Most of us would be feeling that we are finally getting somewhere on Cannabis reform.
Sadly that is just a feeling.
The truth is that forces are moving behind the scenes which are far less progressive than we are being conned into believing.
Take for example the so called latest ‘victory’…
Medicinal cannabis bill passes third reading
A bill that gives terminally ill people a legal defence for using illicit cannabis products has passed its third reading in Parliament today.The Misuse of Drugs (Medicinal Cannabis) Amendment Bill also gives them a defence to possess utensils for using cannabis.
That defence comes into force as soon as the bill receives royal assent.
…all this means is that the terminally ill won’t be arrested, those selling it will still get crucified, and those who aren’t terminally ill have no defence whatsoever. Giving Police ‘discretion’ to prosecute drug users is not a solution and will result in racist outcomes, which is what we have now – but by all means, cheer like this is meaningful.
This Medicinal cannabis bill was passed so the Greens have some pretence of political relevancy going into the 2020 election. In practice it’s sophistry.
Behind the scenes of misperception and misplaced feel good jubilation that some mythical liberalisation is just around the corner are the brutal corporate and political machinations.
Helius Therapeutics, the corporate start up to mass produce and sell medicinal cannabis, has been running billboard campaigns convincing everyone that cannabis is medicinal.
Why do you think that is?
The pressure going on is to create a NZ market that benefits the pharmaceutical industry, not the recreational cannabis industry. Finished products that are medical is the aim of that industry, not a loose bud or lose leaf market. Those pharmaceutical interests do not want what America has, they want a tightly regulated medicinal market that benefits them and them alone.
Those interests are attempting to find political support. The wording of the binding referendum that has been promised is voted on by Parliament. A scenario we could see is National and NZ First working on a wording of that referendum that utterly robs it of the false hope everyone seems to be currently under.
What if the wording of the referendum was ‘That those with terminal illness should be able to consume recreational cannabis’ – technically that is a referendum on recreational cannabis. That would cement into place the pharmaceutical dominance of the industry, that would give National and NZ First conservative electorate bragging rights as to keeping the weed out of the hands of the country’s kiddies and it would leave us voting on bullshit that would be binding.
Can the Left outsmart this move?
This is the person leading cannabis reform in Parliament…
..you decide.
It’s not just those with a terminal illness. Why shouldn’t a little old lady with constant arthritis pain and compromised mobility be able to grow a couple of plants for homegrown pain relief? We are going to end up with the socalled legal market controlled by Big Pharma and the benefits will still be unaffordable for those who need it. I do not trust this neoliberal government to get it right.
+100 ROSIELEE…and we are all terminally ill ie. we are all going to die one day
Really it is getting to the point that the people are going to have to collectively sue NZ politicians for denying them their legal rights to home grown cannabis …or take then m to the UN
How many more people are going to have to die through the medical profession’s use of BIG PHARMA opioids for conditions like fibromyalgia?….and young people’s deaths from synthetic cannabis ?
(if I was a parent with a child who had died or been seriously harmed from synthetic cannabis I would be absolutely furious…and I dare not say what I would feel like doing)
Well I’m not waiting for cannabis to be legalised for profit.
I want whole plant cannabis oil that has both CBD and THC in it. CBD for its anti-inflammatory effects and THC because that is what targets cancer.
What’s more both combine to increase the benefit of the other. CBD moderates THC so that cancer patients can take more THC without getting uncomfortable highs.
Note that cannabis is not a medicine unless approved for medical use. And the way that is going it will be patented by the drug corporates, synthesised, and priced for profit so fuck all use to most NZers.
The MOH is high on fake science that claims that cannabis kills 32 people a year and makes adolescents crazy or dropouts. What crap. Unlike suicide and road kill, cannabis has never killed anyone. The bureaucrats are all too gutless to challenge the official ideology that continues to support prohibition in one form or another to reduce harm, when prohibition is the only harm associated with cannabis.
With over 60% in favour of legalisation, and over 80% in favour of medical cannabis, this referendum will have to deliver legalisation or be exposed as another reason why we have to reject parliament and its political parasites.
As a person who experiences pain of varying intensity day & night (& have done for decades) through no “fault” of my own, I have absolutely no confidence in the present govt. of an intention to legalise easy, free access to the range of cannabis plants required to enable all those of us who need it to live in comfort day by day. It should have been done at least a year ago – IMO.
I should be able to grow my own plants & eat raw the part of the plants that would meet my needs. It’s on record that opiates kill thousands of people year after year. Pharma drugs are toxic, poisonous chemicals – every one of them. Not one of them heals/cures ANYTHING!
I have only contempt for politicians who believe themselves competent to decide what is best for me. A plague on the house of each of them!!
k
Was an interesting article until you decided to do a pointless dig at chloe swarbrick. If the referendum question is a badly worded one I’d bet labour had a large involvement in it, as they have been dragging their heels on legal weed for decades. I discussed this with Andrew little at the last election and he was vehement that weed would not be on the table for legalization in the foreseeable future.
Personally I think we should be holding labours feet to the fire on this issue as the major coalition partner, not taking cheap shots at the greens.
Marijuana is the most dangerous of all drugs because of it’s wide and indesciminate use.
Cancer and heart blood vessel diseases will kill 70% of you.
These are malnutrition diseases caused by the eating of processed foods.
The uneducated smokers of marijuana are known to go into a frenzy of junk food eating known as the munchies.
