Waatea News Column: If we legalise Cannabis, Maori must be given a leading role in industry to influence it

By
Martyn Bradbury
-
21
528

If we are going to legalise cannabis, then Māori must be given a leading role in the newly established legal industry.

This argument has been forwarded by 50 leaders within Māoridom and was articulated as part of the Treaty that states sovereignty over all taonga.

This definition in of itself opens all types of questions on a range of other taonga. Personally a small tax on everything grown here from the land and generated by the vast tracks of resource held by the State should go to Māori as a base taxation for their use towards the very autonomy promised to them in the Treaty, which I think is a far quicker route to philosophically accept the idea that Māori today must influence the new industry when it has been their agency that has been most penalised by cannabis prohibition.

If Māori attempt to look like they are gaining advantage in a new industry, the majority will backlash, if Māori advocate for a system that actively seeks to redress the bias of the old law now by entrenching a system that protects Māori agency, the majority will listen.

The issue here is that the law has punished Māori disproportionately and if we want to repair the damage with a law change, then ensuring things like a base taxation that is ring fenced for Māori health when dealing with cannabis addiction needs to be part of that.

Passing legislation that rules anyone with a criminal conviction out of the industry would be a double injustice with compound interest.

We want a local industry that sells domestically based on a craft beer industry model with licensed venders that ensure a set percentage of Māori working within all branches of the industry.

We want commercial medicinal industry players to be equally considerate of such protocols.

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With this being a new industry, we can set the rules so that the past injustices can be rectified and resourced appropriately to ensure that reparation is meaningful and not the pittance of colonisation.

This could be an important and meaningful development towards the self-determination that the Treaty promises and should be seen as a genuine solution to the chasm between Treaty promise and reality.

If we are to honour the Treaty, a baseline taxation system built to be split between Iwi and Urban Māori Authorities to resource Māori public services is a much needed step that has to be constitutionally built and advocated for.

How long are we going to accept flawed and failed public services to Māori that continually cheat them of the agency promised by the Treaty? Full agency by every member of a liberal progressive society is a goal that must always be pushed for if universal suffrage is to mean anything.

 

First published on Waatea News.

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21 COMMENTS

  2. Martyn is not an aggrieved loser Mark Ryan .

    I would ,if I were you challenge the accuracy of your thinking . scew whiff thinking like you are doing here is going to give you a very unhappy life.
    hes got himself a bit of a brain as well.

    he can get a handle on the concept of the treaty of Waitangi ,which is a reality for those of us living in this country . not difficult for most of us to understand . as we say its not rocket science .easy peasey

    whats your problem ? did you mother drop you on your head when you were a baby ?thats a shame

    take heart the medical can do wonders these days you could likely get it fixed .. go on give a try .

    you will be glad you did .

    • Can you tell us what happened?
      Did your parents try and get you treatment after they dropped you on the head but it didn’t work?
      Or did they not bother?
      Whatever one they chose you clearly weren’t cured.

  3. Most research indicates that Cannabis is habit forming rather than addictive. Most potential harm comes from tar levels from smoking it. Although as you don’t smoke 20-40 joints a day the effect is most likely not as bad as tobacco. Totally agree that banning people convicted of cannabis offences from being in industry is ridiculous. I can only think how much better off many small town economies would have been without prohibition.

    • We’re dealing with an old kind of religious ideology that demonises all of of us into this narrow definition of a particularly good Christian but also other traditions as well that are supported by other religions. Those people have always opposed Māori, they’ve always sought to make the Māori lifestyle illegal. For them it’s a kind of work of the devil that takes people away from the hard work and prayerful obedience to the Christian gods of what they believe society ought to be.

    • some maybe more wealthy but it would be on the back of those effected as a user or the victim of a user. If it is made legal we will see a rise in depression suicides car crashes work accidents and a increase in gang activity as they go up against the legal suppliers. To keep their margin they will push meths

      • Nice try Trev, I suppose your an expert on drug culture as well. What a load of rubbish. Get high often do you? Nah, not old Trev. Church on Sunday. Stay home read the Bible. Criticise the young people and egg on the filthy Nats wherever you can. Try predicting the Climate, you will be just as accurate.

