Why proposed synthetic cannabis law change, meth tests & roadside drug tests highlight how juvenile NZ political culture really is

The proposed changes to synthetic cannabis, meth tests and roadside drug tests truly highlight the  juvenile NZ political culture that strangles off adult discussion about drugs in this country.

Chloe’s attempt at a rational debate in Parliament was met by hypercritical and gutless cowards who voted to allow people to kill themselves if they were in pain but not smoke a joint if they are in pain, but that failure is just a symptom of a far wider fuckwittedness when it comes to discussing drugs in NZ.

The pure madness with demanding harsher sentences for the sale of synthetic cannabis is a personal highlight of our fuckwittedness. National are using the sad death of one person on this drug to justify rising the sentences from 2 years to 8 years. Apart from the ghoulishness of National manipulating the grief of a NZ family to look tough on crime, the simple truth is that all this will do is make things far, far, far worse.

The joke here is that NZ tried to have an adult response to synthetics with a legislative process that would have forced all synthetics to be approved as safe before sale, but because the politicians dragged their feet, no products were ever put through that process and that created a flood of synthetics brought into the country that were 800 times more powerful than the original ‘chronic’ and this of course caused over doses and Parliament pulled the entire legislative platform and made them all illegal again.

Hilariously the ONLY reason why there is a synthetic market is because we make actual cannabis – which is far less damaging than synthetics – illegal.

So what’s National’s response? Make the price far more expensive and allow heavier organised crime to move into the market to sell this crap.

You want synthetics gone? Legalise Cannabis you fuckwits.

Here’s another bullshit brain fart…

“Moral panic” over methamphetamine contamination under a proposed new law allowing landlords to throw people out of rented premises with seven days notice will cause worse problems than it solves.

This is the view of the New Zealand Drug Foundation which opposes draconian proposals in the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill being considered by MPs.

The Drug Foundation’s submission reflects several other groups’ concerns about tenants copping blame for contamination they didn’t cause, and being made homeless in tight rental markets.

…let’s be clear. If someone smokes meth in a house, there is no mass poisoning or health danger. Former cops who run ‘meth contamination’ scam companies have scared the insurance industry and landlords  into believing merely smoking meth leads to houses that are cancer. The truth is that is a lie, but NZers are so immature when it comes to drug use that they can’t differentiate between illegal use and actual science.

The Salvation Army were damning in their analysis…

‘The previous Government used incidents of methamphetamine contamination of state houses as a moral panic to create the public perception that this problem was rife in our state housing stock and the current government seems to have been gripped by the same panic,’ Lt-Colonel Hutson says.

…this blind panic is what is driving road side drug tests…

The ministry said drugged driving was a significant problem and that one in 13 drivers killed on the road have medications in their system that could have impaired their driving.

The number could be one in nine if recreational drugs were factored in, it said.

In its road safety briefing to the new government it said, while contentious, random roadside saliva testing would deter people from driving on drugs.

However, associate Transport Minister Julie-Anne Genter said there were major problems with the method.

“I have some concerns around the roadside saliva testing – it’s extremely expensive, it’s around $30 or $40 a test.

“We already have an extremely effective impairment test which is over 90 percent effective usually backed up by 100 percent accurate blood tests,” Ms Genter said.

…again we aren’t looking at actual impairment caused by cannabis use, we are just catching people who test positive.

Time and time and time again we over react with panic, fear and anger at drug use rather than attempt reasonable adult debate and the irony is we do all this with a straight face as the country drowns in booze – a drug far, far, far more lethal than meth, cannabis and synthetics combined.

We are a country with all the intellectual maturity of a can of day old coke.