Norway model

Norway’s parliament has voted to decriminalize all illegal drugs and on the same day we see the front page story on the Nelson Mail ‘‘Meth-fuelled violence hits nightlife’’. New Zealand’s punitive and out dated prohibition is obviously not working. We must admit that making a highly addictive drug like ‘‘P’’ illegal does not stop people using it.

It is great that journalist like Katy Jones are writing about the realities of meth in New Zealand. It is a sad and ugly picture and we need to address it with wisdom and compassion for all of the victims, including those addicted to it.

Norway has learned from the Portugal experience of watching their drug problems vastly reduced once they made all drug use a health issue and not an expensive and ineffective criminal issue like we do now. Maybe we should send Katy to Portugal so she could come back and write about a process that actually works.

New Zealand’s parliament needs to modernise it’s 35 year old misuse of drugs act and dump the prohibition process which is just not working for anyone except those making money from our soul-destroying prison industry. We never read about cannabis– fuelled violence, just saying.