Cannabis sized up ahead of referendum
Cannabis law that could see New Zealand legally buy 14 grams of the drug has MPs in a spin.
National deputy leader Paula Bennett was told to ‘‘chill out’’ yesterday, when she held up a bag containing what she claimed to be 14g of plant matter – later confirmed to be oregano.
She asked Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern whether being able to buy 14g a day ‘‘promoted the wellbeing of New Zealanders’’.
The law, revealed on Tuesday, would legalise the personal consumption and commercial sale of cannabis. The Government said it had drafted a tightly controlled regime that focuses on harm reduction, and is asking the public to vote at the 2020 election on whether legalised cannabis is wanted.
Ardern yesterday said she had asked how much cannabis 14g was, and was told it was anywhere upwards of 14 joints.
‘‘It is based on New Zealand survey work that’s been done around drug harm ... but also looking at international evidence.
‘‘It’s a lower base then most other jurisdictions that have gone down the track of legislation have used.’’
She said both Washington and Colorado, in the United States, set personal possession quantities higher than 14g.
If MPs felt the threshold was too high, they should make their concern clear, she said.
In the House, Speaker Trevor Mallard asked both Bennett, and a loudly arguing Finance Minister Grant Robertson, to ‘‘chill out’’.
Justice Minister Andrew Little, responsible for the Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill, said such discussion of people consuming 14g in a day was ‘‘fantastical’’.
‘‘I know people are saying, ‘Look, 14g means 21, or 42, or even more kind of joints a day’.
‘‘It’s a bit like saying, ‘somebody who goes off to buy a bottle of vodka at 7 o’clock on a Friday night, is going to consume it there and then.
‘‘Find me somebody who has smoked 42 joints in a day and I’ll take the objection seriously,’’ he said.
The Government had set the 14g threshold on advice it was enough for a regular cannabis consumer over the course of a week. Bennett, concerned the 14g threshold is too high, wants to see it lowered.
National Party leader Simon Bridges said there were still unanswered questions, such as the level of THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, that would be permitted. ‘‘I would’ve thought half an ounce [roughly 14g] is far too much.
‘‘I’m no expert on these things,’’ he said.