New Zealand faces one of the steepest economic recessions since the Great Depression, The disruption to the economy due to the pandemic will see unemployment in double figures and those already suffering from the structural inequality of the existing system damaged even further.
Post lockdown, the State must step in and attempt to re-establish economic conditions that can see domestic growth and jobs.
So why on earth aren’t we fast tracking legalising cannabis?
Minister for Justice, Andrew Little last week released the latest Cannabis Legislation and Control Bill rules and they look well thought out and smart social policy.
- R20 Cannabis sales from licensed retailers
- Potency limits and quality standards for cannabis
- Cannabis product mandatory labelling to include THC and CBD amounts plus recommended maximum daily limits
- No advertising of cannabis products
- Health warnings on all cannabis products
- A ring-fenced excise tax to fund services to reduce harms from cannabis use
- No company would be allowed to have more than 20% of the market
- Preference to Maori and communities previously hurt most by prohibition to ensure they can benefit from the new market.
- Large fines for the black market and selling to anyone under 20.
These provisions aim to generate taxation, reduce harm, create jobs and allow small to medium-sized business to gain from the new market.
Rather than continue to allow organised crime to benefit from cannabis prohibition and the enormous cost to imprison users, creating a legal and heavily regulated industry that creates jobs that benefit those most hurt by the current system makes sense, especially with the economic depression fast approaching us.
The cannabis referendum is 5 months away, the moment it passes the Government must swing into action to allow the industry to start hiring people as soon as possible.
First published on Waatea News.
At !8%THC the potency limit is unrealistic and unworkable.
sorry should read 15% THC potency .
My point is how the fuck will it be measured? Who will measure it and when ?
Where are the seeds going to be sourced from when the indoor skunk/cloned head fuck plant material has passed it generation limit and become weak and unhealthy?
You can tell who had all the input to this legislation and certainly WASN”T the people who grow it.
Who is going to have the authority to enter every single property where the weed is being grown and measure these things?
The legislation is unworkable and full of holes and designed to punish the home gardener.
You could have a descent testing kit shipped to your door via Amazon for $50. First of all the regulator has to random testing and the manufacture has to insure quality testing also. 15% is actually at the top end of potency that will put all but snoop dogg on his arse. To get to 20% potency you have to consent rate the THC into oil by stripping out the THC molecule from the flower, the most potent part (stalks won’t have enough THC to work work with) then you’ve got to cook it in special ovens so it doesn’t blow up, just to get that extra 5%.
It kind of reminds me of those ridiculous American deep pan pizzas because Italian food is traditionally poor food and had to deal with a lot of famine. So when they got to America they were stunned by the amount of food that was available so instead of barley being able to scrap together 3 food items they could create Christmas style celebration food all year round and well Americans ain’t nothing if not flamboyant.
The same thing happened with marijuana when it was legalised in the states thee was this video of this guy with a bucket of marijuana and he jammed it on the end of a leaf blower and lit it. Those Americans are so over the top. We don’t need to be wasteful like them. Iv had a good read of Andrew Littles marijuana bill and it’s pretty good IMO. We are not American, we are Kiwi.
Shona
I think I mentioned this https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10733409
in fact! Twice: https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/12/23/guest-blog-ross-meurant-to-legalise-or-prohibit/
cheers
Couldn’t agree more Martyn. NZ has a large number of cannabis users who can safely use this substance, laugh their heads off and go about their day. They are functional, hold down challenging jobs, care for families and partners and are having to hide their use to due archaic thinking that dates back 100 years (when it was first criminalised here and elsewhere) due to the possible impact on liqour and tobacco sales and the difficulty in controlling use? The point is that evidence from overseas demonstrates unequivocally that legalisation (to a lesser degree decriminalisation) increases safety and reduces harms associated with the use of this drug. Accordingly, and given our ability to produce some damned fine weed, NZ should be encouraging entreprenuers to start business and employ many in this new and relatively lucrative business moving forward.
Yeah you nailed it Bomber.
The creation of jobs will be one of the best outcomes if this becomes law.
Now we have the framework the government should be proactive in making sure the benefits are well publicised.
Last time i looked it seemed that support was approx 50-50 ? maybe i am being optimistic but i hope common sense prevails with the inevitable debate and the National parties fear campaign.
So those under 20 will still go to the gangs as will those who want a cheaper product with no GST or tax in the price. . Post virus there will be many suffering from mental stress do we really need another drug introduced to the mix. The smoke free act 2004 stopped smoking in restaurants now we are asked to allow it for marajuana smokers. There are plenty of reasons to vote National and the fact they will not legalize this drug is another one
So young people going to gangs is the status quo anyway – no change. Remember the sanctions for supplying young people will be stiff and act as some deterrent for supply to young people.
