Politicians’ drug phobia criticised

Deaths from synthetic drugs and the surge in methamphetamine use are almost entirely caused by cannabis being illegal, according to a justice advocate.

‘‘Offenders I work with tell me it is now easier to get these other drugs than to get cannabis,’’ said Roger Brooking, a drug and alcohol counsellor.

The claim is backed up by recent figures from the Justice Ministry showing meth is set to overtake cannabis as the biggest drug burden on our court system.

Brooking, who recently launched a campaign to cut the prison muster to 7000 in six years, said he had no doubt people were dying because successive governments – including Labour – were so paranoid about decriminalising cannabis.

‘‘If they decriminalised and then taxed it, that would raise $150 million in revenue, which could pay for a substantial increase in addiction treatment.’’

Decriminalisation would also cut policing and court costs by $400m and help slash prison numbers.

It would also help save $1 billion from being spent on a new prison at Waikeria.

Greens Party police and justice spokeswoman Golriz Ghahraman said drug and justice policy had to be be rational and evidence-based.

Political failure around the issue was starkly highlighted by cannabis’ criminalisation, as well as the rise of far more harmful and addictive drugs like methamphetamine.

‘‘It is of no surprise to me that when a drug like cannabis is criminalised – carrying heavy sanction for users and pushed into the hands of organised criminal gangs – that users are either forced to use more harmful or deadly ‘legal’ synthetic drugs, or through cannabis use more likely exposed to extremely

"If they decriminalised and then taxed [cannabis], that would raise $150 million in revenue, which could pay for a substantial rise in addiction treatment.’’

Justice advocate Roger Brooking

harmful illegal drugs like methamphetamine,’’ Ghahraman added.

‘‘Let’s remember that those health concerns are less severe than what is commonly associated with alcohol, cannabis is not a drug that causes death from overdose, and is of great benefit to many who use it medicinally,’’ she said.

Police Association president Chris Cahill said he did not ‘‘automatically accept’’ Brooking’s premise that those who could not get cannabis because it was illegal would turn to other drugs such as meth and synthetics, which were also illegal.

Neither did he accept people were dying because cannabis was illegal. However, the association agreed the country needed to have a societywide conversation about legalising its recreational, personal use.

A Labour/Greens arrangement promises a referendum by the 2020 election to decide whether the personal, recreational use of cannabis should be legal.

National justice spokesman Mark Mitchell said Brooking’s argument failed to acknowledge meth was also illegal, and synthetic drugs had been banned since 2014 – unless they pass a strict testing regime to show they are safe.