Friendly warning and disclaimer: These forums are provided for the thousands victims of prohibition who form the pot community of Aotearoa for discussion of marijuana-related issues. NORML reserve the right to delete off-topic posts. The views expressed in any forum are solely those of the contributor and not necessarily approved or endorsed by NORML New Zealand Inc.
Lawlessness has become a way of life in NZ. In particular, a hard-core group of New Zealanders have become desensitised from the real life consequences of their own shocking behaviour. There is murder and violence, disrespect and vandalism constantly in the news, on our streets, and in our homes.
Both National and Labour are using superficial vote-catching approaches for tackling youth crime and social problems. They miss the point by focusing on symptoms rather than causes.
Television violence, poverty, neglectful or just plain bad parenting, as well as educational failure and the 1991 Budget have all played a part in reinforcing alienation and lack of direction. But the ALCP say that a certain bad law has thoroughly done that too, and bad laws breed widespread disrespect.
Possession of cannabis should no longer be a crime. The ALCP is adamant that the most hypocritical and deficient law on our statute books - and the one with the greatest influence on youth alienation - is cannabis prohibition. According to the NZ Drug Foundation one in eight surveyed Kiwis is a cannabis 'criminal.' Amongst youth, the numbers experimenting has been found to be as great as 8 out of every 10 (Chch Health and Development study, Fergusson et al).
Feeding us all a law which is an ass (eg. alongside alcohol and tobacco) compels our most at-risk youth to deny any respect for civil society or family values. Authorities need to stop perpetrating this lie, particularly on all our young people, if we truly desire from them positive commitment, participation and contributions to this country. Reform of one law will substantially help regain the respect and restore the credibility of NZ leadership.
The ALCP say enable genuine 'capacity building' for New Zealand communities. People should be credited with possessing the intelligence to decide for themselves. While politicians have little regard for ensuring all laws work fairly, credibly and respectfully, its hard to understand why they expect people - especially youth - to have any respect for their authority.
ENDS
Kevin O'Connell, ALCP president 027 265 7064
The UN drug policy consultation in Wellington this week will be a big fat expert blowhard session say the ALCP, see http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE0802/S00059.htm. Notably it is expected rational observations - eg. that an ongoing cannabis ban is damaging, wrong, and in particular is counterproductive (it opened the gateway for NZ methamphetamine networks) - will be suppressed.
ALCP has little faith that the urgent stalled debate on cannabis will be brought out into the open. This was highlighted by the NZ Drug Foundation effort to promote debate last year, that went unheeded by both politicians and media.
This conference is all about confirming contacts and contracts first, with public good a very poor second. The UN and their band of grifters will ignore the elephant in the corner. By tackling only illicit drugs, minus any context with alcohol and tobacco, or rampant cannabis and BZP and other substance popularity, they will merely reinforce a dangerously unhealthy context of double standards.
Doubtless the failure of cannabis illegality may come up in the discussion but it will ultimately be omitted from the final report. This has happened many times before, eg. our National Drug Policy, and select committee Cannabis Law review.
The vast majority of normal pot-using Kiwis (an estimated half-million, based on the NZDF figure of 1 in 8 prevalence ) would be completely mystified at the concept of Drug Treatment Services for their use. They would laugh at it, and therein lies some insight that may benefit NGOs attending the consultation; the whole ridiculous policy is based on prohibition, double standards and vested interests. For those 5% who run into problems with their cannabis use, prohibition is no help whatsoever - in fact promoting furtive or paranoid behaviour. At every step prohibition is harm production, not harm reduction.
If our politicians want to look at a big fat ugly root cause of whats currently troubling NZ, it is a social policy mix underpinned by criminalisation and anti-cannabis prejudice. "The drug war is the single most destructive force loose in society" said ALCP deputy leader Mike Britnell. "Prohibition has not only failed but it is the lynchpin that is maintaining all this chaos, mayhem and murder."
In our Prime Minister's own words, it is 'poor public policy' (1994 Great Marijuana Debate). ALCP say an apology anytime soon would be good.
-ends- _________________ A pain free day the marijuana way.
Joined: Oct 27, 2004 Posts: 244 Location: Dunsterdam
Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 2:42 pm
For a full list of past ALCP media releases visit:
www.alcp.org.nz/media.html
I have also set up a Guestbook on the site. please check it out and leave you 10cents worth about the party. _________________ Tick the Leaf - www.alcp.org.nz
Welcome to Dunsterdam - www.otagonorml.com
This report presents the findings from the consultations held in Australia and New Zealand as part of Beyond 2008, a project of the Vienna NGO Committee on Narcotic Drugs. Beyond 2008 is a rare opportunity for grass-roots expertise to contribute to a global drug policy process. 51-page PDF [ANCD, NZDF]
Stanlake killing shows insidious nature of prohibition
Tony Stanlake's brutal killing was a prohibition murder. The police are being intellectually deceitful to suggest the case 'demonstrates the insidious nature of drugs'.
The ALCP has very little sympathy for Daniel Moore. It was a premeditated murder of a friend, motivated by greed. Mr Stanlake was murdered because of the profit to be made in the black market of an extremely popular substance in widespread use in NZ.
Investigation head Detective Inspector Mike Arnerich said "I suppose if you ever
need another example of how insidious drugs are, this is probably it. It's just a perfect example of why we need to keep up the war on drugs in New Zealand because they do these sorts of things, they destroy families." See: http://www.tv3.co.nz/News/NationalNews/Killersentencedto18yearsin
handlessbodycase/tabid/423/articleID/52197/cat/65/Default.aspx
Arnerich says the case justifies the war on drugs. However it is the war on drugs which creates the violent black market and disrespect for rule of law.
Either Arnerich has an unfortunate lack of cognitive ability or is demonstrating a police 'vested interest' in gaining power and money from their policing of prohibition and related crime. Even if Arnerich is genuine in his belief it is a concern that the police can be so willfully subjective in their analysis. It appears police are milking manufactured crime.
The case also demonstrates the tragic inability of judiciary, media, and other commentators such as the Sensible Sentencing Trust, to analyse and understand how prohibition drives crime in NZ, and assist in bringing in more community-friendly cannabis legisation.
No one gets murdered over cannabis in Holland, say the ALCP.
If the value of cannabis were removed, then it would become less useful to those who want to make money from it. Prohibition creates an over-inflated value on this plant.
The war on drugs has meant removal of cannabis from the black market in small quantities but enough to create a void which has been easily filled by the more valuable substance 'P'.
If prohibition were removed from cannabis there would be no void, people would be able to obtain a far safer drug than alcohol or P so wouldn't go searching for those more life destructive substances.
Funny that the powers that be, that earn a damned sight more than I do, are meant to be the intelligent ones, yet they fail to work this out for themselves.... _________________ A pain free day the marijuana way.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Forum FAQ
Search
Usergroups
Profile
Login to check your private messages
Login