The proposed cannabis clubs will NOT be eateries and subject to the same rules as for smokers – that is these cafes will need to find an outdoor area for using or have decent extraction systems in place for indoor smoking. You do not have to got to these – but why stop others.
Drugged driving is an issue you didn’t raise – but I will. There is legislation passing through the house currently which will allow for random drug driving testing – much like for alcohol. This is not okay – nor is supplying children. But these aspects of the law will be heavily penalised.
There is very limited reason to vote National – unless you are a greedy little boomer – then – as you were. I think we could ban tobacco and alcohol and legalise cannabis – as they are much more damaging for users.
So at the last election o er 40 per cent of the voting public were greedy little boomers.and dose that voted Labour were on their way to church were they
Trevor displays typical right wing behavior …. backing proven failed ideas and bad policy ,,,which make things worse.,,,
For instance ,, Judith Collins car crushing Public Relations stunt .. to fix the boy racer problem ,,,, what a joke ,,, why don’t we just crush the Cannabis Trev?
Nationals answer to protecting young New Zealanders from drugs ,,,, is Mike Sabin and police officers of the Clint Rickards caiber ,,,,, what a sick rapey joke.
Peter TwatCock Dunne and the Nats gave us ‘ legal highs’ ,, which went from dodgy to deadly real fast ,,, with well over 100 dead kiwis and many more disabled ,,, from these dangerous and now black-market chemicals.
Dunne and the Nats with their demented ‘anything but Cannabis’ attitude,,, introduced dangerous substitutes not fit for human consumption ,,,. The customer base for these synthetic industrial chemicals ,,,,was built and spread from the total bullshit behind ‘Legal highs’ and ‘Synthetic Cannabis’…
High toxicity man-made disassociative chemicals, whose powerful ‘drug’ effects were nothing like Cannabis, ,,,were both marketed by sellers ,,and smeared by the anti-marijuana CDS crowd as ‘Synthetic Cannabis’.
These dangerous chemical concoctions are now sold as ‘Synies’ …in bullet / Tinny and baggy sizes.,,, sold by the gangs ,,, or other hard nut dealers ,,, Prohibition creates the only market where violence is part of business ,,,
So Trev ,,, the gangs and dealers are already pushing these new alphabet soup drugs* ,,, most probably in preference to Cannabis ,,,, as the mark up or profit margin on these cheap factory lab chemicals is HUGE ,,
Gang and Gangster math : $1 dollar worth of dirt cheap industrial chemical muck * ,,, returns over $100 dollars or more for the dealers ,,, ,,,,compared to Cannabis which returns $4-$5 for every single dollar they ‘invest’ in pot.,,,,
So the gangs are moving on ,,, even if Trev and the Nats are not.
To be honest I’m a bit concerned about Trevors obsessive desire to keep cannabis users as criminals ,,, It could be a mental health issue with him ,,,, a cannabis phobia where doom and gloom fantasys have damaged his thought process ,,,,
So I’ll finish with some Positive reality …
“There has been a growing popular movement in the world and United States to legalize marijuana for medicinal and recreational uses, with several nations and u.s states adopting such measures already.
One motivation for legalization is the economic benefits that can come from the regulated commercial availability of marijuana.
Increased tax revenues, job growth, and investment opportunities all are powerful incentives to push for legalization.”
*Examples in New Zealand include 5F-ADB, AB-FUBINACA, AMB-FUBINACA and JWH-122
” The smoke free act 2004 stopped smoking in restaurants now we are asked to allow it for marajuana smokers.” Read the Thing again.. and this time’ take the time to think about it with your mind, rather than your political filters.. You’ve done nothing but make a bit of an ass of yourself, writing such obvious piffle.. ans then backing it up with nonsensical piffle.. This issue deserves more than silly party political bullshit instead of intelligent discussion..
“… Large fines for the black market and selling to anyone under 20… ”
See? That right there is what I’d call an opportunity to make money from supplying good, strong, out door grown Sativa to people who need, indeed crave something with a hit higher than a mooted industry standard 8% which wouldn’t get an earthworm high.
If the world was a party AO/NZ would turn up in polyester pants and jacket and wearing grey velcro fastened shoes with a mullet Do…
Am I in a parallel universe populated by the terminally stupid? Andrew Little’s a fucking idiot. Is he like 89?Who cares what he thinks because he’s a bloody lawyer and what the fuck do they know?
Fuck it! Just grow it, smoke it, weave it, compress it but for fucks sake, get over it.
People have been smoking weed here for generations but it’s those Scunthorpe’s who never have who’re dragging our 2x plots of land down into the shitter. Not stoners.
