 | NORML News: Eye on parliament |
 Elderly pot users condemned by Police Minister;
Norml News tabled by Minister of Justice
NORML got some runs in parliament recently with Nandor Tanzcos leading the charge. Despite heavy interjecting from prohibitionist MPs, Mr Tanczos danced rings around Minister of Police George Hawkins at question time recently, attacking him on the issue of elderly cannabis users being targeted by police. BY JONATHAN RENNIE, NORML News Winter 2004.
Hawkins' muddled thinking was exposed when Tanzcos questioned him about the 19 people over 60 convicted for cannabis last year and whether their use was medicinal. Hawkins boasted that he was always pleased when law breakers were caught.
Nandor also sought confirmation that 300,000 police hours are spent annually investigating cannabis instead of other more serious crimes. Hawkins was proud to reply that cannabis is an outlawed drug in New Zealand, and police enforce it very heavily. Mr Hawkins did point out that the number of operational hours spent by police in New Zealand on cannabis offences has dropped in recent years, with a tremendous result of 19 percent fewer people being arrested for cannabis than when Labour came to power.
While the reduction in arrests is to be applauded, New Zealand still has the world's highest arrest rate for cannabis. Earlier, in May, United Future's Judy Turner elicited further confirmation from Justice Minister Phil Goff that the present Government will not stop arresting cannabis users. In the process of humouring the Government's moral minders, Goff tabled the Autumn 2004 issue of NORML News as part of an attack on Don Brash for not committing to a prohibitionist stance. Although we are glad to see the Minister of Justice reading NORML News, it is disappointing to see him practising such divisive politics when he is known to privately support decriminalising cannabis. Shame.
Pot-suicide myth, againOld disproven accusations of cannabis causing suicide came up in Parliament's question time, with drug czar Jim Anderton grunting his agreement despite the research at his fingerprints refuting this.
It began with Wellington coroner Garry Evans criticising cannabis decriminalisation because some suicide victims had cannabis in their systems.
But as David Currie of the Drug Policy and Education Council (DPEC) pointed out, the "coroner mentioned only two cases with this connection, one happened over a year ago and the other almost three years ago. This is not good statistics."
The claims prompted Merryn Statham from Suicide Prevention Information New Zealand to issue a press release saying it is over the top to say that cannabis can be a cause of suicide.
The Canterbury Youth Suicide Project told the 1998 inquiry that when factors such as socio-economic status, abuse, behavioural problems, remote parents and mental health problems were taken into account, there was no significant association between cannabis and suicide. The Netherlands, where cannabis is openly sold and tolerated, has a suicide rate one fifth that of ours.
NORML believe that those who do have problems related to their cannabis use would be better helped by doctors than police. NZ Research shows the biggest barrier to seeking help is the law.
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