And there are many, many reasons

Professional competence probably does exist, but likely is only detectable on a chance basis.…

That's one theory, based on the idea that dopamine chasing is 100% of human motivation. Which is…

Off the top of my head those were basically set up by a Labour govt in the 1930's, last century. And a claw back of those reforms basically got underway from the 1970-80's. Under different policy settings oddly enough started by a Labour govt…

Just remember: half the voters have below-average intelligence! Imagine the enormous queues that will develop at…

Those social reasons are themselves based on dopamine release and are follwed by a depletion period where peolpe are less pro-social. It’s the…

I think there's a difference between allowing commerce on the production…

I've been quite surprised by the praise for Danyl's essay, because I rather strongly…

A two-stage referendum sounds like a good idea, even if it is run at the same…

As per Joe's post option 3 or 4 seem the better ones, and maybe "gangs" could be part of the licensed retailers or growers. As long as a person can grow a few plants of their own if they want. An upper limit could…

It just seems like with their one wish we have a binding referendum where people who can't score think it is somehow OK to bash gangs in public so they can avoid growing their own.

I don't know what kind of cabbage the Green…

https://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/question-important-%E2%80%98bit-detail%E2%80%99

As she points out her friend who had the same dose as her was fine and able to comfort her. Individual differences make a difference. I dont want to downplay how traumatic it must have been for her. She writes "at a time when I was…

What about New Zealand's pharmacovigilance regulators? Wouldn't they undertake assessment of specfic subspecies of weed in the event of legalisation? It'd be interesting to see if any human genome research has…

Citizen's initiated whatsit, if there's time?

Seems the juxtaposition would be quite amusing.

What with Family First and National talking up that one guy in Canada once who might've died from smoking pot non stop for 45…

Ross Smith is evidence that marijuana does not cure psycopathic xenophobia disorders.

From Colin Hogg (September 2018)

https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/books/96585330/smoking-usa-colin-hoggs-marijuana-roadtrip

I can relate to The Mother Factor but beginning to loathe the white entitlement anti gang argument also being used by Greens.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/chl%C3%B6e-swarbrick/cannabis-referendum-faq/844322729236701/

If they're making that connection, they are the only ones doing it
helius
These guys need to watch the doco's about Fyre festival. I just wonder who the gullible fools are hes tapping for finance. And Ross Smith sounds no better.
40 yrs…

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/medicinal-cannabis-could-new-zealands-next-major-growth-paul-manning/

At the bottom is Ross Smith, googling a block of text from his linkedin background data brought up a bunch…

These guys ran billboard advertising campaign in Auckland end of last year and state publicly they have a commercial growing operation in East Tamaki:

https://www.helius.co.nz/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj5Sd3BRm_I

https://www.familyfirst.org.nz/2019/01/pill-testing-is-a-furphy-that-can-only-spread-drug-usage/

Amusingly, the article that Family First cites here includes a harm minimisation perspective from Dr Alex Wodak from the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation:
https://www.catholicweekly.com.au/pill-testing-arguments-for-and-against/

And this is who he is, and what he…

"Drug Free Australia is affiliated with conservative organisations including the Australian Family Association and [the…

repressed lols only

another failing that can be laid at the feet of neolib policies enacted by various govts over the past 40 yrs.

That depends how you define addiction, of course! Scientists agreed marijuana…

No, but I think the concept may make a useful metric to measure worthiness of proposals on the table. For me, modifying factors that impact illicit drug trade seems a lot more pragmatic than any return to a "legal high" environment.…

https://my420tours.com/many-dispensaries-denver-colorado/

The harm reduction logic is so lacking from the Greens – in particular legalization will remove a barrier for 16.5% of…

Fake.

Google pointed me here:

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/man-credited-with-decriminalizing-drugs-in-portugal-not-sure-legal-cannabis-is-the-right-move-1.4131841

and looking up who McCrosrie is I don't see anything that spinny here:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12167590

On the other hand the messaging from Green party seems confused, the only fact I could spot being our countries large appetite for drugs:

https://www.greens.org.nz/news/press-release/parliament-must-take-historic-opportunity-make-changes-drug-harm-reduction…

Who then proceed to welcome the Brexits and Donald Trumps of this world – or have just emerged from their fallout bunkers and denied they've happened…

I’m not presenting this as an objection to legalisation or decriminalisation rather as an…

I'm not sure the assumption is that it's straightforward, it's just that they're not left completely unaddressed. We do have mental…

No, but there’s been a tendency to say – marijuana is for the large majority mostly innocuous but for the very few for which it isn’t the mental…

Sure. But it doesn't overpower the attention paid to very, very much larger numbers of people who are at less risk. It seems to me that specialized legislation for those groups is…

No it doesn’t. But I think it’s an issue that needs to be urgently addressed along with the legislation. If this is about harm reduction then attention should be paid to those…

Cannabis 8% "in young adults (15-34 years) in the last year" Also, from a year ago: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/dec/05/portugals-radical-drugs-policy-is-working-why-hasnt-the-world-copied-it

"Portugal’s remarkable recovery, and the fact that it has held steady through several changes in government – including conservative leaders who would have…