The immediate effect is just like an attack of diabetes. The eyes go red showing that the brain and nervous system is inflamed.
Concentration is lost.
Long term effect is total loss of motivation, memory and intelligence, known as the sugar blues.
The alternative is initiation into the proper use of herbs (including marijuana) and the prosecution of the adulterators of fruit, vegetables, herbs, wine, beer and smokes.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/portugal-decriminalised-drugs-14-years-ago-and-now-hardly-anyone-dies-from-overdosing-10301780.html
Marijuana is the most dangerous of all drugs because of it’s wide and indesciminate use.
Cancer and heart blood vessel diseases will kill 70% of you.
These are malnutrition diseases caused by the eating of processed foods.
The uneducated smokers of marijuana are known to go into a frenzy of junk food eating known as the munchies.
The immediate effect is just like an attack of diabetes. The eyes go red showing that the brain and nervous system is inflamed.
Concentration is lost.
Long term effect is total loss of motivation, memory and intelligence, known as the sugar blues.
The alternative is initiation into the proper use of herbs (including marijuana) and the prosecution of the adulterators of fruit, vegetables, herbs, wine, beer and smokes.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/portugal-decriminalised-drugs-14-years-ago-and-now-hardly-anyone-dies-from-overdosing-10301780.html
Medical cannabis in the hands of corporations is such a good idea, maybe the greens could get some money from supporting it to keep their 5% of the vote or somthing.
As for labour and their kindness on this issue. Nick Low says it best.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0l3QWUXVho&ab_channel=StiffRecordsLtd
This article seems a little naive no? We have a whole year for the referendum question/s to be defined, and apart from Chloe there is a very proactive group who are very well aware of the potential for the whole debate to be hijacked (by big pharma, religious zealots and misinformed people) and are doing a lot more about correcting that situation than writing articles like this.
Misinformation is really one of the biggest concerns – many people believe the propaganda they have been fed for decades about cannabis, and yet we do not see them promoting making far more dangerous drugs illegal such as alcohol & tobacco… its almost like they come across as…. hypocrits?
Isnt it interesting that all these years we were told cannabis is harmful so it has to be illegal yet other substances have proved more harmful yet you can still buy them or even produce them yourself and nobody bats an eyelid but just hint at legalising cannabis and out come the reefer madness nutjobs and naive journalists. Its like nobody really wants to compare the harm of this drug with that of currently legal substances, its another corporate white wash.
So we got this to election stage with huge promises from Labour and then they stepped on all of us. Then we hear that only corporations will be allowed to grow cannabis and then the penny dropped and I realised nice fat donations to political parties has meant only those donation coprorations have legal options. That measure of corruption needs changed, its not showing true corruption in this country, political parties are getting paid off blatantly and openly and its again the user who suffers at the hands of the police.
Journalists with their misinformation peices telling us corporations are the only way to go because everything else is supplied by gangs, such utter bullshit but all aimed to sway people towards corporations.
It must be noted Peter Dunne, that idiot we kicked out of govt because of this issue is now Chair of Seteks advisory board, the smirking Mark Mees sitting there all smug, even comes across as smug via txts, thinks he has it all tied up for themselves but its now up to us to expose this rort for the corruption that it is, fuck the corporations, this has been our industry for so god damn long there is no way some nobody should be able to come in and take over. That idiot Peter Dunne needs slapped, that corrupt arsehole has and still is the problem.
Let’s all pick on the Greens, the only party that actually wants to legalise cannabis, and not pick on any of the other parties who don’t want to legalise it.
As 2018 comes to a close, The Greens still finds itself struggling to win the respect of voters. Leadership changes are never easy and the fall out from #IamMetiria is still showing. 20 years ago another leadership change took place, replacing Bolger with Shipley and caused enough chaos for The Greens to come into Parliament. The Greens have reforms under their belt which are still being felt today.
The Greens have clearly had a good run. So what the hell is going wrong? In the end, giving up the reform business is not much use to any one. Metiria was prepared to run down what ever political capital she had, Shaw had and the party had for the reform changes (welfare reform ect). But once Metiria got to the point of resting on the ores then there’s no point in going on with it any longer.
For 20 years The Greens instincts have been good. The Prime Minister won’t agree on everything, the Finance Minster has the responsibility of carrying on the reforms so you’ve got to have their commitment or try. But then, well, the greens have run out of puff / brownie points. And there’s just no point in hanging around in that structure. In such a structure there doesn’t have to be policy differences because it’s fundamentally a lack of energy.
The Green Party apparatus essentially wants Marama Davidson to go onto oblivion. So let’s say in one election cycle from 2014-2017 the Greens have essentially lost 50% support and are done for. So they need the largest increase of any incumbent government to get The Greens Reform agenda back on again.
The rest is a matter of timing and getting the system ready for change so they can manage themselves. Effectively Shaw has decided The Greens will float, the rest is a timing thing. And we’ve got enthusiastic amateurs like Mathew Whitehead pushing the boat around with calls of bending gender. Fundamentally we need to make a decision to move away from the managed welfare system. Once that decision is made, the inside of the core of the Greens will change. And the guy who makes that decisions, if it goes bad, then he needs to face up to the election and not quit to keep the reform agenda alive. In the mean time we can prognosticate about when to change things.
It could be the last thing the widdle Gweenies do? Before they disappear forever from NZ politics. Hehe!
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