Police divided over cannabis programme

Senior police are divided over whether to run a controversial cannabis eradication operation nationwide, emails released under the Official Information Act (OIA) reveal.

Stuff revealed last year that top brass at Police National Headquarters had decided to slash the programme, which cost more than $700,000 a year for hundreds of hours of flight time for helicopters and planes to spot and destroy cannabis plants.

However, 12 months on, the operation was back up and running, with six police districts opting to take part, the other six continuing to manage cannabis eradication locally as needed.

In February, a helicopter was used to spray three cannabis plants grown by the residents of a Coromandel property for medicinal reasons as part of the operation.

Stuff requested under the OIA any correspondence between the district commanders and Police National Headquarters over the proposal.

The emails from last year reveal that many district commanders felt the national operation was a poor use of resources and was a distraction from action against organised crime, guns and methamphetamine.

Of the 12 police districts, only three – Tasman in the South Island, and Central and Eastern in the North Island – expressed support for conducting aerial cannabis search and destroy operations.

Waikato police district commander superintendent Bruce Bird criticised an official report into the national operation.

He said the initiative had failed to make cannabis any more expensive, suggesting that supply had not been dramatically affected.

‘‘This paper is full of assumptions and speculation, but lacks any evidence,’’ he said.

‘‘There is also evidence that the price for a tinny [a small amount of cannabis] never changes – that is an impact on supply and demand.’’