Fri, 09 Aug 2002

Coalition Agreement guarantees increasing drug use and continuance of human rights abuse in New Zealand.

NORML condemns the decision by the minority government of New Zealand to continue the state-sanctioned terror and human rights abuse against cannabis users and growers by their decision to maintain the racist and discriminatory cannabis Prohibition.

For the first time in New Zealand history, the possibility of any law reform for a non-financial issue has been written out of the social contract and the status of cannabis users as untouchables codified into a power-sharing agreement.

The effective and proven strategies proposed by NORML and related groups to the select committee on the legal status of cannabis have been sidelined in the interests of political expediency and cynical manipulation of the public; an abrogation of good governance.

No other sizable well-behaved minority of New Zealand society, including Christians and Gays, are subjected to the police state harassment, persecution, imprisonment and confiscation of family lands that are a common feature of life for the cannabis culture.

New Zealand citizens can brace themselves for an epidemic of hard drug use and burglaries by their schoolchildren as more and more pupils are exposed to designer drugs and addictive amphetamines sold by illegal cannabis outlets throughout the Dominion – a consequence of 30 years of an inept drug policy that has guaranteed at least 50% usage by our teenagers.

The decision to ignore the problem of Drugs in Schools is the sole responsibility of the New Coalition, and from now on, if a parent finds that their child is on drugs, these are the people from whom they should seek answers and redress.

NORML calls on all cannabis users and growers to book an appointment with their MP and seek their views on the maintenance of the Prohibition and contact editors of newspapers and compilers of television programs to make our voice heard.

Adrian Picot Treasurer NORML Board of Directors.

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