Greens renew call for evidence-based cannabis regulation
The Green Party has renewed its call for evidence-based cannabis regulation, on the fifth anniversary of a referendum in which the public voted only narrowly against legalisation.
“Five years ago, 1.4 million New Zealanders voted on each side of the Cannabis Legalisation and Control Referendum. Today, the Greens continue to work for sensible, evidence-based regulation to reduce harm,” says Green Party Co-Leader Chlöe Swarbrick.
“Those who campaigned against legal regulation of cannabis could not defend the harm of criminal prohibition – the best they could muster was critique of legalisation. So today we’re launching an online platform for New Zealanders to tell us what they think sensible regulation could look like.
The last referendum was twisted by NZ Christian groups with money from American Churches, we should absolutely push the issue again.
Legalise weed and build a specific taxation system around it.
If cannabis were legalised, the New Zealand industry could employ about 5000 people and reap almost $1.1 billion in taxes a year, two in-depth reports by Business and Economic Research Ltd have shown.
Half the taxation should be ring fenced for rehabilitation services so people with addiction can be actually get healed.
We currently spend around $235m on addiction services, imagine what we could do with an extra $500million?
Instead we have a medicinal cannabis market for the middle classes, and that is ultimately the class issue at the heart of our drug laws.
If you are white and middle class, drug laws aren’t a problem, if you are brown or poor, they are used to destroy you.
That’s the reality of our drug laws…
Police bias questions with more Māori charged with cannabis-related crimes than Pākehā
…it’s class oppression aimed at punishing you for not being a productive unit of capitalism if you are too poor to fight the charges, if you have the money, leniency always happens.
Social policy shouldn’t cause moire harm and reinforce existing bigotry, it should focus on healing those addicted and not punish those who use drugs recreationally and have no issues with it.
This punitive model only empowers the State to punish and damage their own citizens rather than treat them like adults and help those who are addicted.
We want a local cannabis model that favours a craft beer approach rather than a mega corporation with an R20 age restriction and ring fenced revenue.
Limit on stores with a focus on small clubs and vaporisers.
The Greens should pick this up and run with it.
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Cannabis should be legalized, no question. But let’s not fool ourselves. Criminal gangs will take over the commercial production. They already have expertise, money, and a good supply of Vietnamese migrants to do the work.
My main concern is that any legislation includes the right for people like me who just want to grow a few plants each year in their greenhouse for their own use