Why do NZ First and the Ministry of Health seem anti NZ?
NZFirst and MoH are stopping NZ from out competing some of the biggest industries in the world.
Kiwi hemp farmers complain that the Ministry of Health is stopping them from making their legal, safe, hemp crops available to the public. This could be done very cheaply, and would be of huge public benefit.
Allowing farmers to sell their hemp crops to the public would benefit farmers and patients, and it would be a ‘made in NZ’ solution.
And here’s the thing, as MCANZ reports, NZ keeps running out of the permitted foreign ‘cannabis medicines’ anyway, leaving patients in severe distress as they are left without their expensive and essential medicine. ($1000p/month)
It is a little known fact that hemp is cannabis, which is cheaper than ‘cannabis medicine’.
So why not reduce the cost to patients by making kiwi hemp available to the public? In Italy this has reduced pharmaceutical use by 11% in several categories.
Hemp is health, people simply feel calmer and are healthier. So, why do the hemp industry, and NZF MPs, report that MoH and NZF are anti-hemp?
“There is no scientific or moral basis for disabling public access to hemp, so it’s hard to explain short of ignorance, incompetence, politics, or maybe corruption” says Tadhg Stopford of the Hemp Foundation.
A New Zealand First MP reports that both Winston Peters and Shane Jones are against industrial hemp. This is bizarre, as a true ‘NZF” would support a disruptive crop that could reduce our debt, pharmaceutical costs, broader health costs, develop our economic sovereignty, and increase our general independence in globally turbulent times. You might imagine such a policy would appeal to their older support base.
However, it is interesting to note that Mr Peters long term partner Janet Trotman, ran the New Zealand pharmaceutical arm of Johnson & Johnson for thirteen years. Meanwhile, it is estimated that hemp could potentially eat 38% of global pharmaceutical revenues, (some USD $360Bn or more). Suggesting a potential conflict of interest.
Johnson & Johnson was fined $572m USD for a ‘false and dangerous” sales campaign that caused addiction and death as it drove America’s opioid epidemic” The Guardian reported in August.
“New Zealand only has several thousand acres in hemp. We need hundreds of thousands. This should be a national project that empowers producers, citizens, and therefore our economic and environmental independence. It makes no sense that NZfirst should be anti hemp, And the Ministry’s position -that animals need to be protected from hemp ‘contaminants’ – makes no sense. Unless it’s all about money and preventing competition that is, which is what it looks like.” says Mr Stopford. “Their whole case rests on anonymous advice, the source of which they won’t disclose.”
It seems that when it comes to a decision with economic impacts for our country and people as serious as this, greater transparency is required.