Why Cannabis & Euthanasia should be a referendum and why Abortion should not

There has been a lot of handwringing from Fairfax about MPs passing the buck on Cannabis and Euthanasia to referendums.

Cannabis and Euthanasia need to be referendums while Abortion should not.

Cannabis must be a referendum because the gutless coward MPs who have destroyed so many lives with prohibition can not be trusted to act like adults and stop demonising cannabis users. Look at the horror that MPs caused with synthetic cannabis, how many NZers lie dead in the ground because of that abomination of spinelessness?

Cannabis reform must be forced upon the coward MPs by the people because the coward MPs won’t budge and will continue to harm the people with prohibition, so a referendum really is our only mechanism for change because the coward MPs can’t be trusted.

Euthanasia is another issue that must be decided by the people. Look at the appalling way the State ‘cares’ for the mentally ill, prisoners, beneficiaries, state tenants and wards of the state. In each case, the state deforms and maims the most vulnerable DESPITE having a duty of care. Once you take the duty of care muzzle off the snarling state, the way euthanasia does, the coercion to allow the weakest and most vulnerable to die is a greased slippery slope. Everyone must be involved in the decision to remove that duty of care and unleash the snarling state upon the weakest so that when the first coercion news stories roll in after Euthanasia is legalised, we can’t simply turn around and blame the MPs, because we will have collectively made that decision.

Abortion is different, cannabis and euthanasia effect us all and so we must all collectively have a say on that, abortion however is between the woman having the abortion and the Dr she is seeing. Allowing the tyranny of the majority to dictate to a woman what she can and can not do with her body for a unique event that only impacts women is a grotesque dereliction of political leadership and as thus is a decision that MPs should be forced to make and not hand out to the electorate.

For controversial issues that impact everyone (everyone has the choice to smoke and everyone will die at some point) we require referendums because that’s the right thing to do in creating a mandate, however issues of social justice that impact groups who don’t have power require leadership from the political class.

That’s why Euthanasia and Cannabis need to be decided by referendum and why abortion should not.