Opinion Piece

It’s been in the newspaper headlines, but a colleague of mine saw the synthetic cannabis crisis up close recently. Green MP Julie Anne-Genter was looking out an Auckland restaurant window and saw a man having a seizure on the footpath, rolling towards a busy road. She acted, called an ambulance and protected him from traffic.

His was another case of terrible side-effects from this dangerous synthetic drug. Every day we are hearing more disturbing stories like this — of addiction, seizures and hearts stopping after smoking synthetic cannabis. Tragically, in the last month alone we’ve seen nine deaths linked to it.

People across New Zealand are smoking this product because it’s easier to get than natural, but illegal, cannabis. It’s yet another example of the dismal failure of our cannabis prohibition laws.

For decades, the country has spent a small fortune of taxpayers’ money, used up countless police officer hours, and clogged up our courts and prisons chasing people for using a substance that’s never killed a single person. The evidence is clear — this approach has failed. Prohibition didn’t work for alcohol, why would it work for a plant?

I first broke the law when I was a teenager, under the pedestrian bridge by the Botanical Gardens. A few mates and I had acquired a joint, and we cycled to this covert spot to commit “the crime”. Sitting on the dirt, with the river burbling, I’ll admit I was nervous.

What happened? We laughed and we thought we were hilarious. A friend who spotted smoke coming up from the bridge found us and thought we weren’t so clever. The law though, it thought we were criminals.

Many readers will have their own first-time story as more than 40 percent of adults have tried it at least once. Some will have stories about engaging with gangs to get it, and others who avoided medical advice or help because they were scared of the consequences. All of us, however, pay through our taxes nearly $200 million a year on cannabis enforcement.

I believe it’s time to change policy so we can take a health-approach, get the gangs out and, instead of throwing money down a bottomless hole, raise tax revenue instead. The evidence is clear — the smartest thing we could do is legalise and establish a regulated, safe and taxed market. This would help to get cannabis out of the hands of teenagers like I was.

Doing this wouldn’t be a bold step into unknown waters; it would be following a growing list of countries and states that have found decriminalisation or legalisation a safer and smarter policy.

Last year I met with the head of the Colorado State department responsible for cannabis regulation and found they haven’t seen an increase in youth use but they’ve definitely seen a massive increase in tax revenue. The first year’s revenue exceeded projections and in the second year the state had an additional $129m to spend on school construction, drug safety projects and general needs. It works and that’s why I support it here.

This election, voters have a real choice on this issue. The Green Party supports medicinal cannabis and would establish a legal, regulated market for those over eighteen years old.

The East Coast is famous for a lot of things; one is cannabis growing skills. The region could harness our excellent growing conditions and benefit from new jobs and industries. In 2017, it’s high time to adopt evidence-based policies and grow a richer future.

Gareth Hughes. Picture by Liam Clayton