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There’s no shortage of slang for this drug, but it’s a drug not often talked about. When it is, evidence is often discarded in lieu of myth, misconception and polarized positions.
We’re talking about cannabis, New Zealand’s favourite (illicit) drug. About half of us have tried it, and one in eight uses it regularly. But for all its popularity, cannabis receives scant attention from politicians, policy makers and the media. Instead, rightly or wrongly, we’ve invested much of our attention, resources and headlines into methamphetamine and the party pill phenomenon.
It has been hugely frustrating watching hours of politicians’ time spent debating, making laws, remaking laws, promulgating regulations and ignoring regulations for party pills. Hours have been spent by officials servicing ministers and MPs all het up about these pills, and this organisation has spent hours on policy analysis, health promotion and media advocacy on party pills. Then there’s the wads of money invested in party pill research, and so on.
To put it bluntly, party pills are undeserving of so much attention, and cannabis remains largely forgotten or ignored by this 48th Parliament.
The last time Parliament touched the issue was the Health Committee inquiry into the public health strategies related to cannabis use and its most appropriate legal status. The inquiry began in 2000, but was delayed by an election. Once the new committee carried over the inquiry and reported back in 2003, the coalition agreement between the Government and United Future meant that no change could be made to the legal status of cannabis, and little action was taken on other key recommendations.
It’s time law makers remembered this popular drug and started talking about it. Ignoring it doesn’t make the harm go away. It’s also time the addiction treatment, public health and drug policy sectors and wider public talk about cannabis again.
We aim to start this national conversation by inviting leading drug policy researchers, advocates and commentators to write about cannabis law and policy.
While legal status gets the most attention in public and political discussions, the conversation needs to be about much more than that. Future essays will address drugs in schools, addiction treatment services, youth health and health promotion, and the role of the media in advancing policy discussions.
Ross speaking on behalf of many of the medpot advocates and users the efforts of the NZDF and yourself in particular are greatly appreciated.
Years of frustration and at times victimization has driven those who should be most vocal at this time into hiding.
Of the hundreds of contactable medical cannabis users we approached to support a NORML petition on medpot very few would come forward.
Some have resistance to NORML or GREEN PARTY initiatives and were stubborn in this regard.. But for the most it was a complete distrust of the system if they exposed themselves.My personal efforts are annon for this very reason.
I am sure given a neutral and safe site to share I am sure many could be encouraged to offer personal stories.. But even perhaps more useful would be a safe forum for medical specialists to share , this could offer up some rather interesting outcomes.. They currently have no real interactive resourse .
Maybe this is a direction the NZDF could encourage as well .I understand the intent of the one just put in place may cover these aspects .. but I was thinking of going more specific.
Joined: Dec 05, 2006 Posts: 82 Location: New Zealand
Med pot part of the debate too Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007 9:48 am
Hi Tony
Thanks for your feedback.
In addition to the essays we're publishing today (around midday - slight technical difficulties with the site at the moment!), I'll also publish our earlier story on med pot, plus the profile on Billy.
That might prompt more med pot users to post their experiences.
I too would like to extend my thanks to you Ross, it's refreshing to have someone in your position talk about drugs without prejudice or hostility.
That said, I was a little perturbed to read the following article: http://www.drugfoundation.org.nz/lets-talk-about-pot-MichaelBird. A comment by NORML gives one account of the problem with it: "... by featuring a cliché-ridden anecdotal story from someone formerly dependent on cannabis, the Drug Foundation was not reflecting the typical experience of most cannabis users." Furthermore, I wonder how much of this person's experience was influence by the way he was treated, rather that the direct effect of cannabis. It's all too easy to just blame cannabis; society likes it when you do that
Note!!! the main message is , forget the medical/ scientific evidence , play to the voter .Even using the suspect NZ research .
This is and will be a huge set back to CLR and will have repercussions down here.Jim is spreading the word that any discussion in NZ need be left till the UK situation is sorted. he knows full well it is getting pushed in this direction.
tony
UK: Cannabis Clampdown
Francis Elliott and Richard Ford
the Times
Wednesday 09 Jan 2008
---
Cannabis is to be reclassified as a Class B drug after an official
review this spring, The Times has learnt.
Gordon Brown and Jacqui Smith are determined to reverse the decision to
downgrade the drug when the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs
completes its report in the next few months.
While its recommendations are not yet known, ministers are already
making plain that the Home Secretary is prepared to overrule the expert
body if necessary.
Reclassifying cannabis as a Class B drug will mean that anyone found in
possession of the substance could face a five-year jail term and an
unlimited fine rather than a police warning and confiscation of the
drug. The penalty for supplying would remain the same, at a maximum 14
years in jail and unlimited fines.
