Comrades. Brothers & Sisters.
I am fast losing patience with the cannabis referendum.
The latest research released under OIA yesterday clearly points out how defective and counterproductive the current prohibition of cannabis is and it infuriates me that there are NZers still intending to vote against the Cannabis referendum.
The BERL report commissioned by the ministry of Justice is devastating to the nope to dope campaign.
Election 2020: Legalising weed could see $675m a year spent on health interventions – report
A legal cannabis market for recreational use could generate $675 million a year for the Government to spend on reducing cannabis-related harm, new economic modelling shows.
It finds the ethical structure of the proposed legislative structure will channel $675million each year into drug rehabilitation programs!
$675million!
We currently spend around $150million annually on alcohol rehabilitation – THIS $675million would fund rehab not only all cannabis addiction, but it would also fund all alcohol addiction AND all drug addictions services!
Regulating the cannabis market would inject more funding into all harm minimisation programs than we have ever had.
This would be a new age of rehabilitation funding, the taxation revenue is just beyond anything NZ has ever experienced in the field of drug rehabilitation.
But it gets better.
On top of that $675million in rehabilitation programs that could fund ALL drug addiction, there is almost quarter of a billion to the State in GST, plus 5000 new full time jobs plus creating over $200million in salaries and wages plus saving millions in the judiciary and tens of millions more in the prison system!
This is how far out of whack we have allowed the moralists and prohibitionists to succeed in this country!
The alternative to the current prohibition is so good that the status quo is seen us utterly reprehensible!
If you are still against the Cannabis referendum after reading this report, then YOU are the fucking problem, not the stoners!
We should be collectively outraged that we have allowed the State to have this prohibition power for as long as they have. Cannabis is a civil rights issue, the State has crushed hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens for decades upon decades to enforce a law that was always about control and not our welfare.
How dare they and how dare we allow them to get away with it!
You can enrol on the day of the election so there are no excuses this time.
Don’t drag yourself to the ballot box comrades, march there in furious anger and tell the prohibitionists and the State to fuck off out of our collective lives!
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Meanwhile, one of the most addictive and health-destroying drugs -tobacco- get a free pass every time.
That’s because the tax revenue raised from tobacco sales blows any projected income from legalising cannabis out of the water. Also, smoking tobacco kills 50% of people who take it up (and smoke for the duration of their lives). All those premature deaths save a fortune on pension payments (even after healthcare costs are deducted).
A few years ago I watched (& purchased) this programme about Cannabis: “The Sacred Plant”. What a revelation about the health benefits from the responsible use of Cannabis. As a decades-long sufferer from Multiple Sclerosis & a NZRN (multiply-qualified, widely experienced) what I learned compelled me to search for a reliable supplier of Cannabis. At first, I used a tincture – 2 drops on my tongue 4 times/day; then I bought a small amount of the dried plant. I can put a tiny amount of the dried product in my mouth, leave it there for hours (the beneficial compounds are absorbed through the mucus membrane in the mouth), & eventually swallow it. A little goes a long & beneficial way. I urge people to WAKE UP about this plant. The best research was done in Israel (of all countries!) https://thesacredplant.com/docuseries/episode1ege/?dfs=280921317 is where one can begin to learn. I can’t guarantee that the entire series is accessible from that website – do your own research.
Yes agree Martyn we have too many old farts and deeply conservative people in our communities that have no problem with a person being euthanised, a bottle store around every corner, pokie machines rampant in all our poor towns and the easy availability of porn for our youngsters online, yet we can’t have a smoke or grow our own weed without being a crim. Bloody hypocrites if you ask me and it times for change. Alcohol has done far more damage in our communities and will continue to do so.
Exactly!!! (They should read this out (your comment) in Parliament about twenty times over until they get it into their THICK heads!!)
Several things listed here that ALL cause so much damage, so much real damage, to individuals, to families, to communities!! And yet the pious, pretentious, lying bastards claim their prohibition etc are “for the public good”! What complete and utter B.S!!!!
Agree 100 %. The hypocrisy of allowing alcohol tobacco and pokies but not weed beggars belief. Ask anyone involved and they will all say P is destroying our communities. Not one will say weed. Free up the resources of the state to help those addicted to P and fight those supplying it.
Agree 100 %. The hypocrisy of allowing alcohol tobacco and pokies but not weed beggars belief. Ask anyone involved and they will all say P is destroying our communities. Not one will say weed. Free up the resources of the state to help those addicted to P and fight those supplying it.
Pipe dreams like a billion trees and a hundred thousand new homes. Child poverty and homeless.
The unintended consequences of yet another incompetent government policy.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, not that it matters because YOU are the fucking problem. Medicinal all the way, decriminalise all the way.
If this referendum makes marajuana legal then the next thing will be complaints about how much tax it is earning for the government and others will say they want the strong potency that can be grown now. The report shows the benefit in extra tax but does not balance it with the extra costs for accidents mental health productivity lose . I am in older age group but do not feel a hypocrite just because there are a swag of thinks people do I am against but can see no point in adding an extra problem.Off White has it right Medical is fine and is already legal . I would like someone to say how decriminalization who work.
Trevor, decriminalisation is something along the lines of confiscation and a fine. Kinda like drinking alcohol in prohibited areas I suppose.
What the yes voting evangelicals don’t understand is that if this thing gets the down vote it’ll be their fault alone. Illustrated by the above sermon, attempting to crack skulls. Quite frankly the information on this site about the actual bill has been pitiful. I’ve been on the deep dive which only muddies the water further.
Just read the report from Smart approach to marajuana NZ which shows some of the poems experienced in out areas where it has been legalized
If a 15% tax gives 675 million as the government projected return on sales, the current gang return must be over a billion. Every cent of which is going to fund organised crime in New Zealand.
Decriminalising it won’t stop that, it will just allow the gangs to get away with that money without fear of reprisal. So you’d be subsidising organised crime by decriminalising.
Decriminalising won’t help those who have problems with addiction to alcohol or other drugs, or those who have adverse reactions to cannabis. All it will do is allow the current illegal market to legitimise itself.
So to you arguing for Decriminalisation, think about the outcome. Legally subsidised Organised Crime and no rehab services.
We can do better than that. Vote yes.
Nic, that’s kinda like saying that speeding subsidises the police state.
These dumbasses need to crack down on meth and fentanyl etc, leave the weed plants alone so we can get back to equilibrium. Been to south Auckland lately? Gun toting gangsters free range and not because of weed.
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