Yes?
It is a serious topic as the blog heading says. Yet some of those who will decide this issue on our behalf, insist on thinking it can be used as a political football. And I will subject any such utterances to ridicule.
Sorry if that…

Funny I find everything she said and the way she said it ridiculous, slimy, and completely without merit. The way she brought adolescent mental health issues into it is dog whistle politics at its worst. An age restriction can always be put on the sale(if legalised) of…

It sure is. I don't see it bringing a great deal to bear on the question of legalizing cannabis for the general public, that acute mental health units can't currently stop illegal drugs being brought in. Perhaps the solution to that doesn't involve taking away…

Thats quite a specific problem. I dont think this legislation is intended to address this kind of thing. Harm reduction is something of a misnomer its very difficult to stop people doing something that is harmful to them, If…

I was thinking more specifically of people in acute mental health inpatient settings. People bringing drugs onto those units is a very…

The doctor wont be a moment he's just outside pissing on his hedge ]]

[[https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/top/380681/marijuana-has-potentially-devastating-effects-on-young-people-bennett | Paula Bennett doing her best to hide behind the children and waffling on about framing the question, And how she didnt like pot when she tried it because it made her realize she…

If a person has an addiction they will usually seek it out themselves, and they will go to criminals if that is the only place to get it.
Pot dealers generally arent pushers, someone selling meth often is. But I dont know every drug…

If someone is already mentally unwell then they may lack the insight and judgement to make the best choice. And there will be the parasites pushing drugs at them for money.

I haven’t seen the government address…

Meth will do that to you, thats why it was used by troops during recent wars.

Marijuana can amplify paranoia, if you are that why inclined dont use it.
Tho it does take some self knowledge to know if you are that way inclined.
And…

This already causes a great deal of harm. The naive and unscrupulous often traffic drugs into mental health units…

They were both ripped as a pair of chooks?

It definitely is not. I don't think it matters much. Their leadership is a sideshow to their bloc popularity – even their own supporters don't take Bridges seriously.

I'm skeptical but I think it's what we should aim for.

If we do end up getting a referendum,…

I note that Joe has briefly commented above. I also note that he looks suspiciously similar to Frank Zappa in the early seventies! Anyway, good to see that he's willing to participate in the commentariat discussion of the issues.

If…

This just blows the concept that there are two equal and opposing views in this debate to smithereens Yet these comfortably well off commentators on their media pulpits will continue to have printed their scaremongering, moralizing, fact free screeds.
All that happens is…

I was thinking the term half-pie was intended as a slur similar to the term half-baked but your defense of decriminalization as an incremental step makes a lot of sense to me.

"Where, in the last few years, have we heard drug law reform advocates arguing that we need to legalise cannabis because it's safe?"…

Quite the opposite, Russell. I went to the NZMA site yesterday and was disappointed to find the controversial editorial, which was being widely discussed in the media,…

In this very thread!

We’re talking about Joe Boden’s cannabis editorial for the New Zealand Medical Association Journal – which is…

That’s the grossest level framework that applies to this, although I tend to think the right to drive has…

"Friday's editorial in the NZMJ urging caution in how the law is changed was written by Research Associate Professor…

1. Where, in the last few years, have we heard drug law reform advocates arguing that we need to legalise cannabis…

This happened with me and computer games, although I do know people still caught in that vice, even at my extreme age.

That's precisely what we found as well with the Christchurch Health and Development Study data. Being arrested or convicted of a cannabis-related offence had no effect on subsequent involvement with cannabis.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12681525

The evidence seems to be that while inhaling smoke is clearly bad for your lungs,…

I wonder how is that going to work. What is the plan for the legality of tobacco in future?

As someone who has smoked more than my fair share of tobacco and pot I personally consider them both highly addictive and…

Even if were proved to make the roads quantifiably less safe this would not necessarily be a knock down argument against a law change. It would be grist to the mill, a thing…

A pointer that intelligent tech design is the way forward for accurate medication, for those who need that. Self medicating with herb can be…

Yes, or we could fail to go SmokeFree by 2025 and still change our cannabis laws. I can't really see what the connection is.

government never apologized to health department and parents for synthetics debacle

That government is gone, so this…

We can do two things at the same time.

government never apologized to health department and parents for synthetics debacle

Synthetics were being sold in dairies before the Psychoactive Substances Act, which radically reduced the number of…

* we should be focused on our country being smokefree 2025 first and foremost
* government never apologized to health department and parents for synthetics debacle
* adding recreational pot to binge drinking culture does not make our roads safer

People who take time to read, study, consider: "Ivory tower academics", "out of touch elites".

People who don't bother: "Free speech, so there!'

Media: "We provide balance: cite evidence on one side = got reckons on the other!"

It's going to be…

That leaves us with anecdote dominating the discussions.

We really know relatively little about how cannabinoids in marijuana affect the body and brain. What…

She doesn't really have a point there, does she? But she's certainly very determined to make it.

The part where…

Berenson doubles down on some pretty dodgy racial stuff. Ick.

That's the plan. I actually found the response to last month's the-year-that-was post very motivating.

Yeah, quite.

I'm surprised a *lawyer* did not have a word. Sellman is already paving that road…