Moral failure of cannabis reform

Making cannabis legal. Or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bong. Earlier this month, Canada became just the second country, after Uruguay, to legalise cannabis for recreational, as well as medicinal, use.

Like Canada, New Zealand is considered a country of great common sense and equanimity. Like Canada, New Zealand is considering its stance on cannabis use. We are to hold a referendum on legalising it, as part of an agreement between Labour and the Greens. Coalition partner NZ First held a conference last week to discuss the subject; and even hard-nosed former Police Minister Judith Collins has appeared to raise an eyebrow in resignation of late.

Massey University has gone a little further. Its survey of more than 6300 people suggested many are in favour of legalisation, with 27 per cent preferring home production, while 21 plumped for a profit-driven commercial market.

Whether it makes some sort of sense is one thing; the Greens, the academics and the research suggest that’s the case. Whether it’s the right thing to do, well, that’s quite another.

In the aftermath of Canada’s big shift, our colleagues in North America had their say. An editorial in the Globe and Mail said the ‘‘leap’’ was both epic and overblown. ‘‘Overblown because, in one critical way, nothing will change.’’ Nothing will change. Really?

Like New Zealand, Canada is recognising that a significant number use it regularly enough that it is easy to obtain and relatively cheap. Canada has merely recognised the status quo through legislation, and acknowledged its inability to do much more than better manage it. That involves addressing the apparent pointlessness of convicting people for whom marijuana has become a sorry form of muscle memory.

But there is something the research does not highlight nor the survey address. It’s a sense of moral failure; a societal shrugging of the shoulders.

We are considering legalising cannabis largely because the horse has bolted, not because of any desire to keep it locked up. We will simply move the numbers, and associated issues, from one Crown agency ledger to another. From Justice to Health.

Aside from the few who will enjoy the odd puff from time to time there are a great many who rely on it to relieve the stresses of marginalisation. For them it is not an instrument of a highly functioning society but an escape pod. They represent a small but significant portion of society who appear to be paying a bigger price for the gains of others; one that we are willing to allow them to pay.

Fifty years ago, the unemployed could be accommodated in a medium-sized school hall; today they are one part of an acceptable sum that balances the economy for others. It was not that long ago that homelessness would have been deemed shocking, unacceptable; these days we accept it as collateral damage in a ruthless housing market.

We recognise that the numbers may say legalising cannabis use makes sense. But we are concerned about what that acceptance says about the kind of society we have become.

‘‘We are considering legalising cannabis largely because the horse has bolted, not because of any desire to keep it locked up.’’