Posts by Russell Brown
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New Zealand First welcomes the announcement that two synthetic drug strains linked to recent deaths will be classified as Class A under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, with additional funding support for community addiction services.
“New Zealand First has always taken a firm, common sense approach to illicit drug use,” says Spokesperson for Police Darroch Ball.
“The Class A classification is far more appropriate for synthetic drugs that have taken too many lives already. Introducing the new C1 category provides greater flexibility and responsiveness to bring new drugs into the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975.
“The measures announced today provide police with the right powers to combat dealers and manufacturers. This is targeted policing - giving greater search, surveillance and seizure powers, as well as harsher penalties for offenders,” Mr Ball added.
Police will also be given discretion in law to not prosecute users for possession and use depending on the seriousness and wider implications of the offence, and where they believe a therapeutic approach would be more beneficial.
The introduction of the Acute Drug Harm Response Discretionary Fund provides the support needed for communities to deal with addictions, overdoses and deaths. The fund allocates more resources for drug training in communities, as well as increased funding for Ministry of Health drug and alcohol initiatives.
“Synthetic drugs are a scourge on our communities. As Acting Prime Minister, Winston Peters called for swift government response following a spike the number of deaths caused by synthetic drugs.
“These measures will help those users who are suffering from addiction problems and mental health issues. We need to put the focus on saving lives and rehabilitation,” says Health Spokesperson Jenny Marcroft.
“Action against synthetics is vital. These changes will deliver an approach to turn around the harm caused by synthetic drugs,” added Ms Marcroft.
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The Drug Foundation's response: good start, but we really need to replace the Misuse of Drugs Act.
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Speaker: Cannabis: make it legal but…, in reply to SimonD,
but legalizing personal crops will radically reduce the profit and therefore any black market will be restricted to those with significant net worth who want the Rolls Royce of weed.
Or people who can't or don't want to grow their own. Which is a lot of people.
Growing bush weed or mass product hydroponic simply won’t be as profitable as growing lettuce. As for the issues with CBD and THC levels, if you need cannabis for pain relief then you will be able to obtain medical stuff from the chemist.
Medicinal cannabis products will be prescription-only, at least at first, and the approved conditions may be a very short list. It's far from certain that any whole cannabis flower will be approved. It doesn't really make sense to have to go to the doctor to get some chillout weed. As I noted above, the permissive medicinal regime in DC picks up the slack there, but that's not the system we're going to have here.
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This is essentially the system that Washington DC accidentally ended up with – it's legal to possess, use, grow and "gift", but commerce is forbidden.
It works pretty well – in part because a permissive medicinal regime takes up the slack – but there are still some issues, including weed being given away to promote other things.
I think there are some problems with forbidding commercial growing. It makes it impossible to standardise the product, and to deliver specific strains, including those with a less anxiogenic ratio of cannabinoids. If you end up with everyone getting the same (high THC/low CBD) weed as the black market was delivering, that's not necessarily a good result. Am I going to go to the bother of growing one strain for going to gigs or doing housework and another to relax and deal with my back pain? Probably not.
Also, growing your own in, say, an apartment isn't necessarily easy. It might still be easier to just go to the black market.
So I'm more in favour of a model where producers can get paid but retail supply is non-commercial: something like the cannabis social clubs of Europe. This has the additional benefit of providing tax revenue to help deal with the negative health effects of cannabis and other drugs.
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Hard News: A complicated pathway to wellness, in reply to linger,
The levers you’ve mentioned haven’t had much influence on that despite many tinkerings with settings over the past century (witness the extreme case of the “6 o’clock swill” as a reaction to early closing). Other levers might be more relevant (e.g. “responsible host” laws), but still offer only small parts of the solution.
Agreed. There's a case for saying that New Zealand's binge culture developed under the heaviest restrictions on availability. The 60s and 70s trend to giant suburban beer barns didn't help either.
I also wonder if, like a number of other stats, alcohol consumption over time in NZ is influenced by the baby boomer cohort.
https://teara.govt.nz/en/graph/40691/consumption-of-pure-alcohol-1960-2011
It's interesting that RTDs are the driver for a modest overall rise in consumption since 1999/2000 – which was, of course, the year that the drinking age was lowered.
Of course, this doesn't really show the most problematic drinking, including that leading to foetal alcohol syndrome, which is a massive, generational problem.
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Hard News: A complicated pathway to wellness, in reply to Neil,
It does however, as far as I can see, glide over the significant issues of how to deal with the small number of people who become extremely voilent on p and synthetics. Of course ultimately they should be offered treatment but in times of extreme crisis and risk there needs to be some form direct, immediate intervention which doesn’t sit well with other aspects of the report advocating less coercion.
I don't see that it curbs any ability for the state to deal with violent acts, which are subject to criminal law.
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But this, from the Colorado state government reporting is the interesting thing. Average THC levels in legal cannabis flower are lower than they were immediately after legalisation.
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Hard News: Getting serious about the…, in reply to billtaylor,
Russell. What’s your take on Bob McCoskrie’s story in the Herald today? If what he says is true, is there a worry with Big Marijuana and is the increased potency of marijuana a problem?
It's true, THC levels are getting higher – although that's been a trend in the black market for a long time. The US states (and now Canada) do regulate the dosage in edibles, which is where the problems really occurred after legalisation. Cannabis flower has to be tested for potency and that potency declared at sale.
It's entirely possible to regulate a maximum THC level. Or a set CBD ratio, which is the thing that goes under the radar – CBD levels have dropped sharply in black market weed in the past 20 years, and that's not actually a good thing. Under legalisation, higher-CBD strains are widely available in Colorado and elsewhere.
The thing is, selecting cannabis solely on its THC potency is actually kinda dumb. Research on cannabis social clubs in Europe found that many people like the clubs because they provided access to weed that wasn't rocket fuel.
Also, literally no one – least of all the local reform advocates – wants Big Marijuana to be a player in New Zealand. That's why there's strong support in the activist community for the non-profit-at-retail model.
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Hard News: When drug law gets so…, in reply to WH,
I’m not sure your take on the “real world” of drug use justifies the abolition of the Misuse of Drugs Act or the legalisation of recreational drugs.
Because the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 has been such a marvellous success? One of the other ways the current government is dropping the ball is apparently forgetting all about the reboot of MoDA that was supposed to begin in this term. I'd like to see that happen.
Rip it up and start again? Who knew that drug laws and health care could be so complicated.
Well, clearly they are. But there are better ways forward.
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