Simplistic referendum, gutless politicians, inequitable results
IHAVE never smoked weed, unless you count the dried dock seeds I used to roll up in brown paper and pretend they were tobacco.
Well, the seeds looked like tobacco, kind of, so it followed they would taste like it too. They didn’t.
I like to see that primary school experimentation as an early foray into scientific thinking — come up with a hypothesis and test it — although I suspect the scientist in the family would scoff.
I wonder if I had used proper cigarette papers if it would have been more palatable and I would have wasted fewer matches. Yeah, nah.
Another example of this brilliant thinking was me treating myself to a feast of leaves from our rose bushes. I figured that since our pet lambs found them delicious, it was logical I would also be wowed by their flavour. I expected them to be juicy, but they were dry and nondescript.
Don’t try either of these ideas at home would be the most sensible scientific advice I could give readers now.
Unlike, it seems, many of our politicians, I have never tried cannabis. It has simply never interested me, though I used to smoke cigarettes and even now could be sorely tempted by a passing waft of delicious cigar smoke.
I am not proud to say I have been known to be a bit judgy about dope smokers. There is something I find irritating about the faux secrecy around it — grownups acting like kids sneaking off to the school bike sheds for a ciggie.
Accordingly, many of those who know me might be surprised I voted yes in the recent cannabis referendum.
I am trying not to be like a disgruntled Trump supporter (and at least I don’t have anything more lethal than a watersquirting child’s bath toy) in the aftermath of the referendum, even though I am a loser. The final tally showed 50.7% voted against supporting the proposed Cannabis Legislation and Control Bill and 48.4% for it.
As I have said before, I am not a fan of referendums. It is hard to frame questions sensibly and usually the issues are complex and not suited to a yes or no response. There is no room for the nuance of ‘‘yes, but . . .’’ or ‘‘no, but . . .’’.
The folly of the flag referendums showed how silly they can be. The first referendum asked ‘‘If the New Zealand flag changes, which flag would you prefer?’’, and we were asked to rank five alternative designs. The winner was then put up against the existing flag in the final referendum. Because it was such a dog’s breakfast, it was impossible to know how many people might have wanted a change but voted for the status quo because they hated the alternative.
In the cannabis referendum, there may have been people who wanted change but perhaps thought some of the aspects of the Bill went too far. Since the Bill would have had to go through the usual select committee process, when the public would have been able to make submissions, then concerns could have been dealt with then.
What has baffled me is what people who voted no think about the existing situation. Is it really OK that criminals are controlling the supply of this drug which is readily available to teenagers? Or do the no voters think that by voting no, somehow the sale and use of cannabis just disappears?
The Labour Party stance on it has been gutless. Justice Minister Andrew Little, who was a yes voter, has basically said that because the party went through with its agreement with the Greens to organise a referendum, its job is done — the people have spoken and that is the end of the matter.
Jacinda Ardern’s decision not to tell anyone how she was voting was not her finest hour. It seemed more designed not to frighten conservative voters than anything else. Her argument about not muddying the waters for voters was spurious. If we are expected to believe politicians enter the fray because they want to make the world a better place, then shouldn’t they be doing their darndest to push for the things they believe will do that?
She, Mr Little and their colleagues know that the existing situation means Maori are far more likely to be stopped, searched, arrested, and convicted for minor drug offences than nonMaori. Police discretion is not working fairly and, given the inherent bias that seems to be part of police culture around this, it is hard to see that changing any time soon.
It is time for the Government to reconsider its position. Burying its head in the sand seems as childish and silly as me smoking dock seeds and eating rose leaves.