This pointless, brainless, ego stroking, high wankery debate, an interminable, slow cook debate that’s dragging on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on.
Just fucking do it then shut up about it and move on to actual, proper points of debate like poverty and homelessness and of how to go and get our assets and amenities back off the crooked scum who pinched it.
Debating the in’s and out’s of a plant that induces a harmless, fleeting altered conscious state is beneath me, I don’t know about you lot?
Here’s my list but I can’t figure out how to put in bullet points.
Who fucked our agricultural systems and how come that clump damien o’conner heads up our primary industry infrastructure? Ask him? Can he tie his own shoe laces?
5 million people on rich lands yet how come poverty, record high domestic abuse stats, sky rocketing Maori imprisonment rates, homelessness, child poverty, where’s our fucking fish? Why’s a nice jersey retailing for $450 @ around 300grams yet a sheep farmer gets less than $2 a kilo for her/his wool, why is it ok that there are only two main supermarkups rorting us for foods after jonky slithered in with absurdist laws surrounding home grown, home cooked, home preserved, home killed, home fished and one can’t swap out plant seeds with others because seeds are now a ‘controlled substance’.
And andrew little’s ball bag surely shrivels up at the thought of a dope plant being dried out and smoked…! Where the fuck am I because this doesn’t feel like a reality I’m comfortable with? I feel like I’m living in a tedious TV miniseries where nothing happens except a boring life time of drab labour then a mercifully brief period of poverty, brutal sobriety, extreme discomfort then death.
What the fuck is going on here ! ?
When I’m 65 I want Pot man and lots of it and the strong gear too. Not that beige Oh and Ahh shit. I also want opium for my bung hip and I want cocaine to play a round of golf and I want heroin for those days when the weather’s shit and it all looks a bit bleak and I want E and I want to have lots of hugs and kisses and I don’t care if she is, in reality a fence post. Who cares, so long as it’s consensual? And if I die? Who cares? It’s not like it was never going to happen for fucks sake and then have me cremated and snort my ashes.
What a way to go? Surely, it’d be better than slowly withering like a dahlia in a cheap vase?
“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all”
Oscar Wilde wrote that but what did he know about life?
Lets listen to andrew? He knows best. And lets be afraid. And be intimidated and lets acquiesce to absurdist authority figures like district councils.
My bro. Well written. Thumbs up. Shit. Lets get you into office
Doctors dont like it ….they prefer to dish out the opioids
‘Medical Association opposes cannabis legalisation but backs civil penalties for drug possession’
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12228985
‘Prince’s death drug prescribed to New Zealand’s elderly’
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/83570824/princes-death-drug-prescribed-to-new-zealands-elderly‘
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/23/health/opioids-insys-kapoor-prison.html
Doctors are shit scared of cannabis they know growers won’t be sponsoring golf conferences in the Bahamas.
Doctors will be so busy enough dealing with the side effects of smoking marajuana they will be able to afford to pay for their own holidays. The whole spectrum of mental problems and anxiety will be high on the list but other medical issues like heart attacks and lung problems. Then there is the safety side both on the road and at work as accidents will increase .
Yup doctors are scared the elderly will be eating family made cookies with their cups of tea and smoking home grown by the family fire
…. and not having pain and waiting in the waiting rooms for the doctors to dish the pain killer opioid painkillers….and take all their precious savings ( greedy bastards!)
….the elderly also wont be ending up in uncaring hospital wards to be experimented on and put down by doctors and nurses with opioids ( there needs to be an inquiry into opioid BIG PHARMA kickbacks for the medical profession and hospitals)
New Medical Cannabis Research From Israel: Older Adults, Dementia And Dialysis
https://www.forbes.com/sites/abbierosner/2019/03/04/new-medical-cannabis-research-from-israel-older-adults-dementia-and-dialysis/#719e53333660
I feel countryboy that you feel very strongly about a number of things. As you have expressed yourself at length quite honestly and yet coherently, I feel in 99% agreement with you and there is nothing more to add to the plaintive cry below.
I feel like I’m living in a tedious TV miniseries where nothing happens except a boring life time of drab labour then a mercifully brief period of poverty, brutal sobriety, extreme discomfort then death.
What the fuck is going on here ! ?
But if life gets too awful I may take up alcohol as my drug of choice, just give up and be relaxed, hic! It being so easily available and such a good accompaniment to a fine meal etc. and quite acceptable to those with money and power in this country. Alcohol is the acceptable drug despite the overuse leading to a breakdown in spirit literally.
@Countryboy. U Speak with my own voice. Bang on.
But you know. This is apathetic new zealand. We will all do as we are told, to any degree, or else……
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