TESTING TIMES
A Samoan policeman has sacrificed two years of his family life to complete groundbreaking research into cannabis here in New Zealand. As he finally prepares to jet home, discovers how his work will both lay the bedrock for the plant’s legalisation and hel
Aquietly spoken police officer in trademark black boots and blueon-blue is hunched over a table examining a thick fist of cannabis.
In Samoa, Kent Onesemo is a father-of-three and one of the country’s 10 forensic police officers, but for the past two years he’s swapped that life for this laboratory in the Auckland suburb of Sandringham and the chance to undertake a groundbreaking study on one of today’s key social issues: cannabis.
His landmark thesis centres around two factors – how strong different types of cannabis are, and how to tell where it has been grown. And now his findings are being considered a vital baseline for future research and exactly the sort of information that New Zealand policy-makers need ahead of the upcoming referendum to decriminalise cannabis.
But the long hours working with the drug chemistry team from the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) is one thing. Onesemo has also found himself having to organise imports of cannabis into New Zealand from Samoa, something he’s discovered is no easy feat.
Onesemo speaks so demurely it’s hard to hear what he is saying. But he laughs out loud when asked if he brought the Samoan cannabis samples to New Zealand in his carry-on.
But because the 27-year-old’s research is funded by a Science Support Award and represents a collaborative effort between Samoa and New Zealand police, the University of Auckland and ESR, he wanted to be able to compare cannabis varieties from the Pacific Islands with samples collected by New Zealand police during national operations.
This, he hoped, would help him pinpoint the origins of different strains of cannabis and if they can be traced back to specific location by using what are called ‘‘elemental profiles’’.
So in July last year,
Onesemo flew home to the Samoan island of Upolu and spent several weeks convincing the head of narcotics, and then the commissioner of police, to source the samples and sign the paperwork.
After some back-and-forth sorting out licenses, Onesemo got his wish.
‘‘That was a big win for my thesis – and also for Samoa. It took a while, but I got there.’’
Being able to have samples from both countries was a big win for Onesemo, who says that although there’s been a lot of research into the health effects of high potency cannabis, his research is the first time the spotlight has been turned on Samoa.
It’s also been invaluable in updating information about New Zealand cannabis that was last gained 10 years ago. One finding he can share is that Samoan cannabis is not as potent as New Zealand varieties.
NZ DRUG Foundation executive director Ross Bell says New Zealand has needed Onesemo’s research for a very long time.
And ahead of the referendum on personal cannabis use which will be held at the 2020 general election – recent polling about which suggests the country is heading towards decriminalisation – he says we still lack critical data which would help establish a regulated legal cannabis market and a gauge for what kinds of cannabis would be allowed to be sold.
Ross reckons this research can ultimately lead to decisions being made on whether you can put a cap on how potent cannabis can be or, for example, whether you would tax really potent cannabis more highly than mild cannabis in a similar way to how we currently tax stronger alcohol such as spirits compared to beer.
‘‘We have a whole lot of baseline information we really need to get done now, so that if we were all going to vote yes at the referendum and create this regulated market, then we could start tracking the effectiveness or otherwise of those changes,’’ Bell says. NOW his studies are complete, Onesemo is turning his attention to more important matters – his home life.
Just a couple of days after we meet in his ESR laboratory, he jetted home to his wife Isabella Tuala and children Lauina (5), Angelo (4) and Fuiolevaga (2) on Friday – just the fourth time he’s flown back in the full two years of study.
For Onesemo, his career specialisation has grown out of an undergraduate interest in forensic toxicology. He was given a report to do on cannabis when he was at the University of Canberra, and after he nailed it, he realised he had found his niche.
After graduating, he went back to Samoa and joined the police, skipped frontline duties and went straight to work in the forensic divisioninvestigating a wide range of crimes from burglaries to murders and drugs raids was his first love.
And his determination to make waves in his chosen field is apparent in how he found himself working in a laboratory nearly 3000 kilometres from home, a journey that started when he stopped by his cousin’s house to get his car fixed three years ago.
His cousin – a police officer who is a mechanic in his spare time – told him about a scholarship to study in New Zealand. The only hitch was applications closed the following day.
‘‘I got all the forms done, and I think about one month later I found out I was shortlisted,’’ he says.
‘‘And the funny thing was that my cousin also applied – he got dropped and I got chosen, so he was pretty pissed about that.’’
Onesemo found the opportunity to study cannabis as part of his Master’s research options and once again set his focus on getting back into academia. He says the studying seemed daunting and required all his attention – which is why after two years he still hasn’t visited extended family in south and central Auckland.
‘‘I don’t really have much life out of my apartment,’’ he says. ‘‘I just work on my thesis. I don’t really have a life outside of my thesis. When I set a goal I focus on it.’’
He has however seen his brother Henry,
‘I don’t really have much life out of my apartment I don’t really have a life outside of my thesis. When I set a goal I focus on it.’ KENT ONESEMO
who also lives in Auckland city and is a chef with the social enterprise Eat My Lunch.
Thesis supervisor Cameron Johnson describes Onesemo – the first member of Samoa’s police force to travel to New Zealand for the Masters programme – as an ‘‘exceptional, motivated student’’ who has been very proactive about creating
opportunities to learn and