Poverty of Insight - Welcome to NZ

Alcohol, Tobacco, Cannabis and Kronic virtually completely out of control?
Rule of law in ongoing transparent disrepute?
Impotent politicians seemingly unable to protect the population?
The highest rates of liquor abuse, bullying, youth damage, gang crime, P use and criminality issues in the OECD?

Could our lawmakers do worse if they tried?

Welcome to Aotearoa NZ, land of the wrong white (prohibitionist) crowd
• Where cannabis prohibition protects no one but the hypocritical pretence that it does work, is the order of the day.
• Where costly new prisons always get the go ahead from Government, and young Maori are herded inequitably through the criminal justice system while cannabis enforcement evades any concept of cost-benefit accountability.
MildGreens believe Government is committing a major offense under the Health and Disabilities Act, by comprehensively failing in its obligation to “protect promote and improve the public health” aided and abetted by suppressing an evidence-based view of the impacts of a clearly deficient prohibition law.

And it is fraudulent harmful law says Blair Anderson of the MildGreens.

Because 'its not harm-minimisation' when NZ comes at the top of the international charts for drug use while official ministry of Health reports state ‘the large number of arrests for cannabis demonstrate considerable harm to users’ (national drug and alcohol policy 1996) - and this sort of critical evidence is deleted from the National Drug Policy record by unseen government hands.

Says Mr Anderson, “It is not just poverty and racism that afflicts NZ’s growing underclass, it is the intolerance and poverty of spirit that underpins NZ criminalisation status.”

While conscientious objectors and medicinal growers are locked away and advocates for law reform vilified, the REAL evidence base, time and time again, debunks the myth that prohibition/criminalisation of marijuana has any beneficial impact on reducing overall use.

Although on the surface prohibition appears to give results the public demand, it is in reality delivering only negativity and prejudice to NZ society representing “extremely poor value for the taxpayer dollar”.

“When the state unreasonably impinges on the individuals rights as it is on a vast prevalence scale with the criminalisation of a weed, you find there is an undercurrent of alienation and disaffection being bred.”

"the principles underpinning NZ’s drug policy are supposed to be protecting us against unreasonable impingement and promoting equity and ‘harm reduction’ but they do the exact opposite."

With regards to the current dilemma with Kronic, MildGreens point out that Minister Peter Dunne along with the unanimous House of Representatives must be suffering severe memory loss because in 2000 it passed law to specifically deal with ‘emerging drug threats’ using 'expeditious drug classifications by ‘Order in Council’.

In 2004 the classification regulations were modified to include a restricted category in which BZP [herbal party pills] was temporarily scheduled and the schedule is apparently currently awaiting the synthetic indoles such as used on Kronic.

"So whats the hold up?"

MildGreens suggest that Government has painted itself into a corner by not recognising the criminalisation elephant in the room, and the glaring case for backing down on the unrealistic and inequitable 'in name only' cannabis ban.

Fixing whats broken is not rocket science say the MildGreens. "ALCP and NORML are right on the nail with a consistent R18 legal regulation message" – and ALCP has a primary issue, not merely a single issue, for the up an coming election. (link to intersectoral policy)

NZ's civil society needs to get real – "prohibition is a crock, and the current topsy turvy classifications need to be on a proper scale that takes precaution against prohibitions that do not work and are not justified.".

Mild Greens say it is time to ditch the ‘anti dope/pro liquor politics, heed the NZ Law Commission "Regulation and Control" review of the Misuse of Drugs Act, and tackle the basic inequity of NZs drug classification by putting Cannabis where it belongs in the restricted substance regulations 'Class D'.

MildGreens remind the power brokers in John Key’s National government that even the Young Nationals in the 1990s were passing remits in support of cannabis decriminalisation. Likewise Labour was passing remits from the floor opening up the prohibitory can of worms that is criminal status of cannabis. [ see http://web.archive.org/web/20010603085830/http://www.alcp.orgnz/remit.jpg ]

The MildGreens say it would be unwise to continue to pretend governance of the alcohol vices is served if we fail to resolve the inappropriate legal status and restore order and civility by regulatory control of the neighbouring intoxicants used by four out of five* of our young and maturing adults.

Cannabis in Class D resolves all that. Order in Council! ASAP!
And the elephant disappears.

Blair Anderson & Kevin O'Connell
Another MildGreen Initiative
Social Ecologists and longtime observer's of the National Drug Policy Condition
http://mildgreens.blogspot.com

*[ Joe Boden PhD, CHDS, 2010 address to Healthy Christchurch]

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