Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: More medical cannabis…, in reply to Mitch Stein,
In the spirit of accuracy and as indicated in my initial letter, I am a film producer, not director. Let’s not give directors a bad name. ;)
Oops, let me fix that :-)
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Here’s the updated Customs advice. It basically says two different things: that the product must have been “lawfully supplied” – and then the update, noting that nearly all US cannabis products can’t be carried. It also says such products will be “seized”, but nothing about detention or expulsion.
Interestingly, the cited authority on this part of the Prohibited Goods regulations is .... The Ministry of Health.
Private persons
The Misuse of Drugs Act (MODA) has an exemption for people entering or leaving the country, with up to one month’s supply of a controlled drug. The drug must have been lawfully supplied to the person overseas for the purpose of treating a medical condition. Customs officers seize cannabis and other controlled drugs at the border when they are not satisfied that the controlled drug has been lawfully supplied for the purpose of treating a medical condition: http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/0116/latest/DLM436242.html
If you are arriving into New Zealand carrying a controlled drug either on your person or in your luggage you must ensure:
you are carrying the controlled drug for yourself, or on behalf of someone travelling with you in your care or control (eg, parent/child or nurse/patient)
you declare the possession of the controlled drug on your incoming passenger arrival card which is lawfully required, and inspected, by the New Zealand Customs Service
you have a copy of the prescription from your doctor or a letter from your doctor stating that you are being treated with the controlled drug(s), the name of the drug and the applicable dosage
supply of the controlled drug specified in the prescription or letter is lawful in the country that the controlled drug was dispensed
you carry the controlled drug(s) in their original containers
you have a quantity not exceeding one month’s supply of the controlled drug.Cannabis-based products for medical use supplied in the United States
Most cannabis-based products supplied in the United States of America cannot be carried with you when entering or leaving New Zealand.
Federal law in the United States prohibits the supply of most cannabis-based products. This means that under New Zealand law, cannabis-based products for medical use from the United States cannot be considered lawfully supplied, even with a doctor’s authorisation for the product.
Three cannabis-based pharmaceuticals (Marinol, Syndros and Cesamet) are federally approved and can be imported provided you meet the terms of the exemption.
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Okay … I’ll write this up in more detail soon, but it appears that a view on the status of US medical cannabis imports came in the first instance from Crown Law (in response to the DEA email noted above by Chris Fowlie). I’m not clear whether Customs was advised directly by Crown Law, but that seems to be the vibe. On the other hand (see the comment below), Customs' cited authority on what is permitted is the Ministry of Health.
There are actually three US “medical cannabis” products with FDA approval, which can still be imported under the revised New Zealand policy – Marinol, Syndrol and Cesamet – which are all synthetically produced, i.e. not derived from cannabis plant.
This does create a significant problem for Minister Dunne, who wants people to use the the existing approval process, because that that process is now quite broken.
I think domestic production, initially for product development and trialling, looks pretty attractive now. But that’s not a quick or cheap process.
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Well ... I bailed up Peter Dunne about this and he says Customs acted on Crown Law advice.
I suspect Crown Law is, like Customs, taking advice from the Ministry of Health, but if it's Crown Law who's responsible for Mr Stein's treatment, then questions need to be asked there. Who the hell thought this was a fair approach?
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Capture: Laneway 2017 - Park Life, in reply to JacksonP,
with all the iPhone selfies and suchlike out in the world
There were so many people taking selfies!
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The Veils in the late sun at the Fountain stage.
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This intrigued me: a little set of relay speakers for the Princes Street stage, only on the left-hand side. Never seen that before.
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This comment from Chris Fowlie on Facebook is interesting:
NORML has been leaked an internal document showing their "legal advice" is an email from the DEA, which recommends not allowing any US botanical cannabis as, in their opinion, not being approved by the FDA is the definition of "lawfully obtained". Never mind every supplement out there that carries the standard statement "not approved or evaluated by the FDA"!
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Oh, and you'll be seeing this on TV. From the statement:
While removing all of our packed items from our suitcases and bags and throwing them in indiscriminate piles on the Customs tables, the Customs agent interrogated me and my wife as if we were common criminals, asking incredibly personal and mostly irrelevant questions about our lives (to make matters worse, we were filmed by a cameraman for the TV show Border Patrol ; not wanting to in any way appear anything but law-abiding and cooperative, I agreed, but I requested that both of our faces be blurred).
And:
After spending nearly 3 hours in Customs, we were then escorted to Immigration, where we waited for several more hours, at which point the police officer reappeared and expressed surprise that we were still there (the Border Patrol cameraman also showed up and mysteriously knew the access code or had a swipe card for the locked Immigration office door; we also saw the cameraman coach the Customs agent get on how to enter then re-exit the Immigration office for the best dramatic effect).
We call this kind of coaching "the magic of television".
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Hard News: More medical cannabis…, in reply to Stephen R,
Even if they decided Stein couldn’t bring the marajuana into New Zealand, I don’t understand why they deported him instead of just confiscating it. He declared it FFS.
And he said in the Checkpoint interview that he offered (naturally) to surrender the cannabis if he could be allowed entry. The long-term harm the refusal of entry has done to him manifestly unfair and unreasonable. It's bullshit.
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