Drug prohibition won’t keep the children safe
Protecting drug users more important than banning drugs.
The problem with being a parent is that you are always a phone call away from an existential disaster from which there is no recovery. My own mortality concerns me less the closer it gets, but the fragility of my offspring’s existence brings a subterranean fear in the darker regions of the soul.
Life, of course, is not without risk, and a child ring-fenced from danger will never complete their journey to responsible adulthood. We must let our most precious creations into the wild, knowing there is a chance they will never return.
Of all the dangers that confront children during the madness of adolescence, few cause more fear for parents than drugs. The natural reaction is to look towards the State to protect our children; to create a world where such evil does not exist and where we are protected from our kid’s poor life choices.
Elected politicians are only too keen to sell us this protection. Last week, the 26-year-old MP from Pakuranga, Simeon Brown, was touting a private member’s bill to increase sentences from two to eight years for those who supply synthetic cannabis – an obvious response to deaths attributed to the product.
Yet Brown’s focus is misplaced. In his press release he states: ‘‘Psychoactive drugs, like synthetic cannabis, have become increasingly harmful, with around 20 reported deaths associated with their consumption over the past 12 months’’.
This fact should cause a smart young mind to ask why they have become more harmful in the past year; what was happening previously that meant we were not seeing the mortuaries fill with teenagers?
The answer lies in Brown’s own maiden speech, where he lists as one of his proudest achievements before becoming an MP – his efforts as a local councillor in pushing to have the Psychoactive Substances Act passed. That law banned the legal supply of professional and safe synthetic cannabis and led directly to criminal gangs pushing the sort of garbage that has resulted in lives being lost.
To be fair, the synthetics being sold were awful and kids were turning up at emergency wards but, critically, no one lost their lives. Once banned, the legitimate laboratories were closed and cook-houses sprang up to meet the demand.
This government has an opportunity to take up Peter Dunne’s legacy and move
Drugs are consumed by the most vulnerable members of our community. We owe them a duty of care.
away from the failed prohibition advocated by Brown. Drugs are consumed by the most vulnerable members of our community. We owe them a duty of care.