Path to drug reform not an easy one in New Zealand

The Prime Minister is unmoved by a poll for the Drug Foundation showing most New Zealanders now support legalising, or at least decriminalising, cannabis. His reluctance is understandable. The last time the Government went down this road, with synthetic cannabis, it got its fingers burned.

It is easy to agree, as 64 per cent of those polled did, that possession for personal use should not be a crime. It is almost as easy to agree with the 52 per cent who would decriminalise its cultivation for personal use. But if the purpose is to save police time, it would probably do the reverse. How would police know a person found in possession of cannabis, or cultivating it, had no more than an amount permitted for personal use? And if cannabis was merely decriminalised, remaining illegal, what are police supposed to do about it? Their job is easier when crime is clearly defined.

But ease of law enforcement is not the decisive consideration. The law should regulate drugs to the extent necessary to minimise the harm they can do.

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Thumbnail: Flickr CC Adria Vidal