WAATEA NEWS COLUMN: Māori Party at 5% and latest Police cannabis arrest rates highlight racist bias

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Two interesting political developments this week, the Māori Party hit 5% in the latest TU Poll and the new cannabis arrest rates were released.

As the anti-Māori, anti-Treaty agenda gains traction amongst reactionary New Zealanders, the Māori Party continues to rise in support because the shock wave of just how toxic the debate has been allowed to mutate into has forced Māori who had previously walked away from politics to re-engage.

Another interesting development this week were the statistics for cannabis arrests.

Figures released this week from the Ministry of Justice show that over the last 12 months, police charged 1262 Pākehā and 1318 Māori with cannabis-related offending.

When you consider Māori are barely 18% of the population and cannabis is our most widely used illegal drug, those arrest rates are nothing more than clear cut evidence of the level of bias in NZ policing.

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Cannabis laws were always deeply racist and the refusal to stop arresting people for a substance that most can legally buy now at the Chemist Warehouse is telling.

These two issues, the Māori Party at 5% and racist cannabis laws are entwined because they both give insight to where race relations really are in New Zealand.

24 COMMENTS

  1. Sooner they legalize the stuff the better, the Police need to concentrate their resources on the top end of town rather than picking the low hanging fruit. However it’s a lot easier busting local cannabis growers and smokers than taking on the International Crime Syndicates and Organized Criminal Gangs. I see Luxton wants the NZ Police to concentrate on Patch Hunting in Residential Addresses FFS ???

    • You are right again Ngungukai.
      If the crime fighters concentrated on the suppliers and the corporate users then the problem of drugs would be halved.
      Likewise with fraud.
      I see a woman who stole $400k got home detention. One who stole $200k got 18mths in jail.
      Obviously colour and social standing played a part in these decisions

  2. The White Government punishes Maori for Cannabis use .
    Tame Government rewards white tobacco/Vape companies by removing selling restrictions
    The sam Governments promotes heavy alcohol use again rewarding White alcohol companies..
    Tobacco/alcohol cost the country billions in health outcomes but white business is more important.
    The White Government also reward the billionaire White pharmaceutical companies (growers)
    and White DRs (dealers) selling drugs to millions every day.
    Compare arrest numbers of Methamphetamine and cocaine far more expensive drugs.
    The biggest users of methamphetamine and cocaine are the rich whites.
    So the rich whites use their contacts to import meth/cocaine and then get Maori gangs
    to process and distribute.
    The police target (and the white media publicise) the Maori gangs who get caught and face prosecution where as the rich whites source and use and make the money with out getting caught
    And the white media is complicit and remains silent.
    White justice.
    White power.
    The biggest gangs in the country are the White right wing Government and the White media
    Always have been .
    Always will be.

    • Slight correction to your “white” owned alcohol companies.

      Dominion Breweries is whole owned by Asia Pacific Breweries based in Signapore (which is part owned by the evil “white” Heineken Breweries base in the Netherlands).

      Lion Breweries is wholly owned by the Japanese company Kirin Holding Company Ltd.

      The second wave of colonialism is well on the way (Asian population in New Zealand is the same size as Maori –800K+) with Asian companies owning more of New Zealand than “white” (or “brown”) owned companies.

      There is an opportunity in the very near future to become a player in the pharmaceutical industry were many of the large companies.

      “With scores of patents set to expire by 2030, big pharma companies could see a $200 billion loss in revenues due to fierce competition from generics.

      As a result, the 10 largest pharmaceutical companies globally are at risk of losing 46% of revenues. Adding to this, the U.S. government announced they may remove patent protection if certain drugs are too expensive in efforts to clamp down on high drug prices.”

      Worth a read; https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/worlds-50-largest-pharmaceutical-companies/

      So step up to the plate and put your money into KawaKawa leaf based anti pain medicines and develop herbal knowledge to market and world wide distribution.

  3. Cannabis prohibition has always been racist – not just here, but also in the US and elsewhere – because those disproportionately impacted by the legal status of this relatively harmless substance have always been non-white

  4. Maori Party at 5% is not credible.

    They are a 2.5%/3% Party on a good day with a following wind.

    Occasionally they will get a few extra Electorate Seats, from Labour (as in 2023) but, given their behaviour in Parliament will lose them in the next election which will bugger up Labour’s list completely on a low Party Vote.

  5. It is not harmless when it causes road and work accidents and it can have a very bad effect on some people with mental problems.
    Like alcohol some can tolerate its effect better than others.
    It can be beneficial to some and definitely medical Marijuana should be far easier and cheaper to get.

  6. Drug dealers should be executed because over a period of time they are killing people and destroying families .Users should have to do compulsory rehab for at least a year .Instead of building another jail we should build several large rehab centers .
    Drug dealers are worse than someone that kills one person and are worse than the fella that killed 51 in Christchurch .They have no right to be in our world driving around mass murdering people .

  7. Hopefully TPM will get to 8% meaning that Labour has to use them in a coalition
    That makes Labour unelectable
    9 more years of the coalition coming up!

    • Marshall, Labour will be asked if they can work with the maori party before the election (as will all other parties), we know NZ First/ACT/National will say no…Greens will say yes, this leaves Labour in a pickle, if they say no (which they should) they know they will struggle to form a govt, if they say yes they will lose a lot of votes as the maori party get more and more ridiculous in their rhetoric.
      Plus an added bonus is if Labour say yes, the campaign for the right speaks for itself…a vote for Labour is a vote for the maori party.
      They have to give a decision before the election, wonder what answer the leader will give YES/NO (Chippy will be long gone by that time)

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