        • My knowledge of drugs come from working with oung families under Banardos care and seeing how they destroy families. Fortunately many of the young are turning away from booze and drugs it is older people pushing reform. I do not class my class my self as Christian but wonder why those on the left knock Christian religion but want respect for other religions. As regard to predicting the Ciimate I will leave that to the experts not just the panic merchants

          • So people are meant to get help for marijuana from people who hate marijuana? Already you’re trying to tell people that there is strong support for prohibition of marijuana so there is debate about it in Wellington and already you’re on the defensive.

      • Geez Trev ,,,,What are ya ?

        How many gangs go against the sellers of NZs No1 and only legal drug ,,Booze / Alcohol.,,,,None.
        … But according to dag brain Trev, if a bottle shop started selling legal Cannabis ,, this would cause gang troubles …… Arse about face logic Treva

        Alcohol is the number one drug involved in depression, and the most common drug found in the blood of suicide victims.

        Same with accidental deaths involving car crashs. drownings, falls, house fires etc etc.

        Alcohol abuse is major factor and far exceeds all other drugs combined , for its role in domestic violence, murder, rape, and child abuse, of every type ,,,

        If National were not such a nest of dirty dishonest ‘rat fuckers’ ,,,, and cared for children ,, instead of their con artist mates running the witch trial created Multi- Million decontamination $Scam industry. ,,,,,

        Then ithey would be looking for tenants recycle bins overflowing with empty booze bottles ,,, or stacks of crates…..BUT most drinkers of Alcohol do not abuse their kids,…. and New Zealanders would not stand for signs of Alcohol consumption being the basis for taking kids away from their parents

        ,,, But the Nacts are good for whipping up Lynch mobs for those OTHER drugs / druggies,,,

        Back on topic,,,,,Maori should certainly be involved with Cannabis and Hemp ,,,, perhaps growing it on land returned to them ,,,,, particularly Land which they were tricked into selling,,,,unknowingly becoming part of money laundering by criminals ,,,thanks to failures by our Govt OIO ,,,,,,, Certain Forestry companies and others . http://www.sarawakreport.org/

        Finally ,,,,This podcast features a really good interview on drug prohibition, Addiction, ‘drug crime’ etc ,, part of it tells the story of Billie Holliday ,,,, very very educational ,,, it really highlights the evil anti-science propaganda that the Nacts try and rule by…. gets going at 9mins30secs

        https://youtu.be/CDpjvFn4wgM

        • So if alcohol is so bad which it is to those that abuse it how is adding another drug going to help. Who do you think sells the alcohol and smokes that are stolen. If it is made legal the sellers will need to build shops that resemble fort Knox . Where are the crops of Marajuana going to be grown. Will it take the place of a food crop.? Many of the more sensible Maori leaders have spoken out about making this drug legal

          • Trevor – “Many of the more sensible Maori leaders have spoken out about making this drug legal.”

            Quit making patronising comments about Maori leaders you ignorant Pom.

            Your attitude towards the Treaty is also irritating and profoundly deficient – I don’t suppose you studied it at some nondescript high school in the marshes – not sure you’d have got the Magna Carta either .

            “If it is made legal we will see a rise in depression suicides car crashes work accidents and a increase in gang activity as they go up against the legal suppliers.” Sheltered life Trevor – times when half the lawyers and journalists and librarians and dunno who else, smoked away illegally, they coped OK.

          • How is adding a safer less toxic going to help???, the same way ending prohibition of the more dangerous drug Alcohol did.

            Took the gangster violence out of the Alcohol industry ,,, and regulating it which makes it safer to consume.