Related Links
The advisory council, which rejected a previous attempt to reclassify
cannabis in 2006, has been told to take into account public attitudes to
cannabis as well as the medical evidence of its harm in reaching its
conclusion.
Ms Smith wants the council to acknowledge the signal that the
reclassification of cannabis from Class B to Class C in 2004 sent to the
public, including the perception that the drug was harmless and even legal.
“The sentiment from No 10 and the Home Office is very much towards
reclassification. It has to be as much about the message that is being
sent out as much as anything else,” a senior Whitehall figure has told
The Times. The growth of super-strength “skunk”, herbal cannabis that is
grown under lights, often by organised criminal gangs, is strengthening
ministers’ resolve to restore its Class B status.
New evidence on the harm to mental health that smoking stronger forms of
cannabis can cause helped to prompt the latest review of the law last
autumn.
In her letter to Professor Sir Michael Rawlins, the chairman of the
council, requesting a further review of evidence, Ms Smith said: “Though
statistics show that cannabis use has fallen significantly, there is
really public concern about the potential mental health effects of
cannabis use, in particular the use of stronger forms of the drug,
commonly known as skunk. This is in addition to the longitudinal studies
undertaken in New Zealand and the Netherlands that link cannabis use to
mental health problems.”
Suggestions that only the most potent forms of cannabis be reclassified
are rejected as impractical. Instead offenders may be allowed to use
evidence showing they were caught with milder forms of the drug in
mitigation, Home Office insiders contend.
Shortly after becoming Prime Minister Mr Brown signalled his desire to
reverse David Blunkett’s 2001 decision to reduce cannabis to a Class C
drug that came into effect three years later.
“It is the message you send out. Why I want to upgrade cannabis and make
it more a drug that people worry about is that we don’t want to send out
a message, just like with alcohol, to teenagers that we accept these
things.”
The council makes recommendations to the Government on the control of
dangerous or otherwise harmful drugs, including classification and
scheduling under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. Its last review in came
down against tightening up the penalties for using cannabis, saying
there was too little information about the pattern of use of different
strength cannabis products by users to change the law.
The council has recently been highly criticial of parts of the
Government’s consultation paper on the future of its drug strategy. “It
is disappointing that the paper makes no mention of needing to improve
the evidence base of drug misuse and treatments nor makes use of
international evidence, for informing and guiding policy,” the council said.
The unpublished results of authoritative research into cannabis confirm
the “skunk” now on sale in England is stronger than it was a decade ago,
but demolish claims that a new “super-strength skunk”, which is 20 times
more powerful, is dominating the market.
The two studies due to be published this year, which together analysed
nearly 550 samples of skunk seized by the police, both conclude that the
average content of the main psychoactive agent in skunk strains of
cannabis, THC, has doubled from 7 per cent in 1995 to 14 per cent in 2005.
Another dilemma for the Government in defending a decision to press
ahead with reclassification is that the latest figures from the British
Crime Survey suggest a long-term fall in cannabis use. Figures from the
2006-07 British Crime Survey estimate that 20.9 per cent of 16 to
24-year-olds used cannabis in the last year. However, there has been a
decrease between 1998 and 2006-07 among 16 to 59-year-olds in the use of
cannabis from 10.3 per cent to 8.2 per cent.
Strong smokes
Afghan cannabis Afghan has a strong acrid aroma. The smoke is heavy with
a strong, almost numbing, buzz
Dutch dragon The aroma is very citrus and sweet, like tangerines, as is
the taste. The buzz is a lasting, clear high that allegedly increases an
appetite for music and pleasure
Herbal cannabis This is produced by drying the leaves and flowering buds
of the cannabis plant. It is smoked, usually with tobacco, in a spliff
or joint, or in a range of pipes
Skunk A very potent variant of herbal cannabis, both in its
mind-altering effects and its aroma. Skunk contain more
tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive agent in cannabis
On the subject of medpot users and lack of public exposure , its seems the ministry of health as well might be keen to underestimate the potential and are complicit in a cover up.
The minister implies only a couple of people have currently applied for Sativex and prior to this only a dozen or so applications for cannabis.
The real figures for people ,( both patients and doctors) making approaches to the Minister by way of applications for medpot , only to be frustrated by the impossible hurdles and unable to comply fully , withdraw .. to me these are legit applicants and should be acknowledged . But it is only those that have carried on and finally get rejected after a long hard road that they note.. very very few.
Trouble is they have no figures (or so they say for uncomplete applications that were withdrawn.. like mine and many others i know of.
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