the public record, and is therefore a tool which we can use to make significant progress.
 Recommendations of the report
Extracts from the report
Quotes from Politicians
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| key points: |
- aim of law should be preventing use by young people
- no support for prohibition
- supports ways to reduce the criminalisation of adult users
- supports medical marijuana
- more use of diversion
- no agreement on legal status
- expert committee to advise
- yet another inquiry called for...
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| Cannabis Arrests |
88,039
- estimated number of people arrested for cannabis offences since Labour became the Government in 1999 (to August 2003. see our "Cannabis Arrest-o-meter" for the latest figure)
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