            The lack of ‘fort knox’ cannabis shops in Canada, California, Holland etc ,,,, shows your just talking bullshit ,,,,

            Also old-timer ,,,,you do know most shop transactions are now eft pos and smart cards ,, Cashless,,,, so Moron armed robbers are risking 5 years plus prison time for sweet FA.,,,

            How does having a Pro Drug party, when it comes to booze,,, help solve things like NZs disgraceful domestic violence ??,

            One of Nationals first dirty politics rat fuckers hit job ,,,, was subverting the alcohol law review, in favor of the Alcohol pushers,,,

            shame about all the EXTRA violence, child abuse ,,, and victims ,,, the Nacts decided to help create and then ignore ,,,, all to protect booze pusher profits.

            “NZ spends $85 Million per week on Alcohol ,,,, that is why they don’t want you to understand its a drug ” ; Sgt Alastair Lawn, NZ police.

            Better Alcohol regulation and legal Cannabis ,,, is what a civilized society would do ,,,,,,

            Your way gives us a police force of
            Rickards and Sabins.

            Now that is dangerous ,,,,

  4. thats a good thought Alan and how much better off they are going to be when its all legal and above board . great good will come from legalisation to rural New Zealand .

    knocking P on its head along the way .

  5. “If we are going to legalise cannabis, then Māori must be given a leading role in the newly established legal industry.”

    I’m not sure that I see the logic of this. Surely if it’s legalised, those who want to, will get involved with it, regardless of ethnicity. Suggesting that Maori be given a leading role: who would do that? The government? Given how our economic system is currently structured, I don’t understand how that could happen.

    I was just completing my tertiary education (round 1) when marijuana first made its appearance in the universities. Unfortunately, its arrival coincided with Richard Nixon’s utterly wrongheaded War on Drugs, enthusiastically adopted by our own government at the time.

    Back in those days (late 60s and through much of the 70s), it was young pakeha who were the users of marijuana, and many were prosecuted for it. I knew some of these people: socialised with them, even. If they were lucky, they weren’t busted; but if they were, they were permanently on the police radar. Had their houses raided, were stopped in the street and searched. If they were caught with any stuff, they were prosecuted, had their names in the local paper. And so on. Some claimed that the police weren’t above planting stuff on them, so as to drag them before the courts. Very unpleasant.

    Despite its prevalence in our social milieu, I have never used it. Ever. I was one of a tiny handful of parents who could later say to our offspring, hand on heart, I have never used; so don’t do it.

    From about the mid to late 70s, its use spread to Maori society, to the point that it became normalised there. At that time, I worked with Maori groups; that was what I heard and saw. Over time, police came to realise the futility of prosecuting users. As I understand things nowadays, the police have very little interest in personal marijuana use; if Maori get booked for that, it’s because they’ve been caught committing some other crime, and are found with drugs in their possession.

    “This argument has been forwarded by 50 leaders within Māoridom and was articulated as part of the Treaty that states sovereignty over all taonga.”

    Taonga? I don’t understand this, either. The Treaty refers to “taonga”, but that was a reference to what contemporaneous Maori regarded as taonga. Cannabis wasn’t around then; it’s drawing a long bow, it seems to me, to try to so characterise it nowadays. Attempts at post facto interpretations of this sort cannot end well.

    “….a small tax on everything grown here from the land and generated by the vast tracks of resource held by the State should go to Māori as a base taxation for their use towards the very autonomy promised to them in the Treaty…”

    Are you talking about the establishment of a separate Maori society? How would that work in the modern world, given that there’s been so much intermarriage and there are so many immigrants here from just about every country in the world? This isn’t 1840; and it’s doubtful that it could have been made to work even then, given that a) intermarriage began very early in the southern South Island, and b) Maori were very keen to trade with pakeha, both here and offshore, and needed also to avail themselves of pakeha technology in order to bring that trade about.

    In addition, separatism of that sort has been frowned upon since WW2. Segregation, it was called; apartheid if it was written into law. My generation fought against it. Successfully, in the US and Africa, as it happens. Now you’re suggesting that a society of that sort ought to be established in NZ; how could anyone suggest such a thing? No matter how egregiously the Treaty was breached, the solution cannot be societal arrangements which risk an apartheid system, no matter how well-intentioned those people may be who propose such a thing.

    Some of what I’ve heard from Maori commentators edges dangerously close to ethno-nationalism: a core tenet of fascism, as those who’ve been to parts of Europe can attest. It would be foolish in the extreme to run away with the idea that only white people can be fascist.

    “……the law has punished Māori disproportionately….”

    That was because marijuana was illegal and by about the early to mid 80s (or maybe a bit later) its use had become normalised in Maori society. And it became associated with other crime disproportionately committed by Maori. It wasn’t the case that police arrested Maori but not pakeha for using it. I know this: I knew, and knew of, pakeha who were arrested along with Maori – mostly men, many years ago.

    “We want a local industry that sells domestically based on a craft beer industry model with licensed venders that ensure a set percentage of Māori working within all branches of the industry. We want commercial medicinal industry players to be equally considerate of such protocols.”

    Who is “we”? By the looks of this, you envisage a state-controlled industry. In the private enterprise environment which now prevails in NZ, the industry would grow organically, employing the best people for the job, wherever they come from. Quotas are a tricky notion; in the normal course of events, I doubt that it would be possible to force businesses to hire specific numbers of Maori.

    “If we are to honour the Treaty, a baseline taxation system built to be split between Iwi and Urban Māori Authorities to resource Māori public services is a much needed step that has to be constitutionally built and advocated for.”

    In other words: segregation. Write such proposals into law and you have apartheid. Is this really the solution for Treaty breaches?

    • DEsterre ,,,, your illogical racist views on racism is showing through.

      You say individuals can not be racist ,,,, I say there is racist and bigoted cops, and judges.

      The police and Justice system has systemic racism with Maori less likely to be given diversion ,,,, more likely to be prosecuted ,,,,, and receive harsher punishment.

      But then ,,,,, according to your logic, and you have stated,,,, that Alcohol WAS the cause of organized crime violence during its prohibition.

      That particularly stupid argument of yours is demonstrated for the idiocy it is in this educational video at about the 1 hour 30 min mark…..

      Finally I know white NZers with Cannabis convictions, including myself, ,,, but I don’t use that to pretend their is not racial bias among the police and in our courts.

  7. Reason: as usual, I’ve had to read your response several times. Even so, I’m not sure that I have the faintest idea what you’re talking about. Also as usual, unfortunately.

    I do wish that you’d actually respond to my comment, rather than going off on some wild goose chase. What has alcohol to do with anything?

    For heaven’s sake: get a grip! Don’t hark back to something I said somewhere else on some long-forgotten post: concentrate on THIS post, and THESE comments.

    If you disagree with me, say so. Don’t go off half-cocked with insults and epithets. It’s pointless. And: if you disagree with my perspective, produce some countervailing evidence. Statistics, for example. Spare me the fact-free rantings of some activist or other.

    I’ll say this: your responses to me generally – and also on this post – are so intemperate, that I think I’m justified in concluding that you secretly believe that I’m right. I cannot think of any other reason why you’d get your knickers so much in a twist over a comment.

  8. Reason: as usual, I’ve had to read your response several times. Even so, I’m not sure that I have the faintest idea what you’re talking about. Also as usual, unfortunately.

    I do wish that you’d actually respond to my comment, rather than going off on some wild goose chase. What has alcohol to do with anything?

    For heaven’s sake: get a grip! Don’t hark back to something I said somewhere else on some long-forgotten post: concentrate on THIS post, and THESE comments.

    If you disagree with me, say so. Don’t go off half-cocked with insults and epithets. It’s pointless. And: if you disagree with my perspective, produce some countervailing evidence. Statistics, for example. Spare me the fact-free rantings of some activist or other.

    I’ll say this: your responses to me generally – and also on this post – are so intemperate, that I think I’m justified in concluding that you secretly believe that I’m right. I cannot think of any other reason why you’d get your knickers so much in a twist over a comment.

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